Joining a string of Australian companies to suffer in Britain, Tatts Group is finally conceding a huge write-down of its Talarius poker machine business.

Tatts yesterday revealed it was reducing the value of Talarius by $140 million to $180 million.

The company is following in the footsteps of National Australia Bank, Stockland and Insurance Australia Group, which has spent $800 million in write-downs and one-off charges for the $1.4 billion in British businesses it acquired.

It attributed the write-down to an emergency budget from the new British government that will raise the value added tax, which is likely to influence consumer spending.

Analysts, however, yesterday said the write-down was long overdue for Talarius as it has been unsatisfactory for years.

In the second semester, Talarius, which now runs 8000 machines in 170 venues, posted a $3.3 million loss. Despite this, Tatts chief Dick McIlwain was positive about the future of Talarius and disclosed he had rejected three private equity offers to acquire it in the past six months as he did not believe it was worth selling.

Tatts is shelling out £10 million ($A17.2 million) reorganizing the business and has shut 45 venues. ''We cut out the canker,'' Mr McIlwain said.

According to him, Talarius was now beginning to show indications of top-line growth for the first time in three years.

''We'd be dumb to sell it,'' he said.

Tatts acquired a 10.1 per cent stake in Talarius for $12 million in 2005. It later invested £46.8 million to join Macquarie Bank to privatise Talarius.