An interior specialist has just announced a Grosvenor design partnership which is sure to mean great things for the casino brand, in both the thirty five UK casino premises that they run and the online casino sites which they are known for. The company, 20.20, have said that they are going to be creating a concept that will help the brand deliver a destination ‘that is adapted to their needs on both a social and gaming level’, based on what customers really want.
The design specialists have been working with the Rank Group since 2005, so their partnership is a strong one and they are sure to be able to create a site for their online casino games which will really tie in with the luxury experience that most players expect to get when they visit a Grosvenor Casino. The consultants have stated that they will be ‘getting under the skin of customer behaviour and motivations for playing both in-club and online,’ which means a great step forward that will allow customers to enjoy the site ever more and get more out of it according to what they really want and enjoy.
The project will be undertaken with help from analysts MC&C, who are currently undertaking a data study in order to provide the information that is needed to find out just what customers really want. Michael Artis is the head of sports and entertainment at 20.20, who will be leading this project, and he had this to say: ‘We can make casinos a lot more relevant to a wider audience. It all starts with the customer, and that’s who our strategy team are with right now.’ If they manage to pull this off and do it right, then the new customer experience at any Grosvenor Casino venue or site is sure to be a much better one as soon as the changes go ahead – though time will tell whether they do manage to do something revolutionary, or if it is all just more PR talk and the redesign will be the kinds of changes that you see happening regularly.…
The Skydome Complex in Coventry will soon be playing host to a certain company who want to challenge the burgeoning Euro casino online industry – Malaysian gaming giants Genting, who have already made a name for themselves worldwide with a string of glamorous casinos. They are known for their success in attracting high stakes rollers, as well as creating smaller casinos in locations such as this to attract more everyday gamblers.
In order to bring in some more exposure as well, they have agreed to sponsor the city’s ice hockey team, known as Coventry Blaze, for the whole of the coming season. The casino venue will be opening in November, which will make a triumvirate of Genting houses with others already operating in Canley and Hillfields. Sports fans will no doubt already be aware that the casino firm also sponsor Aston Villa FC, with their name blazoned across the shirts that the team play in.
Those who live in the area will remember the old Lava and Ignite nightclub, which will be the site for this new development, taking up the whole ground floor. The games inside have been described as “state of the art gaming facilities”, with such casino staples as blackjack, baccarat, roulette, slot machines, and even electronic roulette, as well as a room dedicated just to playing poker. We are entering an interesting period of gambling history now, as people who have up until now only played on online casino games could end up enjoying the land based experience second, rather than the other way round as has been the case in the past.
The managing director of Genting UK, Paul Willcock, was keen to point out the fact that there is nothing of the type available in Coventry at the moment. “We look forward to providing Coventry with its first city centre gaming and leisure destination. The sponsorship of Coventry Blaze is something that we are fully committed to supporting and wish the team all the best for the new season,” he said in a recent press statement.
Also keen to weigh in was the general manager of the Genting Casino Coventry, who added, “We are delighted to be able to sponsor such a successful team and we look forward to working closely with both the players and supporters.”
The season for the ice hockey team starts next month, so there will be a little bit …
Unless the new gambling laws to be issued by the Government and Gambling Commission in the UK are to be delayed, the gaming and gambling industry will just have to second-guess the details of the new laws.
This early, industry players are expecting a mess and confusion once the new laws are implemented as council officials can not start preparing policy statements without clear guidance from the Government and the Gambling Commission.
The detailed guidance on the new laws will be published in November, which leaves the Local Authorities Co-ordinators of Regulatory Services (Lacors) a very tight 8-week period (Christmas and New Year break included) to prepare for the implementation of the laws before they start processing applications on January 31, without any time left for training staff or establishing IT systems.
Lacors representatives are set to meet Richard Caborn, the Sports Minister, to ask for the guidance that would help in their preparation or to simply allow the implementation date deferred from September 2007 to April 2008.
Lacors has written to Caborn setting out its complaints, as over 30,000 casinos, racecourses, bookies and bingo halls are waiting for the guidance.
Lacors Chairman Geoffrey Theobald said, “Councils are in the dark and are unable to put in place coherent policies because guidance and regulations from the Government haven’t been forthcoming. It also makes it difficult to provide local businesses and people with clear advice.”…
Roulette wheels were encased. Gaming chips were locked up. Caesars was an eerie place. Thursday with its banks of slot machines turned on as if ready for gamblers who wouldn’t be coming.
The $15 million Palace East Asian gaming area – just opened last week – resembled a museum piece. Carol and Charlie Yeager, both 57-year-olds from Philadelphia, couldn’t valet-park their car at the Hilton because staff was laid off due to a steep decline in occupancy.
The Hilton kept two restaurants open, including one gourmet room. Noncasino restaurants such as P.F. Chang’s in The Quarter at Tropicana remained open, a boon to Frank and Kim Izzi of Washington Township, in town with 14-year-old daughter Sam, and baby Gabriel.
Donna Lamaine, of Riverton and Atlantic City, said The Borgata resembled a ghost town Thursday, so she shopped at the Pier at Caesars. The bus company that brought them to Atlantic City refused to pick them up with the casino closed. Russo said: “This won’t keep me from coming back. It’s the only game in town.”…
Marina Bay Sands and Resort Casino, the first ever casino in Singapore, will be constructed in downtown Marina Bay. The largest casino firm by market value, Las Vegas Sands, has bested three other casino industry rivals to win the casino deal.
Right now, Las Vegas Sands is in the final design of the US $3.6 billion facility. The construction of hotel towers, game arcades and three hundred convention rooms will start in the latter part of the year and it is expected to open in 2009.
According to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong last April, the projected casino is a reversal of a ban on casinos. With the new casino, Singapore will have the same buzz as London, new York and Paris.
The casinos plan to employ ten thousand people and will create twenty thousand jobs in other industries, but the possibility of an increased number of job oportunities does not appeal to all Singaporeans.
Christians and Muslims had made publicly known their concerns about the negative effects of gambling in the society.
To counter the possible gambling addiction, a national council to handle problem gambling has already been set up. They also plan to implace a levy of SIN $100 entry fee or $2,000 annually. The levy might be helpful to curb or prevent the possible problem gambling addiction in Singapore that are experiences in other parts fo the world.
Presently the gambling industry of Asia is now valued at US$ 14 billion annually and this figure is expected to grow as South Korea, Macau, Vietnam and the Philippines plan to expand their land based casinos.…
Brent will visit London on August 29, 2006 to present to the public to opportunity to examine the pros and cons of its application for a super casino license. The government had set up a panel that would select one site that will become the home of UK’s first super casino.
The examination would be in the form of round table discussion to cross examine Brent. The participants include the council and some invited guests by the panel.
Prof Stephen Crow, CAP chairman said, “As parliament has already decided that there should be one regional casino in Britain, the panel will expect participants to give their views on why or why not it should be in Brent rather than their views on gambling generally.”
For those who want to participate in the examination should write to the panel secretary no later than 4pm on Thursday, August 10. And write a brief summary of the case. The panel will go through the applicants and decided who they will invite. The chosen applicants will receive an invitation regarding the application.
The other seven locations of UK will hold a public examination for the regional casino license. The venue for the examination will be announced later at the CAP’s website.…
