foreign ERS and welcome to the latest episode of the GI huddle I'm with Michael silberling CEO of Metropolitan gaming Michael thank you very much for joining us ah thank you for having me pleasure to be here yeah it's it's good good to speak to someone uh actually for a change also in London um because you know uh obviously a lot of land based in in us a lot of developments in Asia but um obviously you're with Metropolitan gaming and I wanted to start off by just giving you a chance to maybe introduce what you do at the company and walk us through your journey with the the organization so far yeah so uh look I've been with Metropolitan gaming since uh 2021. uh We've certainly been busy uh so far we've bought casinos we've sold casinos we refurbished uh casinos we we sold our South African uh business to uh to a South African uh purchaser um and I think that business will be better suited with that with with a local owner we've bought a casino in Mayfair we bought the Park Lane uh Casino uh which we were very excited about we refurbished our our business in in Mayfair uh the former Playboy club is now the Metropolitan uh Mayfair which I think is uh with some bias uh is the is the nicest certainly the newest casino in uh in in Mayfair we're rolling out a new uh brand we have a new loyalty program we have a new app uh last month we started a new online business we have uh strength in the management teams we've certainly been busy in my uh time here absolutely yeah that definitely sounds like a lot of a lot of developments um the the online uh launch is something we'll definitely get into and and speak about um a question I'm very keen to ask and interested in the answer is your personal experience you were with with Caesars in Nevada so you've kind of you've you've seen Las Vegas and and now the the London Casino side I'm sure it's very different in in you know in their own ways how did the the experiences of of kind of being at sea level executive level in Vegas and London have they compare yeah I mean if you don't mind I'll Meander but I'll get I'll get Australia I've worked in New Zealand Canada Africa South America Asia Middle East UK I've worked in the U.S Vegas certainly uh as well as other jurisdictions uh in in the US as well I work for public companies private companies I've worked for the government I've worked for uh family a business and and and I try to take a little bit from from each one um both the good that I like and you know what I what I dislike is as well so you know in in Vegas and in Nevada that business is so intertwined with the states economics the state is pro Employment Pro capital investment Pro tax generation Pro tourism um and they certainly have a regulatory environment to keep uh the gaming environment safe uh for people and and to keep uh you know folks if they don't want uh in the business with unsavory backgrounds out but it's a very Pro business uh um environment in which you get these very large uh developments that have the entertainment and the restaurants and the shopping and the spas and the golf clubs and and all the rest um I find the UK gaming environment to be very different uh in terms of the online not the online the bricks and mortar casino business is only allowed in permitted areas and there's significant restrictions in those permitted areas notably only 20 machines so I find it very counter-intuitive that anybody with a mobile device in the UK be it a phone or an iPad what not computer uh can can wager you know they can go online they could be in a schoolyard they could be in a church Pew um and and they could go online and wager and yet the UK government wants and uh uh land-based casino to only have 20 machines um someone could gamble 50 000 pounds on a spin of a roulette wheel but I'm limited to a few pounds so spin on on a slot machine so you know to say that they want to limit wagering would be one policy decision and yet anyone with a mobile device can wager anywhere anytime and yet in a land-based casino where we have people at the door to make sure people aren't underage to make sure they're not drunk and monitors people Behavior to see if they're you know muttering or unhappy about their their wagering activity in in this area which is is the safest place for a UK citizen to wager we have all these restrictions and these restrictions inhibit what I think should be public policy goals which should be maximizing employment maximizing Capital spend maximizing tax income for the government encouraging tourism once again in an environment which has controls to make sure customers are are safe and unsavory elements uh stay out so I I find that you K environment to be slightly counterintuitive and I haven't even gotten into the affordability right I can go into a Savile Row and buy a suit and they don't ask me if I can afford it my daughter uh who has my credit card can go into a nightclub and spend you know she's 22 she can spend money on a bottle of champagne at a table and no one asks her if she can afford it and yet recently when I spent less money than a Sava Rose suits or less money than a bottle of champagne I tried to place a wager uh for the Las Vegas Knights to win the ice hockey Stanley Cup and I was confronted with a series of onerous uh you know questions about my ability to afford what is illegal activity so yeah that's my take on on Las Vegas versus uh the UK yeah I mean I I can totally see why why that that stands out to you coming from as you say you know that pro pro business pro gaming culture in Vegas I'm given everything that you've said there about about the as we know is a tightly regulated market in the UK uh as someone who's front and center in the industry how would you describe how kind of UK casinos and the land-based sector in general is is performing right now yeah look uh you know the only way is up they were closed during the uh the the pandemic So Not only was there no Revenue but people generally had some uh costs to maintain their facilities and and and staff so most people were in their negative uh position so you know I think that we've seen significant year-over-year growth from all the um land-based Casino companies coming out of that I think we'd like to get back to and exceed pre-pandemic pre-covered levels quicker there's been a number of macroeconomic headwinds you know I think that we've had uh what three prime ministers two uh monarchs uh um the largest European War since World War II driving uh inflation and Factor costs of Labor and food and and energy uh up and certainly impacting people's disposable uh income uh at homes as well so you know we're pleased that we're getting year-over-year growth coming out of the uh academic but we certainly would like to see you know stronger Revenue growth and and less pressure on the on on on the cost side so it's uh it's hard work but but we're pleased with the progress that we're making uh something that was was obviously quite newsworthy when it came out the the gambling white paper and and I commented at the time that was something where I could actually when I came home I could have said to people oh my industry was actually on on the BBC today kind of mainstream news um which which isn't often the case and unless it's for you know other reasons but um overall you you we've talked about kind of uh macroeconomic headwinds and Regulatory pressure but has the white paper's recommendations you know at least in the long-term benefit the land-based sector because for example you mentioned the restrictions of 20 machines obviously one of the things put forward was was for that to be increased so you know all this are there some things you can hopefully look forward to um off the base of the back of these recommendations yeah look I I don't want to uh uh chickens before they're um and they're still in and I hope I don't get the technical term wrong but they're still in consultation with uh with their the recommendations and findings that they've come out with I'm hoping it'll be a win for uh consumers you know I'm hoping that they get more uh machine uh choices uh you know I'm hoping that we get more vendors uh in addition to IGT and Nova Matic entering uh the the the the market um I hope the random number of generator the RNG uh gets approved right now in order to have an electronic table game I have to have uh physical gaming device so for example roulette wheel with a real ball is needed to have an electronic roulette game and that's more challenging with Blackjack and baccarat to have a real uh card so the random generator would once again in terms of more consumer choices give them the ability to play uh blackjack typically on electronic table game we can offer lower limits uh to uh to to to customers so that would give them not only choice of a new electronic table game but would also give them flexibility in the amount that they uh wager um cashless you know once again I don't know why that's a a debate I don't carry cash anymore whether you know it's my morning uh coffee or uh you know I'm putting uh you know money to my to my trainer everything goes through my phone uh these days I I literally don't carry cash and yet we have these archaic rules around the use of cash in in a casino so I hope cashless uh comes through as well there's discussions on uh credit you know once again as a matter of public policy you would want High net worth individuals from foreign countries coming in um and spending money um and wagering in your uh in your country and yet our inability to offer credit uh whereas other worldwide jurisdictions do and these customers you know some people call them whales but there's customers below the whale level as well that you would want to come in and and wager they don't carry bags of cash with them to to wager 20 000 pounds I don't you know you can't even bring 20 000 pounds into the country so it's a matter of of policy I'm hoping we can give these high net worth individuals from other countries credit uh as as well it would be only to the benefit of that uh tax income of of of of the UK certainly commercially advantageous for us and would allow people to come here that might not come here because of um they have the ability to go to any country in the world and they might not come here based on that so look I'm I'm optimistic uh on some of the um of the things that have been just discuss but we need to see how they translate additional machines it's funny to me that I'm excited to go from 20 to 80 when I've run facilities that have had thousands of slot machines but nonetheless 80 is uh is better than that than than 20. um and the rules around random generator uh cashless credit I think are all positive and and I hope they come through in a in a manner that's not too restrictive um for more customer choice and flexibility you mentioned the the online the app launch uh earlier um that was an exclusive story on the gambling inside a website um obviously I'm not going to ask you why have you done that because I think the it it's rather obvious but but why particularly now and and why in in kind of the what's the strategy behind how you've done it as well you know you've partnered with a spy Global can you can you tell us you know a little bit about the the process and the decision making and that kind of thing you look I mean when you say why now I would have done it sooner if I if if I could took a while to put everything uh together we were the largest uh land-based Casino company that did not have an online offering we had a large database of customers that evidence empirical evidence shows our wagering online but they're not wagering um with us so it seems to be pretty self-evident to try to keep them in the in the the family um in in terms of of partnering with anybody um you know the the ability for us to generate our own technology and our own infrastructure um I think is uh that would have been a challenge for us so you know we certainly came to the opinion that having a partner was the right way to go and then in terms of uh using Aspire as a partner they're a global well-established business with a strong track record in regulated UK Market we were happy with their content um and you know I think that they just had a great partnership approach to working with us in our land-based uh in environment so um you know it was a a little bit of de-risking um the the environment to partner with someone rather than doing it all um ourselves but we've been very pleased with how it's gone so far we've got live roulette up at our Empire Casino we've got live roulette up at our Manchester uh casino and you know hopefully more content and you know more things to come as we go uh forward and so all of the uh the customers in our loyalty program now have an online option um to uh to to go to yeah absolutely as you say it's I'm sure it's just the start um plenty to look forward to online and speaking of it you mentioned looking forward my final question um looking looking ahead we're just about halfway maybe a little bit more than halfway through through the year um a little bit less I'm getting confused my own math there but effectively it's somewhat of a halfway point for the rest of 2023 in terms of goals and targets you know what what is Metropolitan gaming and yourself what are you what are you aiming for is there anything um tangible that you want to say this but if we've achieved this by the end of the year you know we're we're happy so to speak yeah sure well you know I gave you a bit of a travel log as I described all the different places that I've worked before but you know kind of a a core mentality that that I keep with me is what is our commitment to customers what is our uh commitment to our employees what is our commitment to our financial uh stakeholders and what is our commitment to communities and and so you know I really think in in all those areas so in terms of you know commitment to uh to to to the communities we want to continue to offer a safe and responsible environment we just got voted is that compliance Team of the Year in in Europe so doing business the right way is is important uh to us so I hope that that uh you know compliance Focus continues we'd like to continue to roll out the the new brand um the Metropolitan gaming which uh should include things from literally capital investment in refurbishment to the smell of the casino to our loyalty program we'd like to continue to put a capability into our app we'd like to gamify and give more reasons to engage with that we looked to we have unused licenses in in leads and Birmingham and London we would look to see if there's anywhere that makes sense to deploy those and just continue the the growth trajectory as as we've done in all these things in such a short period of uh of time and hopefully the macroeconomic headwinds you know we've seen Energy prices come back a little bit so hopefully the macroeconomic headwinds get a little bit uh less the rising tide floats all boats um and it would be nice to um you know continue to uh to grow which I think is a great Leisure and entertainment uh business uh here in the UK it's not that's that's my focus for the rest of the year absolutely well thanks very much Michael uh fascinating to speak to you we can all hope that the microwave economic conditions improvements certainly best of luck for everything Metropolitan gaming is a is looking to achieve in the coming months and years thank you so much have a great afternoon thank you