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Monday newspaper round-up: FOBTs, advertising, crypto, RBS
The Gambling Commission is to recommend that the government reduce the maximum stake on fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs), known as the "crack cocaine of gambling", to £30 or less. However, in a move likely to come as a relief to bookmakers, the watchdog will not explicitly back a maximum £2 stake, instead suggesting measures to combat the risk of harm. - The Times
A global bidding war is set to erupt for Nex Group after a takeover approach from the owner of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). Senior City sources said all the big players were rushing to work out whether they could gatecrash the talks with a higher offer. The favourite to turn interloper is the Intercontinental Exchange, parent of the New York Stock Exchange. - Telegraph
Economic growth in the UK will remain at the bottom of the G7 group of advanced countries until at least the end of the decade, the British Chambers of Commerce has warned. The business organisation sharply upgraded its GDP forecast for this year from 1.1 per cent to 1.4 per cent and raised its outlook for 2019 from 1.3 per cent to 1.5 per cent. - The Times
Britons saddled with high-interest "doorstep loans" should be given the same protection as people with payday loans and be saved millions of pounds' worth of excess charges a year, said Citizens Advice. In the UK, more than 1.6 million people use loans sold door-to-door - which are also known as home credit - and the market is one of the largest for high-cost credit, the charity warned. - Guardian
Exports of British advertising services grew by 35 per cent in 2016 to hit a record high of £5.8 billion, according to new analysis which also warns that a great British success story could be undermined if Brexit leads to an exodus of talent. The sector's growth far outstripped several other key areas of the economy, including financial services, insurance, business management and management consulting services, and legal services. - The Times
The rollercoaster ride for some cryptocurrency investors could be about to take another tax-time lurch, according to experts, as the taxman looks for his share of transactions made using bitcoin and its like. Wild fluctuations in the value of digital currencies - bitcoin surged from less than one dollar in 2010 to $997 at the start of the 2017 to nearly $20,000 before settling back to around $8,500 on Friday - have exposed investors to tax bills the value of their coins may no longer meet. - Guardian
Dana, the US automotive group in talks to buy GKN's driveline division, is to seek a secondary listing in London as it bumps up its efforts to win over shareholders in the engineering group. The Ohio-based maker of axles and driveshafts could outline the move this week, as the battle for control of GKN enters the final stage. - The Times
The privacy regulator should be handed stronger powers to investigate technology companies, say MPs after the personal data of millions of Facebook users was leaked. Damian Collins, chairman of the digital, culture, media and sport committee, has accused a British company of lying to parliament about whether it used information from the social network. - The Times
Rolls-Royce, the engineering giant, is joining the race to build the next generation of energy storage "batteries" using the same material originally designed for hard-wearing contact lenses. The FTSE 100 group said it will work with Superdielectrics, a research company, to use the material to challenge the dominance of traditional batteries. - Telegraph
The accounting and financial reporting watchdog should be put in special measures and run by commissioners until it can be abolished and replaced by a fully independent agency, an influential pensions body has said. In an excoriating assessment of the failures of the Financial Reporting Council, the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF) has accused the regulator of being too cosy with the CBI and the Big Four accountancy firms. - The Times
On March 1, a combination of disruptions to the gas supply and high demand in freezing weather sent gas prices soaring, and the National Grid scrambling to secure enough supplies. UK coal plants earmarked for imminent closure ran almost flat out to keep the lights on; generating an average of more than 10 gigawatts for eight days straight during the cold snap, according to Wood Mackenzie, a consultancy. - The Times
Britain risks being held to ransom by Russia unless the vulnerable energy system is fortified, the Government has been warned amid escalating tensions with Europe's main gas supplier. As relations with Russia sour, energy infrastructure bosses been told by secutiry officials to bolster their defences to guard against a crippling cyber attack on power plants or the national grid. - Telegraph
Vladimir Putin secured a decisive victory in the Russian presidential election last night, with his campaign claiming that turnout was bolstered by the confrontation with Britain over the poisoning of Sergei Skripal. Mr Putin, 65, took more than 76 per cent of the vote according to early results, although the polls were marred by reports of rigging. -The Times
Network Rail is on the cusp of securing the future of up to 500 workers on the remaining Carillion contracts that were left up in the air after the outsourcer's dramatic collapse earlier this year. The state-controlled track owner said it was close to confirming the future of four contracts which were valued at a combined £160m when they began. - Telegraph
Snapchat is so popular in Britain that its advertising revenue will overtake Twitter's UK revenue in 2019, and revenue from consumer magazine and cinema advertising within two years. The seven-year old phone app is hugely popular with younger users and advertisers are beginning to spend increasingly large amounts of their digital ad budgets on targeting its users. - Guardian
Sir Martin Sorrell, the advertising pioneer and chief executive of WPP, recently declared that 2017 was "not a pretty year" for his company. He could soon be saying the same about his pay packet: it is expected to be slashed from £48 million in 2016 to an estimated £15 million. - The Times
The East India Club is threatening to sue Royal Bank of Scotland over alleged failings that enabled a former employee to steal more than £560,000. The club is preparing legal action over what it alleges is RBS's failure to warn it about a series of illegal transactions that were used to fund a former club treasurer's gambling addiction. - The Times