Glyn Thomas talks to Armin Karu after Olympic Casinos wins the “Land-Based Casino Operator of the Year” Award at the ICE Totally Gaming Awards

You must be delighted with wining the Best Land-based Casino Operator of the Year Award?

Winning the Best Land-based Casino Operator of the Year award is a true recognition for the years of hard work done by the whole team of Olympic Entertainment Group. Last year showed that the right decisions and all our efforts made during the years of global economic crisis had given us a strong competitive advantage and comparing to the period before the recession, we have increased market shares in almost all of the countries where we operate. 2012 was also remarkable for entering the Italian market and breaking into the so-called Old European market where we now aim to gain even more foothold.

How much as the quality of training of your staff contributed to the success of Olympic Group?

From the very beginning, OEG has invested a lot into what I believe lays the foundation for a perfect casino experience - the people. Continuous training and motivation of all our floor staff and management has lead to a highly professional and remarkable team. These efforts have also received a wider recognition - our dealer Liisa Rennstein, won the European Dealer Championship last year and a Krista Meri, Olympic Casino’s bartender, won the World Bartending Championship few years back - just to name a few achievements of our staff. We have followed a concept Smile á la Olympic Casino, a service attitude that has been highly appreciated among our customers over the years.

Investment in the Casinos infrastructure and gaming machines and equipment must also have played its part in the popularity of your Casinos?

Another aspect of our success lies indeed in our attitude towards innovation. We make a continuous effort to positively surprise our customers with best new games on the market and adopt new high-end technology and systems that would increase convenience and create additional winning possibilities for our customers. These elements combined have really played an important part in the popularity of Olympic Casinos.

Do you consider that the Olympic Entertainment Group is exactly where  you want it to be or is it a case that challenges to gain that further edge on competitors never ends?

Olympic Casino is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and I am sincerely happy for what we have accomplished so far. However, I have always strongly believed that people should keep setting high goals for themselves and then keep working hard to reach them. We are good at what we do and with our passion for service excellence we can never really take the time to rest. With new goals already set, I believe that this is just the beginning of the road for us.

We fully understand the reasons why winners didn’t get an acceptance speech as it would have added an hour on to the event, however if you had had the opportunity what would you have liked to have said?

I would sincerely like to express my gratitude to everybody who has supported us throughout these last twenty years. In addition to our customers, who make us strive for more and more each day, I would also like to thank both our current and our former team members, all of our partners and the thousands of people who have believed in us and have invested in OEG through the Tallinn and Warsaw stock exchanges. It is thanks to all of them that we, today, have the honour of being the best land-based casino operator. Last but not least, I would also like to thank the jury of the Totally Gaming Awards for all their hard work and for their impartiality, especially considering that many of them represented companies that were also nominated and definitely also worthy of a similar recognition.