Indeed, casinos haven’t been kneeled by the crisis. Moreover, some new ones are opening, here and in other parts of the world, the fairs and exhibitions are running in normal circumstances, multigame platforms are launched, with ever more increased performances in order to attract and make loyal more clients.

This is what I call a working industry, regardless of the season like the Americans say… Why?! Because no matter what or precisely because of that a normal person, with all the functions calibrated, has a functional instinct of preservation. His brains need unwinding, relaxation, the engine of life needs a bit of adrenaline to live to the fullest, in the real world, and not in endless depressions, system-generated. What else does it mean to have a normal function of entertainment? Well, I think it certifies, with regard to the gambling area, precisely that most people perceive casinos as a site (hereby meaning also the online dimension of the phenomenon) of relaxation and controlled emotional involvement and by no means one in accordance with the sentences of the Apocalypse heralds, sustaining that it is a place of obsessive manifestations.

But, so as not to debate for too long, the fact that we escape a little bit from a world horrified by failure and bankruptcy, entering a domain of living desires, of promises about fulfilled dreams, can only count as living a new experience. The more experience, the less crisis. That is to say buying hope for “two Euros” and trying your luck means not accepting, humble and kneeled, to be run over by the crises caused by other people’s stupidity, if not foul play. It means not to allow to be constrained by the system to give things up. It means to refuse fatality. And thus, the casino has become on a time of crisis the symbol of the fight against all sorts of crises: financial, economic, of character, of identity, of hope.

Maybe it is for this very “flaw” of keeping our crisis-bearers hopes alive that the casinos were not run down by the crisis.

Andrei Frimescu fills the position of Marketing & PR Manager, at Casino Palace Casa Vernescu. In fact, Andrei is committed to his work.

When I have first entered Casino Palace, in 1999, it seemed like a dream. It was love at first sight, I was deeply impressed by the ambiance of the casino”. It couldn’t have been otherwise. Casa Vernescu is an architectural jewelry which has fit in exactly with the concept developed by Queen Investments, the company that owns Casino Palace, namely to open casino & entertainment centers in historical buildings and throughout the world. “I believe this was one of the important aspects which have determined me to join in. It was the idea of going beyond the immediacy of effects from gaming industry. The thought of being involved in complex business that leads entertainment towards art. I believe that feeling good because this is how I see the casino experience as myself I prefer gambling for fun not for the idea of getting rich – in a relaxing environment loaded with symbols, history and art, is the real experience that our clients are looking for, much more important than money. You might think he is overstating.

In order to sell his merchandise like any other marketer.

But seeing the light form his eyes, when he is looking around, you steadily believe him.

“IT IS AMAZING LISTENING TO LIFE STORIES”

He has first entered a casino in 1992. “At that time, just after the local revolutionary acts, there was only one casino, placed at Intercontinental Hotel. “Bucharest Casino” opened in 1991 belonged to Austria Casinos International. Afterwards, I went to Casino Berlin, situated on Constantin Mille Street, just across the House of Army.

Everything at that time seemed to me so new, so fascinating, so joyful”.

He was trained as a dealer being delighted to discover a new world. “You were expected to be skilled, elegant, fast thinker and quick. You had to make all the necessary operations without endless reasoning. And of course, you were supposed to be an accurate observer. To be swift handed and control everything with subtlety, so the client would not feel chased or enquired. Moreover, you needed to be a skilled psychologist. At a game table everything can happen.

Good or even bad. You need to know how listening to people, understanding their mood, using the proper tone and never miss the point”. Andrei says that clients’ stories have always been fascinating for him.

“There is something that urges them to confess about their personal experiences they had in this casino, or some other place in the world. In a very opinionated way. It is like they would almost relive every gesture of a lucky evening. I have met people who admitted not knowing to stop in time, and also people who managed to save their insolvent after one lucky night in the casino. It is amazing to be able to relieve, by their side, all these extraordinary moments.”

FROM POLYTECHNICS TO CASINO MANAGEMENT

Andrei Frimescu is an engineer.

He graduated Polytechnics in 1987. Specialization of Energetics, Hydro-Power. But he was looking for something even more exciting. A flavor of adventure, more dynamism. In his early years of working within casino, he gained a lot of experience; he was promoted and assigned to work in the big cities of the country, where Berlin group had been opening casinos an instructive journey offering him practice for a lifetime.

After joining Casino Palace, he attended management lectures and a MBA. “I have been learning all this period, because I was strongly attracted by this industry and the desire to upgrade the simple casino activity into something more complex and more sophisticated.

One of the projects we have recently accomplished here is Oba restaurant addressed to those who love genuine Asian food. It is included in the same concept of art. From the ambience to decorations, from lighting to covers, from the menu offer to those who had came directly from China to cook. Everything is genuine. Now, the interior of the building is undergoing some changes, room by room. We are in the process of redecorating, renovating”.

How long does Andrei spend at his job, to manage all these…? “Who counts, considering how fast time is passing.

When I start something which completely sweeps me, I turn into reality only after I am satisfied by the results.” Fine, but what about the family? “For my familywife and my little boy I always find time as they are very important for me. In our business, the activity usually begins in the afternoon. I have time to see my son growing, to escort him to school… One must always spend quality time with the family.”

As for the future, Andrei Frimescu hopes, to capitalize all the experience gained both in the country and abroad within one of the large and beautiful art casinos belonging to Queenco Leisure International.

Not only it is possible, but it would be for the best to happen.

One of the best known locations for gambling fans is the Harrah’s hotel and casino situated in Las Vegas Strip, in Paradise, Nevada, property of the great chain Harrah’s Entertainment.

The property opened its gates for the first time in 1973, under the name of Holiday Casino, adopting the name Harrah’s only in 1992. In 1997, Harrah’s restored this property, replacing the old image of the hotel with a carnival style party theme. That was also the moment when the main 35floor building was extended, being supplemented with 986 rooms, and when 6 buffoons were built, each plated with 23carat gold, rising 9.8 meters high. The grand opening of the new Harrah complex saw the presence of such celebrities as Sidney Poitier, Sandra Bullock, Minnie Driver, Stephen Baldwin, Lea Thompson, Steve Wynn and his wife, Elaine.

The hotel offers 2677 rooms, beside the casino as such: an interior space spanning over 8,000 square meters. The hotel con sists of several buildings, the highest having 35 floors, and the inner yard also houses the chocolate store Ghirardelli Chocolate Company. This is also one of the station places for Las Vegas Monorail and for a subterranean train going to the Rio hotel owned by the same company, Harrah’s. Among the restaurants within the resort there are Asia, Café Andreotti, Carnaval Corner, Club Cappucccino, Fresh Market Square Buffet, The Garden Café, Ghirardelli’s Old Fashioned Chocolate Shop and The Range Steakhouse. The resort also contains a tropical pool surrounded by small huts, a shopping mall and a full-service spa.

THE TOP OF LARGE CASINOS, IN VEGAS

The casino from Harrah’s is one of the largest to be found in the hotels in Las Vegas, with 80 playing tables, eight types of poker games and over 1,200 slot machines, a poker room and a non-stop Keno Parlor. Keno can also be played in the café located in the yard. From blackjack to slot machines, gambling addicts will find at Harrah’s all the games they want to play, as action is its middle name 24 hours a day. In addition, the offer at Harrah’s contains free instructions for the playing tables on a daily basis as such, boring moments are guaranteed to be missing for the players going to Harrah’s, be they advanced or rookie gamblers.

The new poker room from Harrah’s Las Vegas offers 10 playing tables, including Texas Hold’em and Omaha, and this is also the place to organize Texas Hold’em tours. The limits of the playing tables are variable and can be adapted to all players, regardless of their available budget. A poker game will be a special experience, as the tables are surrounded by modern artistic images, presenting some of the most famous champions of world poker tours.

FROM BACCARAT TO ROULETTE

Baccarat, a notorious game for many years in Monte Carlo and probably the simplest of the casino table games, also the easiest to learn and the most entertaining, is also available at Harrah’s, even in its Mini Baccarat version. Definitely the most popular and most played of the casino games, roulette has a distinct spot at Harrah’s and it can be played for ever growing stakes.

For slot machine lovers, Harrah’s offers the widest choice of the newest video and electronic games. The machines can be set for stakes ranging from 1 cent to $500 and can award winning of up to a few million dollars.

Furthermore, the casino is fitted with a room for race betting with 64 seats and 12 screens as well as with a room for sports bets with 100 seats and 14 screens. The room for sport bets also offers live gaming.

The players can choose between blackjack, dice, poker or keno and can watch their favorite teams competing.

The room features a fullservice bar that remains open even during late night hours. The scenery is new and contemporary. Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. is a private gaming company who owns and operates casinos, hotels and six golf courses, all under different brand names. As a matter of fact, the company seated in Las Vegas is the largest gaming company in the world, in 1973 being the first casino company to be listed at the New York Stock Exchange.

George Pintilei is the manager of the Vesuvius casino in Bra[ov. He started working in a casino as a mere joke, then it continued as a passion which has now turned into a virus for him.

HOW IS BUSINESS FOR CASINOS IN TIMES OF CRISIS?

The traffic has decreased notably and so have the results.

Paradoxically, new casinos are opening, which will surely lead to a downfall of the gambling market, already saturated.

WHICH ARE THE NOVELTIES BY WHICH YOU TRY TO MAKE YOUR CUSTOMERS LOYAL FOR THE FOLLOWING PERIOD?

We try to introduce as many tours, roulette, blackjack, texas, slot machines as possible. And all these not to increase the income, but for diversity. After all, casino is to be taken as such: a form of entertainment.

DO YOU THINK PEOPLE IN BRASOV ARE INTO GAMBLING?

A few years ago I thought that some countries were more passionate than other as to gambling the Turkish, the Israeli, the Greeks, the Chinese, etc. It proved to a misplaced observation; all people like to play, regardless of color or religion. It only depends on one’s financial power. Gambling, whether legal or not, can be a passion for some, a vice or relaxation for others.

WHAT IS THE SPECIFICITY OF VESUVIUS CASINO?

We try to maintain a warm, peaceful atmosphere. To have rather the image of a club, than a gaming parlor.

DON’T YOU THINK IT’S TIME ROMANIA ALSO HAD A SIGNIFICANT POKER TOUR?

The time for such a texas poker tour has come for long. We have hold’em players who, unfortunately, play abroad but while doing so they successfully represent our country in international competitions. The current legislation is also a problem as it is not in our favor.

Of course we would be happy to be able to organize such an event, and we wouldn’t be the only ones. I am convinced that the large casinos in Bucharest have already tried and come across the same problem. What can I tell you?! I hope time will settle this matter.

DO YOU HAVE FOREIGN CLIENTS, DO THEY STILL COME TO ROMANIA OR DO YOU ONLY HAVE DOMESTIC PLAYERS?

Foreign customers come in a proportion of 30%. The rest are Romanian.

WHEN AND HOW DID YOU START YOUR ACTIVITY IN GAMBLING INDUSTRY?

I started on January the 1st 1996 after a previous 3-month course in Brasov, in a small casino, actually a subsidiary of Bucuresti Berlin Casino. I started “low” and climbed up all the way to my current position. At first it was just a game, after which it became a passion and now it’s a virus. It’s a job that gets into your bloodstream. I know many people who quit and then took it up again. You need a serious charge of madness to practice this job.

ARE YOU KEEN ON GAMBLING OR ARE YOU SIMPLY DOING YOUR JOB?

I can’t say that I’m keen on it; everybody plays from the dealer to the inspector, the pit boss and all the way to the manager. Honestly, you can never understand a player if you have never been in his shoes.

WHAT ARE OUR PERSONAL PLANS OF ACHIEVEMENTS FOR THE FOLLOWING PERIOD?

I would like Vesuvius to be a real brand, a real name in world gambling and when people talk about Vesuvius to be clear that it’s not just the name of a famous volcano, but also of a famous casino from Romania.

WOULD YOU BE TEMPTED TO WORK FOR A CASINO ABROAD?

For the time being no, but anything is possible in the world of casinos.

WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST SUM THAT YOU’VE EVER WON IN A CASINO IN THE COURSE OF AN EVENING?

Not being a true gambler, I never actually calculated the winnings. But I can recall that my first salary as a dealer went down the drain we always remember the bad but not the good things.

DO YOU FIND CASINO MAGAZINE IMPORTANT FOR THE GAMBLING DOMAIN?

It’s more than important; it’s a necessity on the Romanian market.

12►

In the beginning there was Eva.

And then, her gaze retraced the outline of the casino… In red and black. Just like a fight between passion and the unknown, between chance and resignation, like fire in the night, like the circle of chance rolling on the edge of the roulette, like a battle between diamonds and clubs, in their spirals against the jackpot of the game. Eva is something of these all: a black dress, shining in embroided fluorescence, unraveling sensually the velvety line of her back, a restlessness of rest against the red armchair, a fusion with the constraint of the space, entangled in walls of light.

Eva is another beginning of your passion, player, of your adventure with the unknown, black burning into red, embers sparkling into the twilight. And, if before seeing her, your chance had been hanging between red and black, fortune will now spring out of their embrace. And you thus become, like her, a flare in the night.

Synot Holding, set up in 1990 as main business of the Czech family Valenta, has rapidly become a well-known brand at European level. We tried to learn straight from the source a few details related to the way in which this business is defined.

TELL US ABOUT THE RISE AND DEVELOPMENT OF YOUR BUSINESS

Synot Holding was founded by the Valenta family in 1990, the name of the company Synot being formed by adjoining two abridged words, the sons and the father. Since then, Synot has become one of the largest companies in the gambling industry in the Czech Republic. It is worth mentioning that the owners of Synot Holding have never changed their business philosophy.

WHAT IS THE INTERNATIONAL COVERAGE OF SYNOT HOLDING?

We are active in four European countries Slovakia, Ukraine, Poland and Latvia. However, our products can be seen in many other countries where we only sell our products to our business partners.

DO YOU CONSIDER OPENING A SUBSIDIARY HERE IN ROMANIA?

Normally, any company as big as ours should seek new business opportunities since this is the only way to survive on the current global market. Romania is one of the countries with great business potential and opportunities in terms of gambling industry. Still, our business model is based on the creation of joint ventures on new markets, rather than on opening our own subsidiaries. As such, we have recently started to cooperate with certain Romanian operators who seem extremely interested in the distribution and operation of our products in Romania.

However, some historians claim that the roulette was invented in China, even though there is no real proof to support this. Still, the respective researchers say that when the Dominican friars came to Europe for trade business, they also brought along this game system.

The roulette is the only gamble which has remained virtually unchanged throughout the years. The origins of the “small wheel”, as the French call it, remain unclear. Such a device seems to have existed as early as the 17th century in America, in obscure gaming parlors.

Royal support

Nonetheless, in official terms, the first references of the new game appear in 18th century France. The device was supposedly created by the French mathematician Blaise Pascal for purely scientific purposes, is in the attempt to generate a perpetuum mobile. By 1840, the roulette wheel had received all the numbers that we see today, except for position “zero”, and the red and black markings were only added towards the end of the century. The Blanc brothers, Francois and Louis, those who also opened the first casinos in Monte Carlo, added afterwards a “0”, making the device one of the most popular gambles ever. Nevertheless, the device was severely opposed by the Church, institution which does not accept gambling at all. But the roulette, before anything else, was considered to be the “devil’s instrument” because, if added one to the other, all the numbers on it result in the number 666. The first references about the game of Roulette, as we know it today, were found in the French tale “La Roulette, ou le Jour” by J. Lablee.

This describes a roulette wheel from Palais Royal from the Paris of 1796, including the interior of the house and the aspect of the device. Prince Charles de Monaco considered the Roulette and gambling in general as a way of pulling out of the economic crisis and thus encouraged the game to become popular.

The Americans are on the side of the house

At the beginning of the 1800s, the Roulette game officially made its way to the US, taken there by the Europeans driven by the “gold rush”. Overseas, a double zero “00” -was introduced in order to increase the advantage of the house, to the disfavor of the player, to 5.26% as opposed to the European roulette which, having a single 0, offers the house an advantage of only 2.70%. In some early versions of the game, in 1866 America as one can see in Hoyle’s gambling book there were numbers only between 1 and 28 plus a single 0, a double zero and an American Eagle. According to Hoyle, “0”, “00” and the American Eagle are never bars; but when the ball falls into either of them, the bank takes everything, except for the bets placed on either one of them, for which it pays 27 to 1, sum paid for all bets placed on a single figure. Eventually, it seems that the Roulette wheel is a combination between the English RolyPoly, Reiner, Ace of Hearts, and E.O. games, the Italian table games Hoca and Biribi and, obviously, the old French Roulette. The Roulette wheel features small pockets marked from 1 to 36, alternating the colors red and black. The positions “0” and “00” are marked in green.

Players can place a selection of “inside” bets (numbers, range of pockets, columns) and “outside” bets (including bets on the color or on “odd” or “even” numbers).

From normal roulette to… Russian roulette

And since we are talking about Roulette, we can’t help mentioning the fact that the fatal game known as the “Russian roulette” was invented in Romania.

The first reference regarding this “game” appears in 1937, being a record of a Russian sergeant in the Foreign Legion which stated that the soldiers of the Russian army sat for the first time at a table with the gun loaded with a single bullet while they were seated in Romania, during the First World War.

The Romanian Toni Judet won the jackpot at Casinos Austria Poker Tour (CAPT), second tour, recently ended in Bregenz

Judet managed to place first after two days of competition, clearly surpassing his counter-candidates and adding to his record a prize worth over 110,000 Euros.

The second tour of Texas Hold’em No Limit, with prizes adding up to 423,700 Euros, reunited for the start line on February 28th over 223 participants out of whom, after the first day, only 33 were left on the barricades. Judet occupied position 14 after the first day of participation, with 63,400 chips, the first position belonging to the Panamese Jose Severino. The second day brought better odds to Judet who defeated his opponents successively, reaching the first position, followed by the German players Andreas Krause (76,260 Euros) and Sebastian Homann (55,080 Euros).

On the start line of the second tour of Casinos Austria Poker Tour there was another Romanian, Alin Pandilica, him too remaining in the competition for both days but not managing to place better than 22nd with a prize worth 2,330 Euros. Pandilica thus lost two positions, placing 20th after the first day of competition, with 48,900 chips.

THE CASINOS AUSTRIA POKER TOUR MARATHON

Casinos Austria Poker Tour is a tour for professionals, a marathon covering six weeks of tour progress, held in seven casinos in Austria. The main event of each stage is a Texas Hold’em No Limit tour with a 2,000 Euros buy-in. The climax of the CAPT 2009 is the edition number 20 of the European Poker Tour which will be held between the 4th and the 11th of October at Grand Casino Baden. The anticipated prize is worth 5 million Euros.

But until then, the nest sage of the competition Casinos Austria Poker Tour 2009 (CAPT) will be held in the period 1st-5th of April, this time in Salzburg. The total prizes put at stake at Casino Salzburg in Klessheim Palace will add up to 500,000 Euros.

FROM “BALLS” TO “CARDS” IS ONLY… ONE TABLE AWAY

Famous in Romania as the undisputed champion of a sport less known, that is snooker, Toni Judet by his real name Antoanel Judet (30 years old) is Romania’s “ball” champion. His new passion, lately, is poker which he plays, as proven, at the highest standards. After snooker, Judet also became famous in the world of international poker last year when, next to another Romanian poker player, Daniel Negreanu, he obtained promising results in the greatest Texas Hold’em poker world competition World Series of Poker 2008. Judet was then the last Romanian to be eliminated, occupying an honorable position 22. The sum he won following the performance at WSOP 2008 added up to over $250,000, and the cash-in was in amount of $10,000.

Toni Judet thus joins the category of Romanians become famous for their international poker performances. The best known Romanian in this category is Daniel Negreanu, born in Canada to a family of Romanians and established for many years in the US. Negreanu is already a star in world poker and it seems that soon even more Romanians will take on to his footsteps, namely Toni Judet, Cristian Dragomir or, why not, even Alin Pandilica.