BILLIONAIRE Sir Richard Branson (pictured) is moving his online gaming division to Guernsey. It will transfer from London from September in a move that is costing more than £1m.

Virgin has operated out of Hammersmith for four years with three gaming areas – Virgin Poker, licensed in Malta, Virgin Bingo, licensed in Gibraltar, and Virgin Casino, which is licensed and regulated by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission.

Chief executive Simon Burridge said Virgin Games, a wholly-owned trading division of Virgin.com Ltd, had been set up cautiously in terms of the Virgin brand being associated with gambling.

‘Virgin Poker, Casino and Bingo are separate, so if you want to play you have to re-register for each one.  We have made it about as difficult for our customers as we can. Now we are bringing it together so that it will be a much more simple set-up.  That is really important to us and as part of that we are relocating our head office to Guernsey.’