Tatts report fall in profits despite signs of growth
The lottery and gaming company the Tatts Group announced a fall in profits for the second half of 2012; the company operates a number of lotteries in Australia and have been growing their gaming business, which includes online pokies and physical video poker machines across many Australian territories. One of the main reasons provided by Tatts for the 23.1 percent fall in its profits for the second half of 2012 when compared to the same period of the previous year is the loss of an operating license for pokies in the territory of Victoria.
During the six months leading up to December 31st 2012 Tatts Group reported a profit of $128.3 million compared to a profit for the previous years corresponding period of $166.9 million. Despite the fall in profits many operations owned and operated by Tatts have shown signs of growth including internet gambling, such as online pokies. Overall online gambling operations have grown for the company by 22 percent as telephone gambling has fallen with the switch by most Australian gamblers to the more simple and secure internet gambling. The growth of online gambling within the group has grown to such an extent it now makes up around 19 percent of all gambling sales reported by Tatts Group. TAtts reports it will continue to grow and strengthen its online gaming projects over the next few years with a series of improvements to the business it is not willing to reveal to its competitors.
THe profits of the Tatts Group were also driven up by the strong performance of its many lottery companies, which saw a large increase in profits due to the large number of lottery jackpots over $15 million reported during 2012. The operation of state lotteries and online lotteries has shown steady growth for Tatts and resulted in the reporting of lotteries being responsible for around 52 percent of the company's online gambling profits. The announcement of the second half of 2012 performance by the Tatts Group was made public on Thursday February 21st and was immediately followed by a fall in the company's share price of six cents to $3.25 on the same day.
