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by: Robert Doiron
The man behind Club World Casino speaks with Robert Doiron
What's your official title with Club World Casino?
Founder and CEO, a company which has been around for 2-years.
What are some of the most challenging aspects of operating an online casino?
Ensuring that all the players are always happy, really... Everyday brings a new problem, but above all else, just keeping all of the players happy is priority.
What previous job/line-out-work were you involved with prior to founding Club World Casino?
I was and still am a director of a number of public and private companies. One of the most interesting was when I was asked to join a particular company - which was the UK's largest cosmetic surgery company - and my brief was either to sell or float it on the Stock Exchange. I eventually sold the company in October, 2003 for something like $50 million, (laughing) to which I only had a small percentage of the shares.
What were the reasons for Club World Casinos selecting RTG as your software provider? What are the advantages of going with RTG?
They have great technology, the games are great, and the people that they have running that business are very responsive, certainly to my needs.
Without question, there are a number of quality RTG casinos, but what's your take on some on some of the negative views that people have towards some of their casinos?
I think this goes back to basically 3-years ago when there were a number of... shall we say, not quite whiter-than-white casinos. But to their credit, RTG have cleaned out the cupboard. There will be people who will say, "Well there are a number of RTG casinos, a small number, which are giving RTG a bad name." But, they've cleaned-up their act an awful lot, and RTG have ensured that. As far as the issue with regard to setting up a new player dispute resolution system goes, I have been assured by Hastings that this will be in place shortly. I am a staunch advocate of having a system in place, as I believe this is important for both the player and the operator.
It's not as though other software providers don't have their share of weak casinos either.
Absolutely, there always something negative said about each of them. From my experience, RTG has been unlucky in terms of bad publicity (3 years ago), and perhaps a number of those casinos with various software groups know that they haven't treated them quite rightly in every instance. There's always two-sides to a story.
What are the advantages of going with RTG, as opposed to a casino powered by Microgaming, PlayTech, or a Cryptologic?
Well I think that the quality of the games are great, and to me as an operator, the service I get is first class. I'm very excited about some of the newer games, and it's probably good to know that we're having an upgrade to our casino and there's new graphics and a whole new look to the casino. It really is terrific what RTG has done, and they've got great plans for the future. We have a flash version as well as the full download version.
Did selecting a software provider that will still deal with a U.S. market play a role with your decision to go with RTG?
That had no bearing on the decision to go with RTG, none whatsoever.
Do you think - going to be the polls - that once a majority Democratic Party is back in place, that there'll be a chance that the U.S. market will open up again?
Maybe. These people really have to be realistic about all of this. If they really are going to clamp down on all of this, a lot of those unscrupulous operators are going to get away with murder. The only way to go in this business is to regulate without question of a doubt. Ultimately, I believe they're going to regulate the industry, and quite rightly so. I mean, the U.K. is going to be regulating it next year, and every European country will follow suit, I'm sure.
Do you think that the U.K. has a monopoly on the market?
I think that the U.K. would like to have a monopoly on the market, and if they get their taxation and regulation right in this industry, then maybe they will turn out to be the world leaders in online gaming.
I've been an online player for a good number of years, and to be honest, I've always wondered what it's like inside the headquarters of these operations. With as much detail as possible, what does the set-up of your company look like? Is it a large building from which you operate from? How many people work for the company?
Well, we have around about 5,000 square feet of office space. We have a shift system and we currently have over 25 people. We obviously do all of our customer support from there, as well as all of our online marketing from that office.
What's the minimum amount of people that you'll have working at any given time for online support?
We have four people, which would consist of a shift leader and then the customer support. Being that we are a small company, even the shift leader is on customer support throughout the shift. Obviously he'll answer any difficult problems that any of the regular customer support staff may not be able to answer, and of course we have a casino manager.
What kind of short-term as well as long-term goals and projections are you hoping to achieve with Club World Casinos?
I want to be recognized as the leading entertainment brand in the industry. "Club World Casino" should be as recognizable as "888.com." I think what we have achieved in the short-term is probably the best customer support in the world in online gaming. I really put a lot of emphasis into training. We are currently being recognized as building a good reputation, and for being one of the most reliable, honest and fair casinos. That means not only paying-out when they win, but paying-out in a relatively short period. We try and pay everybody out in 48-hours or less.
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