Betting, East Coast trains, Ramsay, Royal Mail, Ocado: your commercial news round-up

Much of this week has been spent trying to keep a lid on the bubbling excitement associated with this year’s most momentous social event – no, not the royal wedding on Saturday, but the LCN Training & Recruitment Awards (#LCNawards18), tonight! Even with the inevitable distractions such an occasion provokes, we have kept our eyes on the prize and have been monitoring the business pages, with you in mind. Read our carefully curated selection of interesting news here:

• The government has imposed a £2 limit on betting machines, a massive reduction from the current limit of £100. The decision was made despite vociferous objections from bookmakers and other industry figures, who currently earn half their annual takings from the machines.
• News that the notoriously troubled East Coast Mainline will be brought back under government control has spurred on Labour and the Greens to voice their call for the entire network to be renationalised. Transport secretary Chris Grayling has rejected that idea as “missing the point”.
• Gordon Ramsay will no doubt be doing some of his trademark shouting as it is revealed that his restaurant group, Kavalake, made a nearly £4 million-pound loss last year, precipitating the closure of its central London Maze restaurant. A legal bill for £1.5 million, fighting a claim from former business partner Rowan Seibel, is part of the reason.
• Despite impressive annual revenues, surpassing £10 billion globally, shares in Royal Mail have dropped and profit has fallen from £335 million to £212 million.
• At the other end of the scale, shares in Ocado have surged by 50% with news that the company’s technology will be used exclusively in the United States by Kroger, one of the world’s biggest grocery chains.

Be sure to check the News every Thursday for this weekly commercial news round-up. Follow @LawCareersNetUK on Twitter and like us on Facebook for instant business news updates.