Interview with Simon Thomas, CEO of the Hippodrome Casino, London.
The desire to provide best and unique experience to its visitors has led Simon Thomas to the fact that for 11 years he has been running the largest and most popular casino in the UK. The ability to combine all kinds of the most popular games, world-class food and drinks, as well as the Magic Mike show with Las Vegas star Channing Tatum in the service attracts residents and guests of London to come and come again.
Read more about all this in our interview with the CEO of the Hippodrome Casino Simon Thomas with the Editor Casino Life Ukraine Lyudmyla Kyrychenko.
Tell us about the Hippodrome Casino
The Hippodrome Casino in Leicester Square, London, is the UK’s largest casino and entertainment venue, and its most popular. Located in the ‘West End’ – the capital’s entertainment district – it sits alongside London icons the Tower of London and Buckingham Palace as a ‘must see’ destination for domestic and international visitors.
With seven floors of gaming including three unique casino floors and London’s largest dedicated poker floor, a multi-award-winning steak house, the 326-seat Magic Mike Theatre, eight bars and a brand new three-floor outdoor terrace, it represents a new, dynamic breed of casino for the UK.
Owner and co-founder Simon Thomas took the famous Hippodrome Theatre, one of London’s foremost entertainment icons, incorporated an adjacent building Cranbourn Mansions, and with £50m generated from the sale of the family’s bingo empire created a new concept of casino gaming and entertainment – a first for the country.
The Hippodrome opened on July 13, 2012. Prior to lockdown it employed 750 staff and attracted up to 40,000 visitors a week. It is also central London’s largest licensed premises.
How has the reopening of Hippodrome Casino been?
In one word: AMAZING.
Our re-opening has actually come in three stages.
Stage One
Unlike the majority of UK casinos we seamlessly mix gaming, entertainment and food & drink, so we were fortunate to be able to open our new three-tier outdoor terraces when restrictions on hospitality venues only were partially lifted on April 12.
This meant we could begin the marketing and public relations campaigns for the venue early prior to our May 17 full opening (albeit with some social distancing restrictions), bring staff off furlough for training and gauge demand from visitors returning to the West End after what, for many, had been more than a year away.
We removed all gaming from the terraces as the law dictated and ran them purely for meals and drinks, with much success. If I say we sold more Champagne in the month after April 12 than we normally sell in a full year of normal trading, this gives an indication of how popular the Hippodrome terraces have become and how eager people are to come back into central London and start living their lives again.
Stage Two
May 17 saw the further lifting of lockdown restrictions, though the gaming tables still had to incorporate screens that limited the number of players, and we opened the entire venue including all casino floors, the poker floor, electronic gaming and slots and our theatre show Magic Mike Live.
Because of the requirements of social distancing we adapted the spaces we had available and repositioned the majority of the gaming tables, slots and electronics. Some areas dedicated to entertainment were temporarily put on hold to accommodate new gaming areas, and we’ve been very pleasantly surprised at customer reaction.
It made us think harder about how we utilise space within the Hippodrome which will have future benefits for the business.
For the grand re-opening at a minute past midnight on May 17 I cut some symbolic chains off the front door. I was overwhelmed – and I have to say relieved too – to see a queue of 200 people waiting to get in. The press attention was huge as they are as eager as the rest of us to see things return to normal.
Capacity was still limited by around 50% but our gaming figures were extremely encouraging. Our steak house saw record spend as customers were determined to celebrate their freedom, and bookings for Magic Mike Live went through the roof.
Stage Three
The Government finally lifted social distancing restrictions on July 19 so hospitality venues are now allowed to operate as near normally as possible. Effectively we can increase the number of visitors, but we will remain sensitive to how people feel in terms of social distancing and wearing masks. It will take a few more months to return to pre-pandemic figures but we know people are eager to come back.
How do you feel re-opening after such a long period?
It’s time to forget the past and live for the future.
It’s very much a new beginning after a lengthy period of disruption. Not just for us but the neighbourhood we operate in, the West End of London. It’s the economic powerhouse of the country – not just the city itself but the whole of the United Kingdom – so getting everything up and running is vital now.
We work in a business eco-system. If venues the size of the Hippodrome do well that has a positive knock-on effect for the rest of the local community. They have the confidence to open, employ more staff and trade longer hours, because they know the number of visitors will grow thanks to us.
What’s new at the Hippodrome 2021?
When the first of the lockdowns was imposed in March last year we were determined to make good use of the time we were closed and finished three major projects: a new casino floor called The Gods right at the top of the building where you can look down onto this former theatre’s magnificent main auditorium; a brand new poker deck that has more than doubled the number of tables; and we added an extra tier to our outdoor terraces too.
The Hippodrome is a beautiful building, it must be an amazing place to work?
The best word to describe being here is ‘privileged’. Yes, it’s my business and livelihood, and I’ve lived and breathed this building for more than 15 years now, but I’m a custodian for the Hippodrome and I feel a strong duty of care.
Its theatrical heritage is extraordinary. Many of the world’s most famous entertainers performed here when it was a theatre, and the Hippodrome hosted the famous Talk Of The Town dinner theatre which was most recently featured in the Oscar-winning Hollywood film Judy, with Renee Zellweger.
I felt I had to bring back much of the theatrical heritage through meticulous renovation and restoration during the rebuild and the attention to detail is obvious from the moment people first come onto the main floor. The most often-used first word here is “WOW”.
Could you add a hotel on the building or buy an adjacent building and turn it into a hotel?
We’re fantastic at operating a casino and there are plenty of magnificent hotels in the area, including The Londoner in Leicester Square which I toured the other day and is a stunning addition to the area. So that’s not on my radar just now.
How many employees do you have at the Casino and are many from mainland Europe?
Before the pandemic and lockdowns we employed 750, but unfortunately had to make 250 people redundant.
Now we’re open again staff numbers are up to around 600 and we’re actively looking to recruit at least another 60 people immediately.
Happily our in-house Croupier School where we train our own croupiers is up and running again too.
We employ more than 50 different nationalities and are proud of our diversity, which reflects the customers who we welcome here.
How many tables and slot machines does the Casino have in total?
We’ve got the widest selection of table gaming, electronics and slots of any casino in the country.
There are three unique casino floors – the Grand Casino in the main ground floor auditorium; Lola’s, which sits below ground level and has a speakeasy, theatrical vibe; and The Gods which is sited at the very top of the building with spectacular views of the whole venue. There is also gaming available on the outdoor terraces, unique in London.
Table Gaming
We have 34 live casino tables. We offer Blackjack, Roulette, Three Card Poker, Baccarat and Dice. Our Three Card Poker tables offer an amazing progressive bet.
In Lola’s, we offer both single zero and double zero roulette. We also have two blackjack tables.
The Grand Casino boasts six single zero and two double zero roulette tables, two Three Card Poker tables and seven Blackjack tables.
In the Macau lounge, adjacent to the Grand Casino, we have five midi Baccarat tables, offering non-commission, commission and squeeze games.
On the terraces we have two roulette, one double zero roulette, two blackjack and one Three Card Poker table. In the Gods we have one Baccarat, one blackjack, two roulettes and a dice table.
Electronics & Slots
We have one hundred and four Electronic Table Game machine that offer Roulette, Blackjack and Baccarat games.
The roulette results are streamed from a live dealer podium, that has two, state-of-the- art Cammegh mini-wheels, and we offer an additional two live gaming table feeds to the ETGs which gives the players an option to play one of the four roulette games on a terminal. The Blackjack game is dealt from the podium in conjunction with the roulette, and Baccarat is offered from a live dealer table in the Macau lounge.
On the slots we have four of the latest IGT Crystal Curve machines which are linked to a “Blazin’ Flames” progressive jackpot. In addition we have six Crystal Dual machines linked to the “Gong Xi Fa Cai” progressive jackpot games.
We also offer two of the latest Novomatic Panthera Curve machines machine with standalone £10,000 progressive jackpot games. And there are four of the latest Panthera machines and four Dominators machines that are all linked to the Flexilink Mystery jackpot, paying in excess of £12,000 per week.
We are proud to say the Hippodrome offers one of the first roulette progressives on the Franco Tombola Roulette machines with the “Lucky 8’s” roulette progressive – standing at a whopping £64,800.
I found the tour most enjoyable but never imagined from the appearance from Leicester Square this scale and size of the building this must be a major task just maintaining such a building, in fact what would have happened to it if you hadn’t bought it?
It’s a great question. My father and I were looking for a casino property after the sale of our bingo business and first saw the Hippodrome building about 15 years ago.
It was a shell and needed a huge amount of work.
Since it opened in 1900 as a circus variety theatre it has gone through many transformations, embracing the popular entertainments of the age including the very first jazz performance in the UK, the inaugural UK performance of Swan Lane and the debuts of many well-known and world-renowned stars. In its later years it became one of the most famous nightclubs in the country.
In the early 2000s it fell into disrepair and even the biggest theatrical impresarios of the age said it would take too much money to turn it back into a theatre again, which is when my father Jimmy and I saw its potential.
I must admit if I’d known then what a huge job it would be turn it into the Hippodrome Casino I might well have walked away. Too many sleepless nights. But obviously it has been a labour of love and we’ve created something very special.
So, to answer your question, no-one knows what it could have become. There were thoughts it would make a shopping centre with restaurants, but I think that would have been a tragedy.
The Hippodrome is loved by millions as a beacon of entertainment in London’s West End. And as a casino, that tradition has been maintained and built upon.
It’s simply another era for a magnificent building.
People can enjoy World Class Food, Drink and can Party Gamble and be Entertained by a Las Vegas based Show. How do you describe what you have created here.
I often get asked what the secret of our success is. It’s simple. We employ people who smile.
You can build anything in the world, the biggest, the highest, the best designed…but it’s the spirit of the people who work here that bring the place to life. You will always remember excellent customer service and that’s what will encourage you to return. Time and again.
The underlying theme here is ‘Life Can Be Extraordinary’ which sums everything up perfectly. Especially now, after the seemingly endless periods of lockdown, so many people have realised you’ve got to get out there and live life to the full.
And at the Hippodrome that’s what we hope to deliver; something fun, unique, friendly and glamorous. A real West End of London experience that you can’t get anywhere else in the world.
How popular is MAGIC MIKE?
Magic Mike Live is open and bringing in the crowds.
The show was devised by Hollywood star Channing Tatum, and based on his hit film Magic Mike. Channing came to see me one Sunday morning to explain his vision and we signed an agreement to rebuild our theatre and transform it into a 326-seat, light and sound spectacular.
The show revolves around some amazing male dancers, who appeal to a mainly-female audience but I always say it’s for anyone who likes a theatrical experience the likes of which they will never have seen.
It was one of the fastest selling shows ever in the history of the West End and remains very popular with bookings well into next year.
Have you ever been to Ukraine, as I think you would really like Cities such as Kyiv and as you know we now have Casinos and for those of our readers whom are looking to visit London have you a message for them.
I have not yet had the opportunity to visit Ukraine, but I know some wonderful people from there who speak so positively about the country it makes me want to visit. I will be coming soon and hope to meet some casino operators there and see your spectacular country. And as for Ukrainian visitors visiting London, please come to the Hippodrome. We’ll ensure you are made very welcome indeed!
