Casino Sept 08 P22-26 8/21/08 12:53 pm Page 23
PETER BROOKS INTERVIEW
I’ve not mentioned the upmarket London brands – be a very high-quality suite. In order to do that we
there is undoubtedly a place for a high roller online had to free up space in this building and that was
site, it should use a brand like Crockfords, which really what lay behind the chairman’s thinking in
offers a very different perspective on customer terms of buying next door because it would provide
service. The way people get looked after here us with the means to move offices and staff
[Crockfords] is very personal, very high level and you accommodation to free up the space we needed
need to find the right ways to replicate that. You can’t within Crockfords.
do that through a mass market site. We’ve gone at
this in a very energetic way, in a sense of that we CI: Have other revenue-earning areas of the
know we’re behind and we want to catch up. We casinos picked up since the smoking ban? I’m
really only started work in earnest in the last couple thinking specifically of restaurants.
of months in 2007, so getting the launch in that PB: Well you’ve put your finger on one of the
compressed time frame is quite a feat. Right now assets. We’re seeing something of a generation
we’re very focused on getting the CircusCasino brand change in the casinos, we see many more younger
recognised online, then we’ll make a success of that people going in, and they are not going in so much
and see where we go. to play on the tables, as to use all the facilities
In the pre-Genting days, Stanley Casinos made two including drinking, so we’re definitely seeing bar
attempts at going online, and neither succeeded, so it sales go up significantly.
almost became part of the DNA of the company – The food offering is much more of an open
“we don’t do online”. It was quite remarkable to see question. If you have a typical casino setup and
how quickly the mindset of the team in the company you’ve got to come in and show ID and you can’t
turned around from “we don’t do online” to “actually bring any kids, who are you attracting for your casino
guys, we’ve got no choice here”. When you look at the food offering? We’re seeing some improvement in
online results you can see growth, you don’t see sales; again it very much varies club by club. If you
growth in the land-based clubs. It was a very easy take our new Circus in Edinburgh where we’ve got a
sum to say yes, we have to do this. very nice eating facility, well set up, we had Jean
Christophe Novelli do an evening there, we’re seeing
the food sales definitely pick up. There are other
clubs where the food offering, quite rightly, is
essentially pitched at providing a snack or better for
a gamer, and it’s not going to make a difference.
One of the things we’re looking at, as is everybody
else, is where can we create a restaurant facility
where people can come in with families directly off
the street without having to go through ID and all
Left: Crockfords’ stunning restaurant
CI: The new business lounge at Crockfords is
very impressive; what customer is it aimed at?
Where did the idea come from?
PB: It came from the top. The chairman has a very
particular view on how to deal with in particular the
Asian market because Asian standards of hospitality
are very, very high. Shortly after we bought the
company, the freehold of the next-door building
became available and the chairman said we should
buy it, and that we needed to create a facility so that
visiting business people that had flown in overnight
could come and have somewhere to have a shower
and to change, and that we should provide them with
a business facility, and that’s really where it started.
As for the rest of the renovation and expansion
work, we were not expecting that the smoking ban
would extend to private members clubs, but at the
very last death throes of the debate in parliament
as you know it did, which had left this club with a
problem as there is no smoking facility. What we’ve
done is to design alterations at the back of this
building, so that on the third and fourth floors you
have new areas and there’s also a very exclusive
suite and terrace, so people can game and go out
onto the terrace to smoke; on the fourth floor will
SEPTEMBER 2008 23
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