Betting chain William Hill has announced it will be closing 700 stores nationwide.

The gambling store, which has 10 stores in Swindon, stated that it had entered into a consultation process with its retail colleagues.

The Adver approached three of the Swindon branches but was informed by all three of the stores that they were not allowed to speak to the press until it was official, and that they didn't know anything we didn't know.

Across the UK, 4,500 jobs are said to be at risk because of the closures.

In a press release, William Hill claimed that the governments decision to reduce the maximum stake on fixed-odds betting terminals from £100 to £2.

Since that decision was made, the company have said they have seen a significant fall in gaming machine revenues.

The government claimed at the time that the measures were introduced due to concerns that players were able to lose a large amount of money in a short space of time.

Despite the job losses, the company will look to apply voluntary redundancy and redeployment measures as well as providing support to all of its workers throughout the process.

Shops are expected to start closing at the start of 2020, but the stores that are closing won't be announced until later this year.