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In his interview Done framed these closures as part of a broader decline in high street retail venues. He predicted that by 2030, betting shops could disappear entirely.
“I believe that by 2030 we will have no betting shops. The high street will be dead. We’ve already worked it out that with the increases in taxes and salaries and other wages it won’t be worth operating,” he said.
Betfred currently sponsors Britain’s five classic horse races, including the Epsom Derby. Done said the company had yet to agree on extending those sponsorships amid the tax uncertainty, warning that reduced regulated gambling provision could push problem gamblers towards the black market.
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The artifacts also include a 1966 cocktail waitress uniform, a Cleopatra costume and headdresses from opening events, a Tom Jones show program from 1971, Caesars Palace Grand Prix posters, and an old high-stakes slot machine.
The statue now stands, bargeless, mounted on a red-striped pedestal flanked by golden sphinxes.
Cleopatra’s Barge opened in September 1970 in what is now the Nobu Hotel tower, replacing the earlier Nero’s Nook lounge. The 180-seat lounge featured as its centerpiece a “floating” stage designed as a replica of the vessel aboard which the Egyptian queen is said to have bewitched Mark Antony.
The pleasure craft, installed in a shallow lagoon, featured a gold-painted, topless figurehead that extended far into the public walkway. Guests quickly turned rubbing the statue’s golden breasts for luck into a classic Vegas tradition; staff regularly repainted the most-touched areas.
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“At one point, I had only a few thousand euros left to gamble with, but then I won €180,000 in a single day. The next day I lost it all again,” he says.
“The day after that I won €150,000 – and lost that too.” That was the point at which he decided something had to change. “I thought to myself: This has gone too far.”
Madsen eventually sought help. His parents supported him and, at one point, took control of his finances. “It was embarrassing, but it was necessary,” he says.