Casinos have long been the cultural pastime of respectable people. Even many popular restaurants are inferior to casinos, which are where the city’s social life is thriving. Many casinos offer shows to their guests as well as games. A good casino hosts entertainers, businessmen and politicians alike. But of course, it’s not the shows and glamour, it’s the sheer majesty of the gambling.
The casinos and similar gambling venues are very sophisticatedly organised, determined primarily by a progressive management system. Generally speaking, management in gambling business can be divided into several major components.
First of all, management consists of accounting and control, which help the management to understand the movement of financial flows within the establishment, to determine the necessary amount of resources for its normal functioning.
Administrative management is also important. It is about orders, instructions, regulations that maintain discipline and order in a given gambling house.
Another aspect is incentive management. This is a special and quite effective form of management, which is based on stimulating the effective performance of employees through economic means (wage increases, bonus incentives, promotions, etc.). Additionally, there are “negative incentives”: reduction in salary, fines, disciplinary penalties, demotion and even dismissal.
Another direction is socio-psychological management. It is based on the moral qualities of employees and certain principles of behaviour. The manager, in his turn, must find common ground with everyone, be able to make people feel at ease, and create a good atmosphere in the team.
He usually uses psychological techniques of persuasion, inducement and stimulation. Thus, among other things, the manager must be a good psychologist. In practice, these approaches are usually combined with each other, although one type of management is a priority. It is the owner of the establishment who decides which one.
Perhaps the main peculiarity of management in gambling business is that it is almost impossible to learn it from theoretical knowledge only. First of all, real casino experience is needed, which is why, as a rule, managers first go through all the steps of the career ladder, starting with a croupier. Only in this way can one learn how to manage people and organise a normal work process.
The necessary management tools in any enterprise include analysis and forecasting as the initial stages of management. In the gambling business these stages are expressed in determining the costs of various business operations, in market research (market studies), in forecasting the demand for services taking into account the activities of competitors and the specifics of the casino policy, in reducing the level of risk.
Without planning for business operations, good management is impossible. First of all it concerns making business plans, i.e. stage-by-stage programmes of implementing entrepreneurial intentions, choosing the best actions and putting them into practice. It is the manager’s responsibility to react promptly and competently to the slightest changes in the plans, to correct the situation in order to avoid unpleasant consequences or losses for the company.
But whatever entrepreneurial skills a manager may have, his or her main qualities still lie in the ability to communicate with people, to respect their interests and at the same time to be able to influence them gently to gain the trust and respect of subordinates, without which it is impossible to achieve any plans and it is unthinkable to turn the team into one, a united team.
As you can see, a casino manager (especially a senior manager, the so-called top manager) is entrusted with a huge range of responsibilities. Not surprisingly, casino managers receive very high salaries, and in some casinos are even part-owners of the casino. Finding the right person for the job is important but not easy.
Professionals in this field are few and far between and they are usually all already employed. Experts believe that a person working as a top manager in a solid casino will practically never change the establishment even for a two- or three-fold increase in salary.
The question “How do I find a top casino manager?” can be answered in two ways. First, you can invite the “outsiders” (“come and rule”), i.e. professionals from other, more advanced countries in terms of entertainment industry.
Second, you can look for a manager of your future casino among the talented managers and pitbosses who work in other reputable establishments and have “outgrown” their positions. Although this route seems unlikely, it is yielding results. Owners of established casinos, while perhaps reluctant to let their people go, do so in order to give them the opportunity to further their careers, albeit in a competing casino.
Offline casino management: how to make more money?
A well-thought-out marketing strategy is the key to success in any gambling business. Casino owners and general managers need to thoroughly study competitors and leaders in the gambling industry to present a complete picture of the state of the market. Only with a full understanding of the concept of the gambling establishment and its goals can one begin to think about further actions to increase profits. There are many ways to attract customers, but are they all effective? Well-known gambling companies have already lost huge sums on the implementation of crazy marketing strategies that did not yield any results.
We have analyzed all the possible ways for successful promotion of offline casinos and have highlighted for you only those that really work.
Conducting different promotions and tournaments
Promotions and raffles are one of the most effective tools to attract new players to the casino. It is often used not only in the offline segment, but also in the online segment.
To begin with, you need to find out what types of gambling are most popular in your casino. After that, you can organize a themed raffle or tournament. It is desirable to set the time limit on the possibility of winning – then you will create a kind of excitement around the event and attract more customers.
If you have a base of regular customers, you can arrange various drawings with valuable prizes for them. This will draw attention to your gambling establishment, the number of regular customers will increase and the degree of loyalty will grow.
Before launching a raffle, it is important to:
- Identify the target audience groups – for whom the event is being organised;
- to identify the key objectives – why the need to hold the raffle, what the result should be;
- calculate the cost – define the budget, main prize, necessary equipment, advertising, etc.
Identifying the motivation for the employees of the gambling establishment
This is one of the key factors that will determine the future popularity of your gambling establishment. Casino profits don’t just depend on the amount of players’ losses. More often than not, the establishment earns more from the sale of alcoholic beverages and food. It is important for the gambling business owner to provide motivation for the staff. This can be cash bonuses in case of good performance or various bonuses that will be of interest to your subordinates. Above all, it is important to introduce a motivational system for waiters, bartenders, receptionists and hostesses. After all, it is these employees who communicate directly with your customers and make up the overall “portrait” of the establishment for your guests.
There are many motivational options. It is important to correctly identify the best of them. This can only be done experimentally. That is, choose several types of bonuses, and after a period of time leave only those to which your staff will respond best. The result of this innovation is that your guests will always be welcomed and well-served, and the value of the restaurant or bar’s average check may increase.
Using modern advertising methods
Technology today does not stand still and is constantly evolving. This also applies to advertising tools. More and more innovative ways of advertising offline businesses are appearing every day.
For example, casinos in the US are actively using holographic technology as an advertising tool and putting on massive shows.
Some gambling houses participate in charity events and activities – this is another modern advertising trend. People will gain more confidence in the participants of such events and they will also quickly become known among a wider audience. It is possible to hold charity events in the casino itself, highlight a hot topic or issue and organise an event. But this requires a lot of effort: finding investors, people interested in the topic, getting media contacts, etc.
Conclusions
In our information age, when it seems everything is known, calculated and determined, the problem of good business management, staff management and building strategies is very acute for gambling operators.
In order to get things going properly, casino owners are required to draw up a clear statement of work and define clear goals. Otherwise, everything can go wrong, because the manager may have his own vision of the casino, which requires, for example, a large financial outlay.
Various automation systems are used in casinos to improve management efficiency. Each of these systems has its own features and capabilities. Some systems allow full monitoring of the casino by automating the execution and full control of operations and events.
To be an efficient business, a casino must have an operating policy formulated by the board of directors and/or general manager. The casino manager is involved in the implementation of this policy. Depending on the structure of the casino, managers may be divided into shift managers, operations managers, marketing managers, credit managers, human resources managers and so on.