Turnover: 200 million before acquisition of Ladbrokes Casinos
HR director: Stuart Ward
Heres a little challenge: what do you reckon a typical connoisseur of casinos looks like? And how about your typical bingo fan? If the images in your head differ wildly, maybe you should think again as, apparently, the customers for both these venues actually have far more in common (apart from a mutual penchant for gambling) than you might at first think.
One of the challenges faced by Stuart Ward, HR director at Gala Bingo, which acquired Ladbrokes Casinos last December, is that of dealing with the preconceptions that exist in the minds of the public as well as among the companys new casino employees.
Gala Bingo has acquired many bingo chains and individual venues, and, as Ward says, its used to the ins and outs of making bingo-related acquisitions. But he is candid about his comparative lack of knowledge of casinos.
When you go through [bingo acquisitions], you become a bit blas: been there, done that, got the tee-shirt. But Ladbrokes was a completely different business altogether. When youre taking over another bingo company, you are taking on people who are almost identical to your own.
Their expectations are the same, the customer base is the same. But with a casino, we have no idea. We really dont understand it. It would be arrogant to assume things.
One obstacle to overcome is the stigma attached to bingo, says Ward. Management teams from the casinos will be expected to go along to bingo to help dispel misconceptions. But conversely, it wont be necessary for bingo managers to make a special effort to visit casinos as many go along anyway. Casinos tend to be the only places open after work finishes for them and they are often regular attenders.
Bingos seen as smoky old converted cinemas: the clients are blue-rinsed, its very greasy, the caller has slicked-back hair... and its only played by a certain class of people. But its far from that. Its played by all sorts of people, across all social strata.
Casinos have a different image its where James Bond goes. There are Ferraris and Bentleys parked outside. But the reality is that its where people go to have a meal and play pontoon or at the gaming machines.
Ward says another major difference lies in the fact that Gala Bingo is not a plc, whereas Ladbrokes had such a background. In a plc-backed company, there are different cultural issues, says Ward. They were entrenched in the plc way, in the corporate way. We had to assure staff that we could deliver plc-type benefits packages. Were now on the road to starting to deliver these changes. But we are very conscious we cant make piecemeal changes to their terms and conditions of employment; its not legal and, we need to have them on our side there are not many people outside who are capable of running casinos. If you lose a manager because youve really made them unhappy, where do you get a replacement from?
Ward says the bingo and casino operations will run as two distinct trading divisions and there may initially be differences between the terms and conditions of employment between bingo and casino staff, but he does not believe that two diverse cultures can co-exist. The priority is to align any cultural differences. No timescale has been set for the blending of the two companies. We are not, by any stretch of the imagination, a corporate entity, says Ward. Everybody here knows everybody and everybody knows what everybody else is doing; thats alien to a plc. We are now faced with dealing with a significant plc business which is a significant business in itself.
