Malaysian gambling firm Genting International today criticised higher British duties on gaming, saying they would affect its bottomline and those of its UK unit Stanley Leisure.

"The changes have been imposed without prior indication or consultation with the UK gaming industry," Genting International said in a statement.

"The changes will have a negative effect on the profit performance of the group," it said.

Genting International said the new duties, introduced in Britain's budget unveiled on Wednesday, would see the current starting rate of 2.5 percent abolished while the next band of 12.5 percent has been ramped up to 15 percent.

A new duty of 50 percent has also been introduced on gross yields from gaming for amounts over 10 million pounds (19.63 million dollars) for each financial half-year for each casino, it said.

Genting International acquired control of Stanley Leisure, the UK's largest casino operator, in October last year.

It said the changes, if applied from October, "would have had a negative impact on the group's profit level, increasing operating expenditure by approximately 7.0 million Singapore dollars (4.61 million dollars)."

Stanley operates 45 casinos across the UK and has international gaming interests in Italy, Belgium, Germany, Croatia and Romania through joint ventures.

Betting unit disposed

Genting International also said Friday that Stanley Leisure had completed disposal of its international betting operations for one million pounds.

It said it had sold its 50 percent stake in the international operations to an unnamed partner.

The move follows the June 2005 sale of its UK retail betting operation to British betting operator William Hill PLC.

"The sale of the international betting operation thus completes its withdrawal from the betting business and leaves Stanley Leisure as a focused gaming group," it said in a separate statement.

Singapore-listed Genting International is the the overseas investment arm of Malaysian conglomerate Genting, which has set its sights on overseas expansion of its gaming operations.