More than half of Britain’s casinos will miss out on plans to increase the cap on the number of gaming machines they can operate because they are too small.

Under proposals in the long-delayed gambling white paper, bricks-and-mortar casinos had been told that the present limit of 20 machines would be raised to 80 to enable them to compete with online casinos. However, a section of the white paper seen by The Times limits the fourfold increase to larger premises, excluding about 70 of the UK’s 121 casinos from the rule relaxation, making them less competitive.

Shares of Rank Group, the owner of Grosvenor Casinos, had risen last week as analysts calculated that the new machine limit could boost its operating profit by as much as £37 million, but watchers of the group will now have to revise their estimates.