Aspers casino set to grow

Aspers Casino owner Damian Aspinall gives bdaily his views on the evolution of the North East arm of his business

Aspers casino have announced they intend to base their operations in the North East to grow the casino’s brand throughout the country.

Newcastle already has their flagship casino, located at the Gate, which is the busiest casino outside of London, and Aspers is keen to be seen as an “entertainment venue” rather than just a place to gamble.

Casino owner Damian Aspinall was at the Newcastle casino this week to promote their expected growth. He said: “I think this is now one of the most popular indoor entertainment venues in the country, London Zoo gets a million people a year Aspers has half a million.

“For the North East to have one of the premier entertainment venues in the UK I think is a pretty good thing, it’s something they can be very proud of.”

He added: “Originally Newcastle was our first provincial venue. What we were looking for was a major city and also a city that enjoyed itself, enjoyed life. “When we opened this there was nothing like it in the country.

“There was a bit of a gamble on whether people would understand the product, a lot of people thought they wouldn’t, but Newcastle has such a great reputation for going out and enjoying life that it seemed like the right place.

“We’re constantly expanding this business all the time. We signed up on the site with room to grow and I think in the next two or three years we’ll add to the existing site.”

Aspers have two other casinos across the country, one in Swansea and the other in Northampton, with another site to be built in Bournemouth.

Not just a casino

Richard Noble, Aspers’ Chief Operations Officer, said: “One myth we come across is that we’re here just for gamers, and we’re not. We cross over all entertainment and we really mean that.

“We had half a million customers last year and we’re looking to increase that number in the future.”

As Aspers grows throughout the country, it hopes the leading site in Newcastle will have a knock-on effect for the surrounding community, with more people through the doors and more business being brought to the region.

Richard said: “Aspers is well and truly on the map. If you talk to anyone within the industry this is the flagship, this is what people aspire to. Newcastle is a great city, and Aspers is a great casino so the two have a good link.

“We certainly have businesses from far afield who choose to come and play here. A lot of people from the Far East do choose to come to Newcastle, people from Glasgow, Manchester and all over the globe choose this as the venue and the city to come to.”

He added: “I think all business will find it tough during the global recession. “Something we strive to do is to hire general managers that are very entrepreneurial, and we give them quite a bit of autonomy to run their businesses. What we’ve found is we’ve actually grown through this process.

“I think if we stand still and do nothing then we’ll be affected like any other business, but we have not seen any effects of the recession so far. We have seen growth consistently month on month but we will be striving for more markets.

“The first area of benefit to the community is jobs, as we’re expanding we’re bringing more and more jobs.”

Aspers in the community

Richard says Aspers has strong links with the community to take care of potentially vulnerable “gamers”, and has spearheaded a campaign that sets up links in the area to tackle problem gambling.

Teresa Tunstall, head of social responsibility training at Gamcare, a registered charity and national authority on gambling, said: “We do a lot with Aspers and they are a very busy casino, but they do take their social responsibility seriously and they share a lot of information with us.

“They have a very good programme called CARG (Community Action for Responsible Gaming) and they regularly invite local people, like the local church, licensing authorities, police and members of the community, to talk about their concerns.

“We have worked with Aspers for a long time and by working closely together we can help to eliminate the issues and send problem people to get the right help, like our partner NECA (the North East Council on Addictions).”

Richard Noble reiterated the importance of social responsibility, pointing out that the average person spends £20 in the casino, “similar to what you’d spend at a bowling alley, a cinema and a lot cheaper than having a few drinks on the quayside.”

He said: “We also enter into what’s called a self exclusion agreement with an individual, which is where we have a contract with the person where they won’t enter the premises for six months.

“After that six-month period if they want to re-attend they have to absolutely convince us that whatever problems they had have actually gone. It is only a handful of individuals who potentially get into that circumstance, and it’s not a part of the business we want to see happen – so we will help them. This industry is about having fun, we’re an entertainment centre.”

Damien said: “It is an entertainment venue. A third of the people that come to Aspers are women, and if you look at the attendance of other casinos across the UK it’s probably two or three percent.

“That’s the difference, we have a spa and restaurant, a lot of people come here just to have a drink or dinner as opposed to gambling, and that’s our vision, it shouldn’t be just about gambling.”