Gambling is too scary for me.....

As with so many others involved in the Gambling Industry, Peter Brooks doesn't Gambling, doesn't 'use' his own product, for fear of ADDICTION.

THE INTERVIEW: Gambling is too scary for me, says UK's biggest casino boss Peter Brooks
By Sarah Bridge

Peter Brooks doesn’t gamble. It’s is not a moral thing, he is just a bit nervous about it.
‘I have the same hesitation as other people do – once you start, is it going to be OK? So I don’t even put my foot in,’ he says.

But of course, plenty of people do get over this hesitation, which is fortunate for Brooks, because he runs Britain’s biggest casino business.

Genting UK – part of Malaysian multinational conglomerate Genting, which owns everything from cruise ships and electricity companies to racecourses, owns 44 casinos in Britain, ranging from 184-year-old Crockfords in central London to its newest venue, the Riverlights in Derby.

And Brooks, who turns 65 today, is a man with a mission – to try to modernise an industry that hasn’t changed in the mind of the public for decades. Hence the choice of today’s venue – the Palm Beach casino off Piccadilly, central London.

From the outside it looks like an upmarket bar, with soft lighting and plush furniture. It is mid-morning and various customers are dotted around reading the papers and drinking cappuccinos. It is only once you walk through to the back – and there is no need to be a member, or even sign in – that the usual casino fixtures of roulette wheels, card tables and slot machines are in evidence.

Brooks sees his role as all about ‘the modernisation of gaming’. ‘We don’t want it to be intimidating and male-dominated, we want to be seen as a genuine leisure choice,’ he says. Brooks gestures to the surroundings to back up his point. ‘This is where casinos should be in the 21st Century,’ he says.

‘We want to create jobs, pay taxes and cater for all our customers, tourists and high-rollers alike.

‘We have to demystify casinos, but we mustn’t create a rowdy environment where people don’t want to gamble. So here people can just drink, or migrate to the gambling area. We hope we’re getting the model right.’

Brooks didn’t start out with the intention of running a casino company. He grew up in Winchester, Hampshire, went to Marlborough College and studied law at Southampton University. However, it was his gap year that Brooks remembers most fondly, working as a teacher in eastern Malaysia.

‘It was great experience,’ he recalls. ‘We were miles from anywhere. We travelled by junk up the river to a remote village where the witch doctor did a ceremony because the river was too high. Next day it had dropped 20 ft, so it really worked!’

After university, Brooks followed his father into the legal profession, working as a solicitor for 25 years. However, after a former client asked him to go on the board of his company he decided the time had come to go into business.

When Genting got in touch as it was considering investing in the British gaming industry in the light of imminent deregulation, the way was clear.

‘It was serendipity really,’ says Brooks. ‘I had started to feel as if I’d done it all [in my previous job] and I wanted to meet different people. And since I joined Genting I’ve been all over the UK doing just that.’

Genting decided to enter Britain gradually, first buying Maxims in Kensington, west London, before taking over Stanley Leisure, owner of Crockfords, in 2006. Brooks took the helm of the UK business in 2007.

As well as overseeing the clubs themselves, and other projects such as the relaunch of its loyalty card, he has been taking up the industry cause with the Government, lobbying John Penrose, the Minister responsible for gambling policy, about the challenges facing the industry.

One change Brooks is seeking is for companies to be allowed to move existing casino licences between regions. ‘This chimes with the Government’s localism agenda and could create several thousand new jobs by allowing casinos to be built where there is local demand,’ he says.

‘We are also talking about how we are allowed to have virtual roulette, but not virtual card games. Why can’t casinos offer that when you can do it everywhere online?’

The ‘annus horribilis’ of 2007 – when casino taxes rocketed, the smoking ban came into force and a category of slot machines had to be withdrawn – has been overcome, but Brooks is still wary of how the industry is taxed.

‘The taxation of machines is under review and we shouldn’t find that the tax burden goes up,’ he says. ‘The gaming duty rate of 50 per cent is a real challenge in the international market. The top casinos in London really do attract tourists and high-rollers, but we’re competing with other international lower tax regimes.’

With countries such as Singapore, China, Vietnam and Cambodia all ploughing millions into their gaming industry, including favourable tax breaks, it is becoming increasingly hard for Britain to compete.

‘High-rollers come and spend lots of money here and we have to meet their expectations, such as providing boxes at Premier League football games, but the tax regime means we are less able to compete.’

Genting itself sponsors Aston Villa – ‘it’s a heritage club and we feel very strongly about our own heritage’ – and is currently planning a £120million development for the NEC in Solihull, Birmingham.

Brooks, who lists his clubs as Queen’s and, fittingly, Brooks’s, occasionally takes time off to indulge his love of cricket (he is also a member of the MCC), wine, theatre and travel. He recently went to Egypt and Bahrain, where he didn’t miss the opportunity to check out the leisure facilities. ‘My trips tend to be busman’s holidays, I’m afraid.’

He lives in Chelsea with his wife, Patricia, and has three grown-up sons, Karl, Matt and Nick. In spite of his no-gambling rule, Brooks once owned a stake in a horse-racing syndicate.

‘I enjoyed that a lot,’ he says. But his main focus is on bringing the industry bang up to date. He waves at the bar again.

‘This kind of thing is new for us,’ he says. ‘We know how to run casinos, but a trendy bar? That’s all new to us and it’s a great learning experience. But we have to find the customers of the future.’


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