 What Happens in London Stays in London
Many U.K. casino operators hope that the recently relaxed gambling laws (and hipper places to gamble) will usher in a new era of prosperity. By Gregory Katz
IT IS HARD NOT TO NOTICE the persistent smile on Salvatore Calabrese’s face. Sure, it’s part of his job to look happy, but he is also enjoying a thrill few cocktail makers ever achieve: welcoming people to Salvatore at Fifty, an extravagantly beautiful bar that bears his name and all the hallmarks of his taste. Calabrese, one of London’s bestknown barmen, helped with the design, the colors, the fabrics, and the bar staff. The cocktail list contains some of his own special concoctions, including his signature drink, the Breakfast Martini, and a new one called the Spicy Fifty. But most importantly, the bar named after him has a definite buzz on this Friday evening as night falls in the British capital. The bar is filling up, people look happy and excited, and no one crowd or age group is dominating.
“It’s chic, it’s elegant, it’s fun,” says Calabrese after greeting two beautifully dressed women who are drinking Champagne here before going to dinner at a restaurant that is also part of the Fifty St. James casino complex. “And that’s what makes a great bar. The young and the old get along, and the mood varies throughout the evening, and it becomes a great party. This is my dream bar. It’s the perfect playground for adults.”
It’s also lucrative. Located in the heart of the posh St. James district, the membersonly club known to its regulars as Fifty is helping to revitalize the casino business in London and throughout the rest of the United Kingdom by making casinos fashionable again. Its goal is to offer a great nightclub, good restaurants, a fantastic bar — and a gaming room, for those who want to use it. This approach has been repeated at other new casinos open to the general public, including the Casino at the Empire, which has brought stylish gambling to crowded Leicester Square, London’s version of Times Square.
Now open to visitors from all over the world, who can simply walk in and gamble with proper identification, the Casino at the Empire has brought a whole new element of cool to Leicester Square, which is already home to outsized movie palaces and crowded nightclubs. On Saturday nights the casino floor is jam-packed, Vegas-style, with waitresses scurrying to deliver drinks, while gamblers in everything from tuxedos to ragged jeans concentrate on the game ahead. Some of the women are dolled up in evening gowns, others prefer tight jeans and sparkly tops. The wildly mixed crowd reflects London’s status as a global tourist magnet – Americans, Chinese, Koreans, Russians, and Eastern Europeans keep the conversation going in a multitude of languages. The casino is dotted with small restaurants and bars and hideaways and even has one — the Icon bar — with an outdoor terrace overlooking the pandemonium of Leicester Square from above. It’s heavenly on a late summer evening when the sun fades at nine or 10 at night, and fun in winter if you’re bundled up.
The new casinos have given a welcome boost to the nightlife scene in Britain’s major cities, says Craig Doyle, group operations director of Maxwell’s Restaurants Group, which manages a number of eateries. He says places like Fifty and the Casino at the Empire are making casinos cool.
“Fifty sets the precedent really; it’s the top of the pile. But I also think the Empire is very good for Leicester Square,” he says. “They are certainly bringing an element of quality to our business.”
He cited a recent night when actors Pierce Brosnan, Anthony Hopkins, and Dennis Hopper were all seen at Fifty as proof that casinos are back in style. Fifty has also been used for fund-raising events that have drawn stars like Elton John and Kevin Spacey and former models Claudia Schiffer and Elle Macpherson. The resurgence of these venues also got quite a lift from the recent James Bond movie, Casino Royale, which was set in an impossibly glamorous fictional casino and featured a racy romance between Daniel Craig, playing the new 007, and Eva Green.
The large investments in London’s gaming houses and the concerted effort to attract a new crowd are largely the result of an important loosening of Britain’s casino laws that went into effect in September. For decades, Britain’s relatively few casinos have been hidden away, hard to locate, and diffi- cult to use, in part because of strict gaming laws that have made it impossible for casinos to advertise freely — how do you draw tourists and casual gamblers if you can’t tell them where you are located and when you are open? — and also due to strict rules that required gamblers to become members of the casinos before they could try their luck at blackjack, roulette, and slot machines. Those regulations meant would-be gamblers could not simply walk into a casino and start playing.
But all of that changed this past fall, when the new Gambling Act eased many of those restrictions, including the prohibition on television advertising and other strictures that have kept London casinos out of the limelight. The liberalization of Britain’s gaming laws is drawing fresh investment — and international casino giants — to London, Manchester, and other major cities, where fancy casinos are sprouting to take advantage of what is expected to be a highly profitable era for casino operators. Casinos also can be found in many smaller cities throughout Britain, giving people who visit the countryside a chance to enjoy a night of gambling as well. For the first time, visitors from America and other countries who have proper identification are able to walk right into most casinos without the timeconsuming process of becoming a member. British casinos are finally able to compete with those in Las Vegas, Macao, France, and other parts of the world.
“The new Gambling Act is a real sea change,” says Bill Timmins, former chief executive officer of London Clubs International, which operates a number of casinos, including Fifty, the Casino at the Empire, and the new Manchester235(CQ) in Manchester. “There have been 40 years of restrictions, and those are going away. We’ll be able to advertise in print, on radio, on TV. At this point, only three percent of the British population actually gambles at a casino, but we think that will go to double digits in the next few years.”
In anticipation, the company — one of the largest casino operators in Britain — has been drawing some inspiration from Las Vegas, where nongaming revenue now surpasses money made directly from gambling, and is building casinos that are more than just casinos. Its urban designers can’t match the wide-open spaces of Las Vegas, where giant casino hotels can have pools, health spas, and other attractions. But the goal is the same: to attract people who aren’t necessarily interested in gambling but who want to try the bar, the nightclub, and the restaurant. Food and drink prices are kept at a reasonable level so that the cost of an evening out isn’t prohibitive. No one is pressured to gamble, so it is easy for the curious to co
me, have a meal, dance a bit, and go home or back to their hotel without risking their money. The strategy seems to be working so far at the Casino at the Empire in Leicester Square. The venue is designed to capitalize on the intense foot traffic in the heavily visited environs of central London. And Timmins says it is drawing far more patrons than expected in its first few months of operation.
Few cities in the world can match the variety of London’s nightlife — the dozens of theaters, both large and small; the hundreds of clubs offering virtually every type of live music known to man; and the top-ofthe- line symphony, ballet, and opera companies that call the city home. Now, after a period of some decline, imaginative and fun casinos are throwing open their doors, adding still more to the mix that gives London its around-the-clock glow.
GREGORY KATZ is a contributing editor to American Way. His work has also appeared in Esquire and GQ.
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