Every time we were allowed to reopen business came back really quickly . And the Covid journey for us was quite interesting because in true Hippodrome style , we turned it into an opportunity .
CASINO COMMUNICATIONS
Q
& A
Simon Thomas
CEO , Hippodrome Casino
London ’ s Hippodrome Casino is one of the most unusual in the world . With a history dating back over a century , the Hippodrome was a theater for much of its existence , hosting such events as circuses , aquatic extravaganzas , nightclubs and more . When Simon Thomas and his father Jimmy , who recently passed away , took over the property in 2009 , they embarked on a complete restoration project that transformed the property into what it is today : one of England ’ s finest casinos . Simon Thomas sat down with GGB Publisher Roger Gros at G2E in October to talk about the past and the future of the Hippodrome . For a full video and audio podcast of this interview , visit GGBMagazine . com .
Global Gaming Business : First of all , condolences on the passing of your father . He was such a legend in the London gaming scene .
Simon Thomas : Thank you . It ’ s strange , actually , because the last few years as he was slowing down , he used to come with us on the Vegas trip for G2E . It was really quite hard work , but it was hard to keep up with him . Now he ’ s not here . I really miss him .
Let ’ s talk about how you got through the pandemic . We know it was tough here in the U . S ., but it seemed like they were shutting gaming down in the U . K . every week . How difficult was it really ?
To put it bluntly , it was horrible . Over the 420 days between first lockdown and final reopening , we were closed by the government for 320 days , and of the other 100 , we had severe restrictions such as curfew and other mad restrictions for 60 of the days .
What we found , though , every time we were allowed to reopen business came back really quickly . And the Covid journey for us was quite interesting because in true Hippodrome style , we turned it into an opportunity . Once we realized we ’ d find a way through , it became really interesting .
We brought forward quite a lot of ambitious building projects and future-proofing to the building . We replaced all air conditioning and we added another floor on the top of the building . We completely removed and refurbished all our poker rooms and purchased opportunistically the last two bits of the building that we didn ’ t control , two shop units on the front where we recently opened a Chinese restaurant called Chop Chop . In the other one , we are opening a cafe and then a secret bar in the basement in about two months ’ time .
And then when we were forced to restrict capacity , it wasn ’ t worth us playing to the lower end of the market when we could only allow half our customers into the property . So we increased our minimums , and I think in hindsight we realized that we ’ d been underpricing ourselves , because we ’ d come out of it in an incredibly strong position with much higher minimum spends . So we ’ re finally having fun .
So you didn ’ t have to do anything special to attract the customers back ?
Oh , no . There was enormous pent-up demand . People were anxious to get out again . The Covidshy people didn ’ t come out , but there was nothing we could have done that would have got them to come out .
In the meantime , the government has plans to issue a white paper of reforms to the gaming industry in the U . K ., but due to the political upheaval in Britain it ’ s been delayed . Where does that stand , and how will it affect you ?
They did a call for evidence , and obviously the people who are very pro-gambling gave their evidence . Then people very anti-gambling gave theirs and nobody really bothered with the middle . We are certainly going to have a white paper , which will lead to some change in the legislation . We ’ re hoping that the more extreme ideas will be curtailed . Ironically , the delays have given us time to have much better dialogue with the regulator . From the land-based casino side , it was always going to be a good . We have been hamstrung by old regulations that limit us to 20 slot machines in a casino peak time , so when I ’ ve got 1,500 customers in the building , there are queues of people in front of the slot machines , and we ’ re hoping that will increase . It ’ s frustrating as hell when I can ’ t service the customer demand .
Finally , we ’ ve been pushing for some electronic versions of table games , which are really good because customers want it . They want to play at their own pace . They want to play at a lower stake . We ’ ve had the opportunity to convince the regulators , I hope .
Every time we were allowed to reopen business came back really quickly . And the Covid journey for us was quite interesting because in true Hippodrome style , we turned it into an opportunity .
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Some of the impact of Brexit was supposed to hit the gaming industry pretty hard . Has it hit hard , or is it water under the bridge at this point ?
The biggest negative of Brexit is that it ’ s harder to get European staff . But a whole load of European staff are already allowed to work in the U . K . They have that right to work . But to be fair on the hospitality side , it ’ s not just British , it ’ s worldwide . Everyone is short hospitality staff . So it ’ s not a Brexit effect .
Currently the Pound Sterling ’ s quite weak , so we ’ re starting to see an increase in tourism , which is a hidden benefit of Brexit . There are plenty of supply chain issues , but they ’ re also not Brexit , they ’ re worldwide . And I think it ’ s difficult to tell what is Brexit and what is just the after-effects of shutting the world economy down courtesy of Covid .
54 Global Gaming Business DECEMBER 2022