STANLEY Leisure said yesterday its casinos outside the capital had seen a 17% increase in the number of punters coming through their doors.
But the gaming group, which has its headquarters in Liverpool and sites in Victoria Street and Renshaw Street, said gamblers in London and Italy had taken the shine off an impressive performance at its provincial casinos over the last year.
The boom in attendance at the firm's 41 casinos outside the capital helped the company report increased annual operating profits before exceptional items of £33.4m - up by 11% from £30.2m last year.
It said the scrapping of laws requiring gamblers to be a member for 24 hours before attending venues had helped boost interest in its provincial sites.
However, the company said it had recorded "material losses" to a number of major players in London in recent weeks.
It also reported record levels of business for its international betting arm thanks to the World Cup, but admitted the final outcome had not been positive.
The firm said: "Unfortunately, with much of this business being generated through our Italian agents, the results of the games were not good from our point of view and has led to a negative contribution from this tournament."
Dale Street-based Stanley has concentrated on its casino division since selling its betting arm in June 2005 for £504m. .
The new Gambling Act 2005 allows casinos to double the number of slot machines to 20 and double maximum jackpots the machines pay out to £4,000.
Chief executive Bob Wiper said: "We have made significant progress in our five year development programme and this combined with Stanley Leisure's strong pipeline of new licences, positions the group well to capture further benefits arising from deregulation."
Stanley added that it was preparing for the forthcoming smoking ban in England by making changes to venues to allow gamblers to smoke in outside areas.
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