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Featured Editorials

50 Years of Excellence

Glyn Thomas talks to Svetlana Buckova, Director of Operations at Dragonara Casino in Malta.

Svetlana, can you provide some background to the casino? How large and what facilities does it have?

Terra incognita

Reports of the death of online gambling in the United States have greatly exaggerated.

Multinational popularity

For those not familiar with Casino Cosmopol, could we begin with a brief history of the operation?

Casino Cosmopol is a subsidiary of the state-owned gaming company AB Svenska Spel. The company was founded in 1999 and was commissioned by the Swedish government to open four international casinos in Sweden. Casino Cosmopol’s head office is located at Svenska Spel’s premises just outside Stockholm.

The opening of international casinos brought a whole new job sector to Sweden. Today, Casino Cosmopol has around 1,500 employees spread across four casinos. The average age of our staff is 30 and 35% of them come from abroad, with 86 different countries represented. In 2013, we welcomed guests from 100 different countries. Our casinos are real international melting pots.

Not all online casinos are the same

Not all online casinos are the same but you could be forgiven for thinking that they are. So if you’re having a tough time differentiating, imagine what it’s like for the poor first-time punter out there these days.

Creative Commons by  Images_of_Money 

PANAVIERA PANORAMA

Earlier in the year we published a feature on this operation that involved the architects designs although they were impressive we wanted to return post opening, so our readers can see for themselves this impressive new destination resort casino.

How was the opening night?

We had our soft opening on the 12th September, a very tight deadline given the complexity of the project. Our official inauguration we separated into two events, one for local and international dignitaries and our partners on the 24th October and another one on the 25th for our customers.

Both events went down extremely well, included cocktails, a sea food extravaganza, celebrities and the most amazing firework shows.

It must be a very satisfying feeling for you and your colleagues the following day of the official opening.

Growth through diversification

I would like to commence this interview with congratulations on Suzo-Happ Groups 60th Anniversary the amusement and gaming industry’s largest global supplier of spare parts and components.

So this would be a good opportunity to start with a brief history of the European part of the organisation.

Progressive Entertainment

Can you provide our readers an insight into Olympic Entertainment Group, what is behind the success of this operation that manages to operate so effectively in a highly competitive climate amongst economies in varying stages of recovery?

 There is no simple recipe for success. For Olympic Entertainment Group the three main building blocks are team commitment, constant innovation and maximum cost-efficiency. Passion for service excellence and strive for the highest customer satisfaction has definitely given us an edge. “Smile à la Olympic”, we call it.

The macro economic conditions over the last 7 years have been challenging, and with so much competition in acquiring and retaining customer leisure spend; what makes OEG stand out and how have the company’s Gaming Operations weathered the tough operating climate?

Happy Christmas time with online casinos

December is by far the best month of the season to be a casino player. It seems that almost every online casino has an advent calendar running with a bonus, promotion, contest or tournament happening every single day. When you add it all up it represents the most amount of bonuses any player can take advantage of. Players can get free spins, no deposit bonuses, match bonuses, higher comp points, reload bonuses, various tournaments like slots or blackjack, contests and prizes. Probably the items people want the most but never expect to win are the prizes. Here is a breakdown of the bonuses you can expect to get this year and how you can increase your chances of winning something this Christmas instead of waiting to win “El Gordo”!

Team Player

Hard Rock Rocksino General Manager Mark Birtha has learned the casino business from the ground up. He started in the industry in June 1994 with then-Mirage Resorts, as an assistant director of beverage. Shortly after opening Bellagio (as beverage director), he left for Las Vegas Sands to become catering and conference manager. He also became the first Venetian executive to be fast-tracked through a year-long Executive Development Program. Subsequently promoted to corporate development manager, Birtha was involved with Sands’ bold expansion into China, helping incept Sands Cotai, Venetian Macao and the Cotai Strip – now all among the top performers in Macao. Before leaving Sands in 2004, Birtha had risen to executive director of casino marketing administration.

Responsible Gambling

One year from the launch of Playing Safe how has it been received by the Casino industry?

Playing Safe has been very well received and we expect the level of acceptance to continue to increase as operators see that it adds differential value to casino operations.  The industry owns Playing Safe.

The attendees were a veritable who’s who of the British Gaming Industry. You must be delighted with the support that NCF has gained from the independent and major Casino operators.

We were delighted.  The industry has put an enormous amount of effort into Playing Safe and being able to tell such an esteemed audience about it was very rewarding.  It also demonstrated to operators that their faith and commitment to Playing Safe is being recognised and acknowledged.

Your welcome speech set the tone for the rest of the evening and the follow on speech from Philip Graf.