By the time you read this, Aspers Swansea will have opened its doors to the public on September 6 and the latest addition to the growing Aspers chain looks set to continue the brand’s success.

If the Gambling Act’s 16 licenses are awarded as expected, this casino may yet grow to become the city’s ‘small’ casino in accordance with the Casino Advisory Panel’s report. Even if that doesn’t happen, Swansea’s citizens will still have a very impressive 45,000ft2 casino to enjoy, right in the centre of the city.

Richard Noble took some time to show me around the new development, which is slightly larger than the Newcastle branch. Unlike Newcastle though, Swansea is currently all on one floor, but the space is used well and the designers have thought carefully about how to incorporate entertainment, for example, into a large and open area.

With ample facilities for customers and stunning interior decor, Aspers Swansea looks set for great success.

Casino International: What are the specifications of the casino? What’s the fire limit for a place this size?

Richard Noble: 1600, including staff. The building has three levels, with the casino on the ground floor and the second floor, which is where the constructors currently have their offices. That will be vacated obviously when we open, and we have some good ideas for that space in the future. All of our offices are on the top floor, the second floor.

The gaming floor’s area is just over 45,000ft2, which makes it slightly smaller than a ‘small’ casino under the new regulations, which would be around 50,000ft2. But our first floor is licensed as well, which would mean another 13,000ft2 of gaming.

CI: Is there much competition casino-wise in Swansea?

RN: There’s a Grosvenor casino in Swansea, but that’s the only competitor locally. In the whole of Wales there’s going to be five once we’re opened, and they’re all in the south of the country.

CI: How did you justify another casino in the city for your license application?

RN: There were three casinos here historically, including the Grosvenor, but they shut down ten years ago, so the city is actually used to one more. But we believe Aspers offers more than just a casino. When you think of the two per cent of the adult population that visits casinos, that means a lot of potential customers in this area that might want to come out and watch a show, or enjoy our excellent restaurant or bars, over and above our gaming facilities.

CI: So this is a place where adults can come for a night out?

RN: That’s exactly the way we see it and the way we want the people of Swansea to see it. There’s a need for that in Swansea. What I’ve been very surprised at since I arrived here in March is that people are crying out for a venue for adults to go in Swansea. For the 18 to 25s there are plenty of clubs and bars, but beyond that age group there is nowhere to really go in Swansea and they see us as being that place.

CI: Any opposition locally?

RN: Not at all. It’s been a breath of fresh air to see people so positive about the facilities we’re offering. There’s our main restaurant, Clary’s, an 80-cover restaurant, and there’s Harrys Cafe Bar. In the daytime that’s like a local coffee shop with panini, pasta and coffee, but in the evening it re-opens with cocktails and wine bar. It’s something Swansea’s Wind Street is crying out for. I think it’s a bit more relaxed than the other offerings in the city. We then have our main bar area, called Tanzibar, which has a stage area as well, where all our entertainment will be on, several nights a week. Also, there’s a walk-up bar on the main floor, so our customers are well serviced. We also have valet services and they’ll be providing bar snacks and drinks to table players.

On top of all that, we have an independent poker room, which is opening with 10 tables which seat 10 players each, 100 in total. Every single table will have a dealer, which is different to a traditional casino, where a casino offers the facility by supplying a table and cards et cetera and people deal themselves in turn. But whenever you see poker on the circuit or on TV, it’s always dealt by a dealer, and that’s the route we are taking.

CI: How are you pricing the restaurants and bars for the area?

RN: We’re looking to price point our bars at a comparable level with the bars on Wind Street, but initially without the ‘specials’, two bottle for two pounds or whatever. We’re just not interested in having people coming in and drinking too much. It’s a service we want to offer, where people can come in and enjoy a drink in a nice environment.

The restaurant will be fine dining, but we’re realistic and we know there are plenty of places to eat in the area, so the price will certainly be competitive. Harrys Bar will be on a similar pricing structure to a Starbucks or wherever for the panini and coffee, it’s what people are used to.

A lot of casinos do use the food and sometimes the beverage offering as a loss leader to get customers in to experience the facilities. We’re not doing that; we see the food and beverage areas as one of the attractions to come in. People that enjoy the restaurant can use our other facilities. So every part of the casino is a revenue stream, and it’s also attractive enough for people to want to visit. We’re a destination venue and people will come to us for a number of reasons, not just to come and game.

CI: What kind of entertainment is planned?

RN: We will have anything from small groups, tribute acts, duos, solo artists, comedians, magicians, hypnotists… We want to really be an entertainment venue. Karaoke is very popular in the area as well, that will feature. We’ll also have big sporting events on our screens; we have numerous plasma screens on site, and a large screen in the bar as well. So when Wales take on England in the rugby, we’re pretty sure no-one will want to see an act that night! We really want to offer a full suite of entertainment. We’ve got a large portable stage which will be brought out for bigger acts, larger events which we’ll host monthly, like The Drifters, that kind of thing. When we put a big show on, it will entertain the whole area, not just Tanzibar.

CI: What are you introducing that’s new and exciting?

RN: We’re got a fully-integrated loyalty scheme which starts from opening day, September 6. Everyone’s membership card is also a loyalty card, similar to a Nectar card. Whether people play table games, slot machines, have a meal in the restaurant or use the beauty parlour, they’ll get points for using our facilities. They’ll be able to use those points for food, beverages, free play on the tables, and we’re looking to have associations with local facilities like the cinema, where points can be redeemed for cinema tickets, for example. We’ll also have a catalogue where points can be exchanged for gifts.

The most exciting part is the full integration of the system. We use the EndX casino management system, the slot management system, the beverage system… We managed to get all of these companies to talk to each other to make this loyalty scheme work, and we’re extremely pleased with that.

This is thanks to the implementation of the Gambling Act on September 1, of course.

Our scheme is called Aspire. It has three levels; the basic level, the starting level, is blue, people can progress to silver and the VIP card is gold. What’s going to happen with the loyalty scheme is there will be kiosks where people can go and check how many points they have, which also doubles up as a point for us to communicate with the customer, and where they can learn how the loyalty scheme works. There will also be information on the games for people new to casinos.

This will be launching in our Newcastle Aspers six weeks after we roll out.

CI: How many slots do you have?

RN: We have 20 slots, which is our maximum allocation. They are from a variety of manufacturers. On the floor there are 13 IGT machines, two Novomatic, three WMS and two Aristocrat machines.

What we do have is a progressive jackpot, which will be the first in the UK under the new legislation. It has a £4000 jackpot, it’s an IGT system called Fort Knox. We’re incredibly pleased to have it, we think it will be new and exciting and very appealing to our players. It’s a bank of six machines.

All the electronics and the slot machines have TITO, and the whole lot is networked and connected to the back office system.

CI: What’s the breakdown of tables?

RN: We have 20 tables, with eight roulettes and 12 card tables. All of our card tables are flip-top so we can be flexible according to what our customers want. There will be on average nine Blackjacks, one Punto Banco, one three-card poker and one Casino Hold’Em Poker. There isn’t a market for Punto Banco in Swansea yet, but we’re hoping to create one.

We’ll also have 40 Novo TouchBet terminals running off two live roulette wheels and an automated wheel, and of course our ten poker tables on top of all that.

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