Richard Marcus’ Global Table Games & Game Protection conference arrives in London again. By Peter White
So another successful Global Table Games & Game Protection conference in Las Vegas has been completed. What’s next?
Well, that decision was bouncing around my head for a while. Since my conference has the word “Global” in its official name, it is time to truly make it global. All three GTGC/GGPC events took place in Las Vegas, so my next offering was going to be in Asia or Europe, and it was a difficult decision. I had to base it on the strength of my contacts, as well as my consulting work and conference history in those two regions. I have done a handful of seminars in Europe, including two in London, but just one multi-casino seminar in Manila. I have also done consulting work for one major UK casino company and a handful of casinos on the continent, but never for an individual casino company in Asia. As well, I have many more valuable contacts in Europe than I do in Asia, and that includes you, Peter White.
Why the Hippodrome?
Three words: “Hip” and “Simon Thomas.” By that, I mean the Hippodrome is by far the hippest casino in Europe and Simon Thomas is the best gaming industry CEO I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. I love telling the story of how I met him. I was giving a UK multi-casino seminar at the Victoria Casino in London, another great venue, and we were getting ready to break for lunch. So I began mucking chips off the roulette table and stacking them into chip racks, as we had finished with roulette Well, a dapper-looking gentleman came over and began helping me clean off the table. We chatted a bit about the seminar. Then we finished and I thanked him for his help, and he walked off. At that moment, another attendee whom I’d known from a previous event came up to me and asked, “Do you know who that guy is?”, pointing to the man who had just helped me clean up. I said no, and he said it was Simon Thomas. I said awkwardly, “Who’s Simon Thomas?” He looked at me just as awkwardly and said, “You’re doing a casino seminar in London and you don't know who Simon Thomas is?” I shrugged and he said, “Google him.” I did and my first thought after reading about Simon was, “I can’t believe he was actually helping me clean off a roulette layout.” Simon Thomas is a multi-industry mogul but he relates just like a regular guy.
Then I had the audacity to e-mail him six months later to ask if I could do my second London gig at his Hippodrome casino. He said, “Bring it on” and I did. Both London gigs went off great but that Hippodrome one was something special. A multi-themed casino with several levels, including one that contains a replica of a 1920s New York barbershop, the Hippodrome is as cool as it gets. I can say that I felt a unique vibe running through the entire place and I’ve been in perhaps a thousand casinos in my lifetime. So once I settled on Europe for my next event destination, choosing the Hippodrome was a no-brainer.
Will this event have a similar schedule to the Las Vegas conference?
It will but it will not be a carbon copy. Again, the European edition of the GTGC/GGPC will cater to the table games and game/asset-protection sectors, but the program will include sessions on compliance, IT, marketing and customer service. During the next few months, I will be researching the particulars of the UK and European gaming industries and reaching out to my contacts for suggestions on how to balance out the presenter roster, and program to be the most effective for the European and UK markets. I will not disappoint. My Vegas conference has always received nothing but high praise for the quality of my presenters and program.
What were the most memorable takeaway experiences for this year’s Global Table Games & Game Protection conference?
Probably the realization that a lot of new and important stuff hits the fan each year, which makes this and other conferences stay interesting. A few years back, it was the invasion of stadium gaming and then electronic table games during the pandemic. The last two years, it has definitely been the talk of cyber attacks on major casino companies in the U.S., some of which were propelled through the social engineering of employees who work where the money is. Even if there have not been such similar attacks on European casinos, the industry on this side of the pond needs to be aware and on the defensive.
After the inaugural GTGC/GGPC in 2022 I found myself thinking, “How am I gonna put together another program as new, diverse and interesting as I just did?” Then, “How am I gonna put together a presenter roster that can live up to or maybe even rise above the one from that first year?” I managed to do just that. It wasn’t easy. It takes hard work and dedication, and then of course persistence. The key is to keep abreast of all the happenings in the casino world and sort out not only the most important developments in it but primarily those that are the most relevant to the sectors of the industry you want to draw to your event.
You spend a lot of your time talking with casino management. How does that insight and understanding of both the optimism of new challenges and at times potential concerns feed through to your conference programs?
Much of what the final program contains comes from pieces supplied by casino directors from various departments. Through that very channel, I learned how important it was to not only include marketing and player development in the program but to demonstrate how these departments directly relate to both table games and surveillance operations. Player development fuels the casino action by getting the right players at your tables while surveillance can play a key role in determining which of those right players may ultimately be the wrong players, evinced by high-rolling individuals or groups who are playing with an advantage or even within an organized cheating ring. That danger is very high at baccarat tables.
From casino-management executives, you also get a wide scope of takes on high-tech gaming analytics and protection technologies, including machine learning, facial recognition, and artificial intelligence. We have been covering these technologies since the inception of the conference, and there are new and important updates each year as the technologies expand exponentially. In some sessions, upper management’s concerns are often assuaged when they get better views, and explanations from very informed and engaging presenters. I have seen this transformation with casino directors and managers coming to the conference very worried about the dangers of FR and AI but then leaving it with boosted confidence in their value, and less feeling of uncertainty about their security features, and threats to their human workforce.
What are the options and opportunities that you are providing for sponsors and exhibitors?
