Bombay Group, the casino hotel and resort operator behind the Bombay Club & Resort in Tallinn’s Old Town, is cutting more than half of its workforce, citing profitability failures in its daily table games operation.
The company employed 164 people in 2025. It has not disclosed the precise number of redundancies, but confirmed in a press release that the majority of roles are being eliminated, with the process running through March. A previous round of layoffs was announced last November.
Table Games Scrapped as Uneconomical
Management board member Dajana Tiitsaar said the restructure centres on the abandonment of open daily table games and broader gambling activities, which the company determined could not be run profitably at scale.
The biggest changes concern daily table games and other gambling activities, which proved economically unjustified.
Bombay Group says the business will revert to its original operating model, under which gaming floors are accessible to guests by prior arrangement and on demand rather than operating on a continuous basis. Most of the staff being made redundant worked directly in day-to-day casino gaming or in services directly supporting it.
What Stays Open
Not all operations are being wound down. The Burman Hotel, located on Rataskaevu street adjacent to Tallinn’s Town Hall Square, will continue trading. So will the Shang Shi restaurant and the Koyo Japanese restaurant on Dunkri, both of which appear in the Michelin Guide. The primary gaming offerings will be provided in the Fox Den venue, a 500 year, lower ground floor portion at the heart of the Resort.
The Bombay Club & Resort represents an investment of approximately €100 million. The 5,000-square-metre complex was refurbished over five years in compliance with heritage protection requirements, given its location in Tallinn’s protected Old Town district. Bombay Group paid around €10 million in taxes last year, of which roughly €1.5 million was gambling tax.
Yolo Group Context
Bombay Group sits within Yolo Group, the operator controlled by Australian entrepreneur Tim Heath, who holds a 70.5% stake, and co-owner Reio Piller at 18%. The group has been contracting its Estonian footprint for several months. In September 2024, Yolo Group announced it was cutting 280 positions in Estonia as part of a strategic shift to operate exclusively in fully regulated and licensed markets under a unified Yolo.com brand.
At the time of those September layoffs, the company indicated that over 200 people would remain employed at its Estonian entities. The Bombay Group reductions announced now are separate from and subsequent to that earlier round.
The broader pattern mirrors pressures being felt across the European gaming sector, where operators are rationalising physical and high-cost hospitality-linked gaming formats in favour of leaner, more defensible positions. Swedish operator ATG also reported revenue decline earlier this year, prompting leadership changes and further cost reviews, as tax increases and shifting player behaviour squeeze margins across regulated markets. The strategic logic driving Yolo Group’s retrenchment in Estonia closely parallels a pattern of rising compliance and operational costs reshaping operator strategies across multiple European markets.
Bombay Group has not provided guidance on future staffing levels or indicated whether any further operational changes are planned beyond the current restructuring.
Source: ERR News
