Scotland’s bookmakers could be forced to purge their payrolls if local authorities don’t lift tough new COVID-19 restrictions, according to the UK’s betting lobby.

On Monday, the Betting & Gaming Council (BGC) warned Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon that “draconian” restrictions imposed on retail betting shops following their COVID-19 lockdown was putting “a huge question mark” on the long-term future of the local bookmaking sector.

The roughly 7k British betting shops that were ordered to close in mid-March were allowed to reopen on June 15 provided they installed certain health & safety measures. Scotland’s roughly 900 shops followed suit on June 29, but with additional restrictions such as no chairs, no live racing broadcasts on shop TVs, and a requirement to switch off all shop gaming machines.

Scottish Finance Secretary Kate Forbes said the added restrictions were intended to “avoid clusters of people” staring slack-jawed at televisions or mindlessly feeding bank notes into machines while circulating their droplets in an enclosed space. The shops were allowed to open “for the purpose of placing bets only.”