Duncan Savage, Managing Director, Double Diamond chats to Lyudmyla Kyrychenko
For once there is a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, if you mean Rainbow Casino Birmingham. The historic property had a long and convoluted history on the way to becoming the pleasure palace of today. It was built in 1859 as the home of a wealthy businessman who evidently never took up residence, for it soon became a gentleman’s club. In 1889 it was converted to the Grey Friars Hotel. A period of decline followed when it changed hands to become a workers’ hostel for British Rail.
Rescue arrived in 1962 in the form of the Morrell family, who purchased the house/hotel/hostelry, built an extension onto the back and opened it as the premier Rainbow Casino. The property was renovated again when it was purchased by Double Diamond Gaming., who turned it into the gambling palace that visitors now enjoy.
Under Double Diamond’s aegis, it became the flagship of a casino fleet that stretches from Aberdeen to Bristol. Open to members and non-members alike, Rainbow Casino Birmingham has all the latest amenities, including an outdoor gambling area where punters can still enjoy their fruit machines while smoking.
Managing Director Duncan Savage has said of Rainbow Casino Birmingham pre-Double Diamond, “When we took it over it was old and tired and losing money. It is now a successful casino and makes a significant contribution to the group.” Not having spoken with Savage in several years, we decided to have a look-in and see how colorful the Rainbow is today.
I found my visit most enjoyable to the Rainbow Casino Birmingham and would like to thank Allan Griffiths for the kind hospitality provided to me during my visit to the Casino.
You are very welcome; we are always happy to welcome people to our casinos.
The Rainbow Casino Birmingham has unique building for a Casino in the UK and it’s that appearance that gives it a special kind of unique appeal.
The building is quite iconic and very well known in the area. It was built in 1859 and was originally built for a local business man as his residence. It has been a hotel and hostel for railway workers in the past. It became the Rainbow Casino 1962 and was in the hands of a local family until we bought it in 2010.
How has the Casino Group coped with the challenges of the pandemic?
The pandemic has been tough for all of us, apart from a few weeks in September and October last year, we have had no revenue for 15 months and had to place all the staff on furlough. Since re opening we have limited our opening hours, reducing operating hours from 24 hours to 16 hours every day. Whilst recovery levels have been positive, attitudes have undoubtably changed and some regular players have not returned. It will take probably well into 2022 before we see business at pre covid levels.
How any employees do you have at the Casino and are many from mainland Europe?
We currently have approx 260 staff, some of which come from Europe, however many of the European staff went home partly due to Covid and partly due to Brexit and quite a lot have not returned.
What’s new at the Rainbow Casinos 2021 and what are amongst plans for the year ahead?
The main focus for us has been to drive the business back to pre-covid levels, largely through internal and external marketing programmes.
How many tables and slot machines does the Rainbow Casino have in at the Bristol Birmingham and Aberdeen Casinos?
As a converted ‘68 licence we are only allowed up to 20 slot machines and we operate the Maximum amount at each of our sites. Prior to the lockdowns we had experienced a growth in slot play across all sites and hopefully we will see an increase in the number of slot machines allowed as part of the gambling act review which is currently being considered by the Government.
Can you provide readers and insight into the food & beverages the Casinos provide patrons?
We keep our menus quite simple, prior to lockdown we experienced a big increase in our Customers opting for food from our snack menus, with burgers and pizzas proving very popular. In Our experience players these days customers are looking more for value and something quicker Rather than a fine dining experience.
As the UK opens up again can you provide an insight into your promotions and incentives programme underway at the Casinos?
We try to use a wide variety of different forms of marketing, externally we use local radio, Billboards and backs of buses. That said social media and digital marketing play a much bigger part these days, we have certainly experienced a significant increase in traffic to those sites. Internally we rely mainly on match play and free bet vouchers.
Have you ever been to Ukraine, as I think you would really like Cities such as Kyiv and as you know we now have Casinos and for those of our readers whom are looking to visit the have you a message for them?
I have not visited the Ukraine but it always interesting to see different operations.
Thank you for taking time from your busy schedule for this interview.
