Talking to Simina Rosca! Super Jackpot … or the road from “Live” to “Slot”
➤ Who is Simina Rosca? How did you get started?
I’m 31, I’m single.
I can say that I have been in this field since I was born, my parents worked in the field and I grew up amongst gambling.
I started in 2009 as an employee of one of the current Super Jackpot associates, Mr. Ioan Anghelina. Of course I had to take it from the beginning, I was an operator, ward, supervisor, and then manager. I took a 1 year break when I worked at BCR but I couldn’t stay away from the gambling field so in 2015 I returned as Super Jackpot administrator.
I am happy that in five years I managed to develop the Super Jackpot business, started with 80 machines and now I have reached over 300, but that was not the hardest! The real challenge was organizing the way we work, setting a standard for all locations, finding and training staff. I had to learn law, accounting, marketing, IT and most of all, make others understand that they have to work as a team. We now have a strong team and I am confident that great things await us.
➤ Okay, so who is the Super Jackpot?
The Super Jackpot was set up in 2003, but the story is older.
The main associate of the company, Mr. Calin Florea, is one of the veterans of gambling in our area. When he asked me to take over the Super Jackpot administration, I was impressed by his background and accepted without hesitation. It was a challenge that could not be denied, it was much more than what we had done until then, it was about Casino Live, famous gaming venues in Timișoara, collaboration with important producers and operators in both local and international gambling.
The story started with Casino Live … in Oradea in 1994, more precisely at International – Baile Felix, here was created the team that later defined the style, it was a process of continuous learning and improvement … from the best ones from the field.
Later the business expanded to Hotel Melody – Cluj Napoca, Casino Tiberius – Timisoara, to Hotel Timisoara after which the casino moved to a location with the greatest historical and tourist impact – Bastion. Casino Bastion has long been a “Land Mark” for the city until local authorities considered that a casino could not be part of a cultural and historical settlement. We had to move and so we arrived in Cluj Napoca at Chios Casino, but the decline had already started, it didn’t last long and we were forced to close.
➤ What happened… why did you have to close?
It was the years immediately following the ordinance 77 that brought many changes in the field of gambling, most of the changes are auspicious but related to the casino activity, especially for those in the province, the conditions were not the happiest. We might have been able to cope if instead of at least 10 gaming tables we had 6 tables and if the live casino license included slot machines. I cannot help but be nostalgic if I think about what the casino represented in the 1940s, because now we are witnessing the decline of live casinos whose number has reduced year by year, you see, in the last years there was no functional casino left outside the capital. It is something that the “Lawyer” did not understand …. you can not equate a city of less than 400,000 inhabitants to 80% of Bucharest with over 2,000,000 inhabitants, if we refer to the minimum number of gaming tables, even if the taxes authorization are reduced to 50% you do not have enough clients to work with all the tables, you help with the slots but for this you must have a slot machine license and again you have a problem … at least 75 devices! I do not want to accuse any “Legislature”, but if we think that all branches of gambling originate in “Live Casino”, it seems to me that something is not right now that we have over 72,000 authorized slot machines , 11,000 sports betting agencies, 22 online casinos and … only 6 casinos … all in Bucharest and maybe one in the province, in Craiova, if it still works.
Moreover, games that were once emblematic of the casino have become commonplace in gambling halls and even sports betting agencies or clubs, and here I mean roulette, poker and even blackjack.
I wish we could change something, or at least sensitize the authorities to turn their attention to the casinos in the province because they would have sinned so many buildings with casino titles that are degrading and are not used to bring more benefits economy and local tourism. Here I refer not only to the casino buildings in Constanta, Sinaia, Vatra Dornei, Herculane, Mamaia, Arad, but many more.
I would like the license for the Live Casino activity to include the licenses for the slot machine, poker, bingo because as I said all are drawn from live and this activity should represent the maximum level of this field. Think about what it would mean for a small town, such as Vatra Dornei or Herculane, a resort that encompasses all these activities. It would mean hundreds of jobs and horizontal business … restaurants, accommodation, transportation, shows … I know! … all of these will develop over time but if there is no understanding and legislative help they cannot begin.
➤ OK, what is Super Jackpot doing now?
Like all the old operators in the Romanian gambling industry and we had to adapt to the legislative and technological reality or mentality of today.
Currently we are organizers of slot machines, we have 65 rooms and agencies open in the western part of the country, the flagship is the hall “Super Jackpot Club” in the center of Timisoara, but that does not mean that the others are closer.
We offer all services related to gambling, slot machine, roulette, sports betting, even lottery and of course various jackpots, raffles, happy hour and surprise prizes.
First of all, we are interested in offering our clients the best in the field and we are very careful to create a pleasant atmosphere because gambling does not only mean winning but also socializing and a pleasant way to spend leisure time. You can come and drink good coffee, listen to music or watch a football game, meet new people who have relatively the same concerns, don’t forget we come from “Live Casino” and there “public relations” means everything, and with the help of Cantemir Horj, our PR, I think we can thank everyone.
The game market is volatile and constantly changing, new games appear, the mindsets change and that is why we are constantly connected with new developments in the field and we have learned that we have to be flexible enough to face the competition in the field.
Talking to Simina Rosca!
➤ What is the structure of the games?
Super Jackpot from the beginning was a brand that had the courage to try new games even if they were not known in Romania. We took a risk, but our customers have always known that we can try the latest game models.
The main producers are Novomatic and EGT, but we are not limited to this, we have Casino Technology, Merkur, IGT or Kajot. Over time we have had devices from Aristocrat, Bally, Abaco, Alpha Street, Impera, APEX, Atronic, Nova Desitec and many others and for the future we are already in talks with Scientific Games, Gambee, Fox Group. We attend constant exhibitions in the country and abroad to keep up to date with the latest news.
As for sports betting, the main contributor is GS Bet, but we also have collaborations with Tip&- Cash, Power Bet or Armin Bet. In the last two years we have become GO Bet partners, we have a few agencies open with them and things are going well.
➤ What monitoring system do you use?
We work with Unigens, we have collaborated and developed the system together, it is beneficial for both new companies and those from Unigens to have gained from the experience of each in the field.
We always keep in touch with them and when we have new ideas for jackpots, raffles, happy hour or various performance reports we find at our partners all available to solve our requests.
➤ Simina Rosca tell me, please, about the organizers’ party from Timis.
The idea for this party came to us at the Entertainment Arena Expo in September 2019.
I am proud that, together with the local organizers in Timisoara, we managed to set
aside the competition or the disputes and organized the first meeting of the organizers in Timis, an event to which we invited the producers and distributors of gambling equipment from Romania. It was a memorable evening that I think has left a beautiful memory for everyone present and will surely be repeated, I hope, year after year.
I want to believe that if the “responsible game” initiative, which we support, is important for our clients then it would be good to set up a “responsible organizer” initiative that promotes a good practice ethic in the field, to find a common denominator to get more involved in social issues, to be promoters of culture, to organize gales and events to reward valuable children, to award scholarships and much more. I know it’s hard … but together, with patience and wisdom we will succeed.
Talking to Simina Rosca!
➤ Where do you see yourself in 5 years, Simina Rosca?
For the future I have high expectations, this segment will grow constantly and I want to change first of all the reluctance with which we are viewed by the organizers – unfairly I say given the latest ONJN report where the 99% tax collection degree is stipulated, I do not think there is an area with such a degree of collection. I want to become more organized, more professional and more involved in the social life of the city we belong to. I want to find a way to train and train our staff, organize training courses for employees and more.
I also want a better collaboration with the manufacturers and distributors of gaming equipment, I would love to have more freedom in establishing our own management of the devices, we can opt for higher or lower payment percentages, of course within reasonable limits of 2-4%. At the moment, whether you are a slot machine organizer in a betting agency in a village or you organize in a room with 50 machines in Bucharest you have the same percentage payment options from the producers or distributors.
Personally over 5 years I see myself in the same field, I have more to do, a lot to learn and I hope to face the new challenges in the field and contribute as much as possible to the development of the company.
➤Simina Rosca, we thank you and wish you much success!
Talking to Simina Rosca!
