The Hippodrome in London is undergoing a £40 million refurbishment to transform it into a casino, restaurant, and entertainment venue. It aims to change perceptions of casinos by making the space more open and welcoming to a wider audience beyond serious gamblers. Other casinos are also expanding their offerings with events like jazz nights to attract new customers. The refurbishments are part of a trend of modernizing British casinos to compete with more popular foreign gaming destinations.

1. 22 23
leisure
W hen the London Hippodrome first opened its doors in 1900, its
spectacular circus show included elephants, lions and a troop of stunt-
nightclub (from sticky carpets to stained, velvet-clad columns), have
been expunged.
diving dwarves. Now, with the project finally on the verge of completion, owner
Polar bears and sea lions swam in a 100,000 gallon water tank, Simon Thomas and his team of 450 staff are poised to reopen the
escape artist Harry Houdini and a young Charlie Chaplin thrilled the 93,000sq ft space to the public this May as a casino, restaurant,
crowds, Machnow the Russian giant was an audience sensation and cocktail bar and live-entertainment venue.
the venue staged the UK premiere of Swan Lake. Billed as the UK’s first “international-style casino”, The
In the 1950s it was reinvented as the glitzy cabaret restaurant Talk Hippodrome will follow the same formula as the gaming venues of
of the Town, where diners were entertained by Frank Sinatra, Dusty Nevada and Macau, which offer visitors an array of entertainment,
Springfield and The Supremes, and in 1983 Peter Stringfellow turned from live shows to cocktail bars and fine dining. Gambling is on offer
it into London’s first superclub. too, of course, but it’s not obligatory.
After passing through the hands of various nightclub operators, “I want people to visit the restaurant and have a really good meal,
the venue was closed down by the police in 2005 due to a spate of and if at the end of it they want to blow £50 on the roulette table,
public disorder offences, and – apart from a brief revival in fortunes then they can,” says Thomas. “An awful lot of people will come in and
when burlesque cabaret show La Clique moved in – the Grade-II not gamble, and that’s fine too.”
listed building has since stood empty. Brits make up the highest proportion of visitors to gambling
However, in the last three years it has undergone a £40 million mecca Las Vegas, and 16 per cent of UK citizens have visited a
refurbishment, which has seen the glorious Victorian plasterwork casino abroad. Yet only three per cent have done so in Britain.
THE MAIN AUDITORIUM OF THE restored and the false ceiling removed to open up the original atrium. “There’s a lot of money going out of the UK into foreign casinos, and
NEWLY REVAMPED HIPPODROME Asbestos, ductwork and all the accoutrements of a worn-out a lot of foreigners visiting the UK won’t go into a casino here because
it’s so alien to what they like and are used to,” says Thomas.
The reason, he believes, is that casinos in this country are seen by
many as intimidating, unwelcoming places. It’s a perception largely
Give it
caused by the reams of legislation imposed on British casinos, which
are among the most tightly regulated and highly taxed in the world.
Until the 2005 Gambling Act, for example, the law dictated that
GONE ARE THE DAYS WHEN visitors had to become members to enter a casino, with membership
CASINOS WERE EXCLUSIVELY THE desks forming a daunting physical barrier between the gambler and
HAUNTS OF SERIOUS GAMBLERS, the gaming floor. A tax on the rateable value of casinos, paired with
TOO INTIMIDATING FOR THE REST heavy restrictions on advertising, meant they were often located in
a spin
OF US TO ENTER. AS THE basements and on first floors, adding to the perception of seediness
HIPPODROME OPENS ITS DOORS and intimidation.
FOLLOWING A £40M REVAMP, By contrast, the Hippodrome has ground-floor access from three
KATE WHITE REPORTS ON THE different points and the gaming floor is overlooked by diners in the
NEW FACE OF THE INDUSTRY restaurant. “People walking past can see inside, there are no barriers
and you can just walk straight in,” says Thomas. “It’s a completely
different environment.”
The entrepreneur and his father Jimmy previously owned the
Beacon Bingo empire, which they sold for £80 million in 2006. “Bingo
was seen as very dowdy, with old ladies playing Housey-housey in
converted cinemas,” he says. “We led the reinvention of that industry
by creating the first big, flat-floor clubs.”
The company’s Cricklewood bingo hall opened in 1995 and was
the largest in Britain, with three bars, two cabaret floors, a cinema
licence, wedding licence and 800 car-parking spaces. “It was
completely off the scale,” says Thomas, “and in a way the
Hippodrome is the casino version of that reinvention.”
Across town, other casinos are successfully finding ways to
expand their offering to a wider clientele. High-end casino The Ritz
Club on Piccadilly has recently begun hosting jazz evenings, where
guests can enjoy live music over a bottle of champagne and canapés
for just £30 per person.
“There’s a lot of money “I’m hoping to bring more people to our lovely club,” says The Ritz
going out of the UK into Club’s chief executive, Roger Marris. “It really is one of the most
foreign casinos, and a lot beautiful rooms in London, and it’s a real shame that there aren’t
of foreigners visiting the more people spending time in it.
UK will not go into a “We know our members who are casino players very well, and
casino here because it’s they are the foundation of our business. But at any one time there
so alien to what they like won’t be more than a few hundred of them per month in town, and
and are used to” with the hotel above and the facilities we have available in the club,
Simon Thomas, we’re starting to introduce more social-style activities.”
Hippodrome In addition to the jazz nights, the casino recently held a high-
stakes poker evening. “It proved very popular, and the concept really
bridges gaming and the more social aspect,” says Marris. “It has
become a bit of a spectator sport. High-stakes players like to have
THE COLONY CLUB, ONE OF MAYFAIR’S POPULAR CASINOS people around them.” ៑

2. 25
leisure
The perception of casinos that many people have is very different windows. “It may not sound like anything special, but we’ve never
from the reality, according to The Ritz Club’s chairman, Andrew Love. had any windows in our club before,” explains director Gary Moore.
“Television has never helped us,” he says. “Whenever you see a Previously the building’s nondescript façade belied the casino
casino on TV, a fellow will come out and try and whack the legs off within, but now when passers-by look inside, the first thing they will
someone else who owes them money or something similar. see is a stylish new bar, which is set to open in May. “It will lend itself
“In fact, it’s not like that at all. It’s a very professional industry and to people who wish to come into the casino who aren’t necessarily
the truth is that in many ways, television and media do the industry a looking to game, but want to enjoy a Mayfair-level bar,” says Moore.
complete injustice. People who work here feel very upset that we’re It’s a formula that has worked well for the Genting-owned Colony
always portrayed as being uncouth villains or as the ‘dark side’.” Club’s sister casino, Palm Beach on Berkeley Street. There, the
“I think there is a certain amount of glamour and mystery about it,” stylish, bright-white cocktail bar, which opened at the front of the
adds Marris. “But actually, we know our customers better than banks venue late last year, attracts everyone from business people having
know theirs, and the compliance we have to walk through is very morning coffee to groups of friends meeting for drinks. It’s not until
strict. Guests at our jazz evening who had a look at the gaming floor you walk to the back of the building that you find yourself in a casino.
thought, ‘Actually it’s not a scary place, and there is no pressure.’” “That’s probably deliberate, to a certain extent,” says director
On Hertford Street, just off Park Lane, builders are about to knock Richard Poyner. “It’s an opportunity for people to come in and they
through the walls of The Colony Club casino to create two enormous don’t even have to cross the threshold into the casino. What you do
find is that when they do get a bit of courage to come and have a
look at the gaming floor, they find out that it’s not such an intimidating
atmosphere as they expected.”
With the bar’s live-music nights, and DJs until 5.30am on Fridays
and Saturdays, it’s not surprising that the two customer
demographics that have increased the most at Palm Beach are the
18-24 and the 25-33 age-groups. “Anybody can come in and enjoy
the bar, and if you want to enjoy the casino afterwards too by all
means do, but there’s no pressure,” says Poyner.
Casino restaurants are often also excellent places to dine, but are
not well known by the general public. At The Colony Club, Palm
Beach and The Ritz Club – a previous winner of the prestigious
Casino Restaurant of the Year award – cuisines including Chinese,
Arabic, Indian, French and Italian are all on offer, with a dedicated
chef cooking each menu.
At The Colony Club there’s even a Teppan-Yaki Bar, where an
expert chef prepares guests’ meals in front of them, while the Grade I
listed Crockfords casino has recently launched a new Chinese menu
in collaboration with the critically acclaimed Royal China Club at
Baker Street.
“The majority of Mayfair casinos have these hidden gems,” says
Poyner. “Nearly all of them are open until about three o’clock in the
morning – and where else can you find a restaurant where five people
can sit down together and eat five different cuisines?”
Visiting a casino, it seems, has never been such a safe bet.
THE RITZ CLUB CASINO, WHICH HAS ITS
OWN AWARD-WINNING RESTAURANT
THE BAR AT PALM BEACH, WHICH ALSO
SERVES GOURMET FOOD (LEFT)