In Great Britain, Aspers Group began life as a company barely seven years ago with only one casino, but has since grown to become the nation's sixth-largest operator with three sites by offering what it believes is a new style of gambling facility.
Aspers' success is down to the late John Aspinall. He opened his Clermont Club in London's Berkeley Square in 1962 and operated it successfully for a decade. Born in India during the waning years of the British Empire, John had hosted private gaming parties before opening the Clermont, and greatly enjoyed the company of gamblers.
It is even rumoured that uninvited members of London's constabulary attended a few of these earlier gatherings.
Aspinall also had a passion for wild animals and founded the Port Lympne and Howletts wild animal parks in the southern English county of Kent to promote the conservation of rare breeds. These parks would occupy him from 1972 until 1978 before returning to the London gaming scene and opening the first Aspinall's Club in the Knightsbridge area of the capital with the late Sir James Goldsmith.
In 1984, this club moved to London's Mayfair neighbourhood with an extensive renovation of an existing gambling establishment before being sold three years later as part of Aspinalls Holding PLC's float on the London Stock Exchange. However, John liked the area and opened the present Aspinall's Club in 1992 on Curzon Street, and this would grow to become one of the most famous casinos in Europe.
After John's death in 2000, his son, Damian, teamed up with James Packer of Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL), one of Australia's largest diversified media and entertainment groups, to purchase the remaining shares of his father's company and create a new joint venture company, Aspers Group. PBL owns and operates the Crown Casino in Melbourne,
the Southern Hemisphere's largest leisure, entertainment, and gaming facility at over 5 million square feet, along with the Burswood Casino in Perth, and a major new casino resort development in Macau.
"I was aware of the coming deregulation of the gaming market in the UK and knew that this would create an economic opportunity to introduce a new style of leisure facility, which is what Aspers is," said Aspinall, who serves as chairman and chief executive officer.
While Aspinall's in London has remained the company's premier gaming unit and it is still run as a members-only club catering to the tastes and requirements of a very selective clientele that is overwhelmingly international, Aspers opened the "Aspers at the Gate" casino in the northern English city of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, and later the "Aspers at Salubrious Place" in the southern Welsh city of Swansea.
These new sites feature a diverse leisure offering, including bars, restaurants, live entertainment, and a range of gaming options for those who may not be that savvy at the tables. In addition, they are of a size that makes them hard to miss.
"It is our philosophy that there should be something for everyone and that our sites should appeal to everyone," Aspinall said. "A lot of the casinos in the UK are small boxlike structures, whereas our casinos are some of the largest in the country at up to 46,000 square feet, while most others range from 10,000 to 15,000 square feet."
Aspers' Newcastle site features more than 80,000 members, 38 percent of whom are female when the national average hardly ever runs beyond 3 percent.
"We believe Aspers at the Gate is so popular because of the unique services on offer," he stated. "It is an all-round entertainment centre where gaming facilities are joined by a beauty parlour mini-spa, iPod lounge, and restaurants and bars."
The site has hosted a regional heat of BetFred's first female poker tour, one of six in the country, along with the
Paddy Power Poker UK Tour, the
Amateur Poker Association Tour, and the
William Hill Grand Prix. All of this is in addition to its own
nightly tournaments with buy-ins ranging from $40 to $200. The site will also soon add an "industry night" for casino professionals and will be the venue for the next
Poker Challenge, a massive poker tournament for European poker staff.
"We supply dealers for tournaments and have friendly staff along with a nice, comfortable environment with good customer service, good food, and beverage services, along with an excellent setup for cash games," said Aspers at the Gate Poker Manager Chris Brown.
"We started with 10 tables and now have 23, and sometimes we have to turn people away because we have no room in the tournaments. In fact, in one of the very first $40 freezeout tournaments, we had to turn away almost 100 people."
Asper at Salubrious Place features two restaurants and bars, a mini-spa, a poker room, and a relaxation area. There is live music with space for more than 1,500 people, and with more than 46,000 square feet of floor space, it is one of the largest casino complexes in the UK, and by far the largest in Wales.
"Our Swansea casino boasts the widest choice of top-of-the-range gaming, including $8,000 slot machines, electronic roulette, a 100-seat poker room, and 21 gaming tables offering classic casino favourites such as roulette, blackjack, three-card poker, and punto banco," said Richard Noble, the site's general manager.
The Swansea casino offers players regular cash games and tournaments with buy-ins ranging from $20 to $200. In addition, for those not expert at Texas hold'em, lessons are available in how to play, followed by a single-table tournament played with chips, a service offered across all Aspers' sites.
But Aspers is not content with only three sites, and work is well under way on its latest site in the town of Northampton, due to open next year. The company has another licence for a casino at the Bournemouth Pavilion on the south coast, and it is in the process of developing a number of additional properties under existing legislation as well as the new Gambling Act of 2005.
"We are eagerly awaiting the reintroduction of the Parliamentary order authorising the 16 new licences under the Gambling Act of 2005," said Aspinall. "Aspers continues to take advantage of all the new freedoms provided under the legislation. As an example, we were the first UK casino operator to advertise on television on Sept. 1 under the new regulations."
