Olympic Casino: Las Vegas style
Last year the Olympic Casino marked their 10th anniversary. It takes a lot of dedication and focus to run a successful company for ten years. Back in 1993, a young Estonian manager named Armin Karu, who recently finished his studies at the School of Management in Helsinki, had a dream. He wanted to create a Las Vegas style entertainment chain, which would operate in Baltic countries. And now, ten years later, he is living his dream.
Today the Olympic Casino is the largest slot operator in the Baltic countries. It includes 6 classic casinos with tables and 18 gaming halls (in Estonia, gaming halls are called “slot casinos”) in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Olympic Casino is planning to extend their chain to Kiev, Ukraine.
No wonder, such a big company is keeping Armin Karu busy and it wasn’t easy to get hold of him for this interview.
In the beginning there were slot machines
Historically, Estonia did not have a gaming tradition. Before Bolsheviks came to power, there were closed clubs called casinos for officers, with card games and billiards. From 1918 to 1940, when Estonia was an independent state, officers’ casinos still existed, but were still closed to the general public. Common folk could only participate in lotteries. Casinos were something that existed only in books and movies.
Nowadays Tallinn (Estonia’s capital) boasts 15 slot operators with Olympic Casino leading the pack with its ultimate service and unique atmosphere. This is the place you’d go to have a good time with your friends and where a gambler in you can break loose.
When Armin Karu first visited Vegas in 1991, he became very enthusiastic about that business model. Why has he preferred American style casino to the European?
European tradition grew from the elite clubs with rich people and big bets. America developed a very different model since, because slot machines, invented in the late 19th century, allow making smaller bets. In this model, everyone can join in and have a good time. People spend on average 10% of their time playing and the rest is spent on other types of entertainment. American casinos are affordable and their profits are mostly due to high volumes.
The first Olympic Casino was opened in Tallinn in the Olympic yacht club (hence the name), which featured a big swimming pool and a hotel. At that time, back in 1993, many people came out of pure curiosity, but some of them gradually grew into regular customers.
Tourist magnet
The hardest part, according to Armin Karu, was to break the old stereotype of a casino as a lowbrow kind of entertainment, run by criminals, with the risk of falling into a debt trap. Indeed, the nineties’ gaming halls were located inside cheap bars with just a couple of tables.
Things have changed to the better in 1995, when Estonia ratified a new law that required a minimum starting capital of 2 million krones (about 130 thousand dollars) and separate rooms for the casino with the minimum of 8 slot machines and 4 tables. A reliable control mechanism was also introduced, which guaranteed high quality of the gaming business. This law greatly facilitated stabilization of the gaming industry.
From the very beginning, Olympic Casino's business was very open, which allowed them to become Estonia's industry leader.
According to Armin Karu, while gaming business in Latvia still has some negative public image, Lithuania has fixed the problem by creating gaming legislation that was the strictest among all Baltic countries. The differences between the laws are subtle and are mostly concerned with advertisement. For instance, Estonian casinos are not allowed to advertise at all, and their logos can only be used in conjunction with charities.
In 2002, Reval Hotel Lietuva, the largest casino in Baltia has been opened in Vilnius, Luthuania's capital, with 119 most advanced slot machines and 20 tables for various games: baccara, oasis-poker, club poker, blackjack, american roulette. This casino has the highest reputation in the countr and is often visited by the Lithuania's first lady Alma Adamkiene, president Valdas Adamkus's spouse. The casino is also collaborating with Mrs Adamkus on the charitable fund that helps sick children.
In the spring of 2003, Olympic Casino entered Latvian gaming market by opening a casino in Radisson SAS Daugava Hotel in Riga, Latvia's capital.
Olympic Casino: a bet on entertainment
Each of the Olympic Casino's gaming halls has its own theme: Temptation Island, Treasure Palace, Medieval Casino, Circus, Moulin Rouge, Aladdin, Russian Tzar. The latest gaming hall was opened in Tallinn's shopping center Ulemiste and is designed as a tropical island with exotic plants, rocks and sand.
Each hall is unique, the only common feature is a bright floor, which is supposed to emphasize inventive and stylish designs. Casino's interier creates an atmosphere of celebration while not sacrificing convenience. It is not overly luxurious not to scare off less wealthy visitors. Casinos' designers tried to create a very special psychological environment, which is both refined and natural. Many halls have aquariums with exotic fish, and the biggest Baltic casino in Reval Hotel Lietuva features artificial waterfalls. Unlike other casinos, visitors have a good time no matter if they win or lose.
This is a result of a lot of work, not just designing the casinos and keeping equipment up to date, but also training the personnel. Olympic Casino is one of the largest employers with over a thousand employees in Baltic countries. There is even a special school for staff training.
Armin Karu explains the need for such a school by the following fact. Tallinn's largest Olympic Casino located in the Reval Park Hotel has 80 room staff servicing its 125 rooms and 140 casino staff. Such a high customer/personnel ratio guarantees highest quality of service. On top of that, Olympic Casino is now compliant with ISO 9001.
Gaming halls have the most advanced slot machines with a lot of entertainment features: multiple games, touch screens, various visual and sound effects. All basic types of games are offered: poker, blackjack, keno, bingo. Some of the most popular games include: Sign of Zodiak, Cleopatra, Frog Prince, Risque Business, Unicorn, Deep Pockets, Lostermania, Dragon's Gold. Slot machines come from multiple vendors such as IGT, Bally and Atronic. Big plasma screens are updated every second with the current jack pot, which is common to the entire Olympic Casino chain. A “big jack pot” that equals 1.5 million krones or about 100 thousand dollars typically happens two-three times a year.
Olympic Casino also offers some unusual types of bonuses for their clients, such as luxury cars. A special bonus program allows players to get money regardless whether they win or lose. Same system is provided for the members of Bonus Club and Golden Club.
Everything here is designed to improve your experience: music, wide choice or drinks in cosy bars, pleasant surroundings, a range of bets with the minimum of 10 estonia cents (estonian cent is much smaller that american or european cent), various game tables from classic roulette to exotic novelties such as Red Dog, VIP room for regular customers, weekly concerts of famous musicians. There is also a special room called Open Poker, where poker afficionados can play independently from the casino.
A cure for gambling addiction
Even in this most pleasant and relaxed environment, says Armin Karu, some people develop gambling addiction. And casino's staff is worried about this not less than general public. After the Chair of the State Culture Committee Avo Viiol lost 8 million krones and was imprisoned for 5 years, Estonian Society of Gambling Addicts with the help of gaming operators conducted a poll, which showed that about 25 thousand people, or 2.4% of country's population, consider themselves gamblers, and another 27 thousand are potential gamblers. Of a thousand respondents, two percent visit casino at least once a month, one percent do it weekly, 11 percent play lotteries and 6 percent play instant lotteries. These figures are pretty low, given that even purchasing lottery tickets was considered a type of gambling addition.
Charity in every bet
Charity has a special place in Olympic Casino's history. In the last ten years, Olympic Casino paid over 10 million euros of tax with the volume of 30 million. Estonian legislature specifies where the tax money from gaming will be spent: culture, sports, health care, among others. And this is fair, because people's gambling passion should be shared with the state, especially as more and more people come to Olympic Casino. Just last year Olympic Casino paid 60 million estonian krones tax, or about 2.5 million euros. In addition, the company has it's own sponsorship and charity program called “Charity in every bet”. This program supports a number of projects: a piano for the Estonian Music Academy, equipment for the Vilnius hospital, restoration of the historical buildings, participation of estonian disabled sportsmen in the international competitions.
There are many ways in which charity is being done in Olympic Casino. For instance, this year all casinos have special collection boxes, which will be opened before New Year and the money will be sent to support orphans near the town of Keila. Also, one percent of every bet goes into a special jack pot, which averages around 3 thousand euros, which is then directed to one of the charities. In other words, Olympic Casino holds 12 big charity campaign each year.
There are also personal assistance programs. For instance, some funds were donated to purchase hearing aids for a little boy – after that, many more children were helped in the same manner by other companies. According to Marie Braunbrukk, the casino finds people who need help the most and in addition to funancial help it also attracts attention from other organizations. That's what happened to one foster home in Sillamae: after Olympic Casino they were helped by many other sponsors.
Marie Braunbrukk, who recently returned from a business trip to Las Vegas, says western hotels use star ratings for levels of service, why not rate the casinos? The benefits are twofold. First, this could serve a guide for the first tiem visitors. Second, the casinos would strive to improve their star ratings.
What an interesting idea! And such idea could only come from a personl, who is absolutely sure in the high level of service of his own company. If such a system is ever developed, there is no doubt that Olympic Casino will get the highest rating.
Eteri Kekelidze,
Tallinn.