50 St. James Closed!

[morrell101]

Hello All,
My first post and already I'm the bearer of bad news. There is a strong rumor in Mayfair that LCI's prestigious '50' has gone into receivership closed its doors.

Can anyone confirm?

[ian]

Hello Morrell,

Welcome to the forum.

The website is still up and running.
http://www.fiftylondon.com

I've just called fifty and they're closed tonight but the chap on the line said they would be open for business as usual tomorrow evening.


I believe the club is still a partnership between Robert Earl and LCI (Harrah's)
http://www.fiftylondon.com/biographies.html



Interestingly across the pond Harrah's have recently purchased the debt of Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas and this is how the LVS covered the news in mid September.

Harrah’s buys Planet Hollywood debt
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009...hollywood-debt



We have more news out of the Capital today with the Sunday Times detailing the impending return of "bunny style" hostesses to Les Ambassadeurs.


Casino is game for glamour
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle6869425.ece

"Next month, Les Ambassadeurs, a casino housed in a Mayfair block that was once a hunting lodge for Henry VIII, is attempting to bring back some of the glamour to the industry and create what it hopes will be a lucrative income stream at the same time.

It will open the Red Room, a £1,000-per-year private members’ club that will feature live music and a troupe of hostesses to be known as the Red Room Girls. The woman who trained the Playboy Club’s famous Bunny girl servers, Barbara Hague, has been brought out of retirement to train the staff at the new operation."


Ian

[ian]

The Times City Diary column has a brief piece today on the closure of Fifty London.


Place your bets on Fifty reopening its casino
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle6877112.ece

The article is dated the 16th so presumably the premises remained closed on Thursday evening when the author called ?


It's somewhat cruel in it's description of the casino profession.


"Most of the big casinos have been suffering. One must feel sorry for the employees, of course. But the decline in their fortunes is apparently because the 50 or so mega-rich punters who have always thrown their money away in return for a bit of ego-boosting grovelling from the casino staff are not travelling as much. So the rich but stupid aren’t being fleeced, and the fleecers are doing badly as a result."


"Fleecing" as it's described of the rich and stupid isn't something new in London's private gaming clubs, it follows a tradition dating back hundreds of years.


When I was a Croup I saw my job as simply aiding in the re-distribution of wealth.
Governments attempt do that every day (with varying degrees of success) and they call it the Tax system


Ian

[skyvision]

When the duck is dead.............It's dead. 50St James, when it was the original London Clubs it had been based at the Ritz......... and it had its day.50 has constantly struggled, had been up for sale for years.........no buyers. Who wants to invest now? Just around the corner is in the same position..........but it is a toy. Aspinalls has different problems. Life goes on, and evolves, so do the staff.

[pluscount]

Allegedly a sale is pending on the club , disagreement between parties involved but money is changing hands . So the duck may not be quite dead. May well reopen the gaming floor again soon but under independant ownership.
It would be a great shame if it did close as it is in fact the only purpose built casino in london , built in 1829 and in fact the original Crockfords club nicknamed the Temple of chance.

[ian]

Thank's for sharing that with us PC.


William Crockford
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Crockford

Crockford's
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crockford%27s


Hell and Hazard, or William Crockford Versus the Gentlemen of England
http://www.amazon.com/Hazard-William.../dp/B000OBZZ0K


Hell & Hazard Or William Crockford Versus the Gentlemen of England
London, England: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1969. 1st Edition; 1st Printing. Hardcover. ISBN: 0297177699. B&W
http://www.antiqbook.com/boox/how/12439.shtml


The modern era Crockfords
http://www.crockfords.com


Ian

[pluscount]

Announced today in the business section of the telegraph, the club is going into administration next week. Rest of the building still open, just not the gaming floor.
I presume the administrators just accept the best offer for the business to pay the creditors/ debts off. Someone is going to pick up a prestigious gaming venue lease and license for absolute peanuts. Properly run aiming at mid action players and doing away with the astronomic membership fee the place probably would make money.
On another note I heard on the grapevine , Ladbokes in paddington london closed it's doors today , can anyone confirm.

[morrell101]

More bad news. Times online reports: "Ladbrokes shuts London casino, 100 jobs lost"

Ladbrokes have agreed the sale of the license to Mr. Quek Leng Chan, owner of the Clermont and Thistle Hotels and 28% of Rank.


http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle6914834.ece

[morrell101]

More from Times online: "Fifty to seek administration after failed sale attempts" LCI have been holding detailed negotiations with well known high roller Mr. Timori Kartchava.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle6913222.ece

[ian]

Thank's chaps for posting the links - certainly ahead of me and no doubt every other publication in the casino world.

Two high profile London casino failures in such a short period, who would ever have thought that would happen. The market is obviously changing with those walking off the street and throwing grand packages at the Croup's becoming more of a rare commodity.




Additional info to follow later today.

Ian

[pluscount]

The main reason this is happening has very little to do with the current recession but instead the blame lies at the feet of this stupid half @rsed government. Gaming tax around the 50% mark, how can a business possibly survive . Thats not 50% on profits after overheads that 50% of the club win . Sometimes we pay that 50% and the customer then bounces the cheques so we in fact run at a loss.
Furthermore , of course the 1968 act needed updating, but the essence of it was perfect. New licences should never have been granted , at least in London, there was the right amount of clubs for the number of punters.
I don't want to be the doom monger but there will be more closures unless some sort of shake up in taxation occurs.

[ian]

The Paddington closure is only in the Times at the moment but no doubt the Evening Standard will have it later today.


http://www.paddingtoncasino.com


High rollers have broken the bank at Fifty casino
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standa...ifty-casino.do


Chips Are Down For London's High-Rollers
http://blogs.news.sky.com/kleinman/P...7-f157e1168cad


London casino Fifty calls in the administrators
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...istrators.html


Excellent points about the tax situation PC and no doubt for most British casino exec's the next General Election cannot come soon enough.


Ian

[Inquirer]

Slightly off topic:

At the other end of the casino market, tax is also a factor. Small provincial casinos now start tax payments at 15% rather than the phased tax bands of the past starting at a much smaller rate of 2.5%. That makes a massive difference to the smaller clubs.


Of course a cynic might see this as government policy of reducing casino numbers by stealth, but that couldn't possibly be true could it?

[Inquirer]

And to be pedantic (because I can't help it), the tax changes are a consequence of the Finance Act (Budget to most of us) not the Gambling Act. No new licences have been granted under the Gambling Act 2005; any new ones granted recently were successful applications under the Gaming Act 1968 that took an age to come to resolution in the courts.

So while the tax changes remain at the door of this illustrious government, they can't be blamed on that ..um...exemplary(?) piece of legislation...the Gambling Act 2005.

[AndyPandy]

Its a sad day when two casinos in London close their doors, funnily enought almost at opposite ends of the gaming spectrum.

However it looks like there is no shortage of new owners sniffing around although not sure what Mr Kartcharva will do with Fifty...... Probably it will be full the brim with Russian billionaires next year at the expense of other high end casinos.

Mr Quek has already stepped up and bought Paddington though which means a casino be in its current location or within one of the Guoman / Thistle hotels will exist hopefully with majority of staff retained.... Strange he didnt move in on Fifty either given his desire to establish a foothold in the UK casino market.

Having worked for the Gouman group in a prior life I feel they will move it to one of their flagship hotels like the Cumberland in Marble Arch.

[pluscount]

Very positive Andy Pandy, lets hope so.
Inquirer very informative. I would perhaps suggest if not already you should look into a career in gaming compliance or further down the chain in security , they always seem to be the pedants of the business.
On another note ,as to these closures ,the final removal from casinos of acceptance of credit cards has damaged us greatly. Before you split hairs Inquirer I am well aware we were never permitted to accept them anyway but had merely exploited a loophole in the law. Anyway loss of that line of revenue has affected the U.K business badly.
On one hand socially responsibility is touted by the cretins who make the laws as the reason why we cannot accept them. Yet its fine for the cards to be used in ATMs within the building which then charges the drawer even more than if the card had just been allowed to be taken straight at the cashdesk like a debit card. Now how bloomin socially responsible is that. Do the lawmakers have shares in credit card companies and ATM providers. fools.

[funtastic]

On hearing the news that Jimmys is shutting I had cause to reflect on the fortunes of a once mighty company, LCI.
To see how they have gone from one of the most prestigeous casino company's in the world to a shelled out snail is amazing, and yet very tragic.

When you think on how did they go from a market they once dominated supreme with neary a billion drop a year to a minor player in 10 years is simply breathtaking.

With the catastrophic expansion in Vegas to the humiliating exit from the Ritz, buying casinos and then selling them for less than they bought them for, sell Les A, sell Palm Beach, and now go bust in Jimmys, you couldn't make this sort of stuff up..

There is no doubt they have had bad luck along the way but I would have to say the people responsible for the direction of the company have been inept at best, calamitous at worst..

Like other businesses before them, the sun seems to be setting on the once great company and that has to be a sad day for the industry, even if you are not connected with the company.

I am just bewildered by the sequence of events.

[Inquirer]

PC - appreciate the career advice / recommendation...although I thought security was a little harsh...

Seriously, I never understood the logic whereby it was OK to have CCFs incrementally increased over time way over the original bank reference by casino senior management, but not to accept credit cards over which the card provider exercised control over the limit.

And why is OK to use credit cards online, but not in a bricks & mortar casino?

Also I think the loss of the Section 21 machines seriously hit profitability - their growth in numbers in the last couple of years before the new Act was phenomenal. I can see no logic in the new machine limits for converted 1968 Act casinos, nor the ridiculous situation whereby roulette terminals are not machines if you have 40 or less, but become machines if you have 41 or more.

Finally, if you wanted to control the proliferation of casinos into a limited number of well regulated sites where your money laundering / social responsibilty concerns would be properly addressed, why, as a legislator, would you allow casino games to be played on FOBTs in betting shops in every high street of every city, town and village in the land virtually from dawn to dusk - premises supervised by persons not deemed to require a Personal Management Licence?

I can think of a few reasons: a) incompetence, b) concessions to an effective lobby group,c) skullduggery(reward for b)), I daresay you can think of others.

[pluscount]

Yes sorry Inquirer about the security comment. As to your point on CCFs if the cheques are being met , especially on first presention the , increase the line slowly but surely, don't overstretch the customer but simply push the boundary a little , when the customer requests an extension . This type of practice should also be employed on cards , debit or credit.
It sounds mercenary but look at it this way if a customer comes in with hard cash we will take it . Of course making sure we do the necessary money laundering reports and checks.
Thats all cards are , as good as cash. If someone comes into a casino then expect in the grand scheme of things we will relieve you of your money.
And in relation to Funtastics points , yes great shame for LCI staff. That company also owned the Park Tower in knightsbridge as well. The company took a massive gamble with the Aladdin and got stuffed. Same with Jimmys really in the end.

[Late Bet]

The latest and most recent ruse of various London Casinos in cost cutting .... Get rid of the Inspector position and let's call it ummmmmmm Senior Croupier. At a (questionable but just about legal) stroke you can cull staff ...offer them new contracts on less money. Then find the most popular food dish in the restaurant. Take it off the menu. Make that chef redundant. Shut the restaurant in the afternoon. Cut the comps. Less punters?.... Get rid of some of the car jocks..... Then after shattering staff morale .... wait for your new clientele. If it's still busy .... you can't offer choice of tables ..... let them go elsewhere.
When the financial year ends ...... Blame it on the recession. Everybody else does.

[pluscount]

Just heard on the grapevine , 50 will not reopen, liquidation in progress. Very sad for all the staff concerned

[skyvision]

Pluscount.........as you say... sadly you passed on the final news regarding '50 St James' but many thanks for your effort. We have had no direct information about the situation at '50' from any employees from there..........but no great surprise.

We had heard that TK may make a move, but not to happen; however if you think about it, it makes sense. As one door closes an opportunity opens.

It creates less future competition for the premier clubs....Aspinalls and Les A...Crockfords.
The few quality members they have may spin off to the developing Clermont Club.

Every cloud will have a Silver Lining..........

[skyvision]

And spare a thought for the other Clubs.......the Piccadilly....Paddington and '50'.. in London... in the provinces the list nearly doubles. So who's next?

Its all about getting the right people in the right Job. The wrong Director is always a disaster! so lets leave the box with the Chairman.