1. Ensure that Darren, the General Manager, obtains his White Licence before DTD opens
2. Ensure Yogi and Nighfly, Card Room Managers, obtain their Grey Licences before DTD opens.
3. Ensure that the necessary number of dealers obtain their Red Licences.
3. Ensure that all procedures and policies at DTD are compliant with the UK Gaming Board codes of practice.
4. Be the point of contact between DTD and the Gaming Board when DTD opens (instead of me!)
I have known Mike for a number of years, having first met him when I got banned from one of the casinos under his jurisdiction for card counting at Blackjack, at the time I wasn't very happy about it, but that chance meeting seems to have worked out okay. Mike is a really relaxed, fair and knowledgable guy, and we are very lucky that he has decided to postpone his retirement to help DTD out. Clearly, he has an excellent relationship with the UK Gaming Board, and that should make them feel more comfortable dealing with us. I can't help smiling on how funny things sometimes turn out.
I had a quick read of this thread tonight, you can read much quicker when you wrote the thing. I would say we have come a long way, but it has been a slow process. However, when I set out on this project, I never realised what I was taking on. I feel the job gets much easier for me now, I am at home recruiting staff, reviewing marketing and setting objectives for management.
There is the small fact that I have never run a casino, but I don't see it as that difficult, I see it as just creating a place that I would like to go with my friends to to play poker, eat and drink. I know thet I and the management team I have recruited and are a bit of a "motley crew", with not much gaming sector experience, but we are people that will work hard, will learn and can be trusted.........I value this above our competence to do the job!
Hopefully now, I can start to enjoy the DTD project more, see our club get created from a bare shell. It will mean even more to me that Nick is now doing the whole fit-out himself, and we will be able to have a beer after its done, and be proud of what has been built. In the scheme of life, its a small acorn, but at my stage in life, I need to do things that bring me more that financial satisfaction (thats tooooooooooooo much pressure). I feel much better about things this week, I think all this licencing has been getting to me, letting so many people (especially the people I had recruited / offered jobs to) down if I could not pull it off. Subject to a bit of red tape we are there, I am sure of it now.
After the WSOP I think I'll get everyone together again to thrash out what we need to do over the next 6 months to ensure we are in good shape to open. I can show them the new DTD offices above the Broxtowe pub! I doubt that we will be able to hit our December opening target, but we'll see what needs to be done and take a view on what's best. After working on this for that last year, I'm sure a few weeks is not going to make much difference.
Just in case anyone wants to ask me any questions about DTD in person, I will be having a bit of a party at the Broxtowe Inn in a 3/4 weeks and anyone who has been following this thread is more that welcome. It's just to let off a bit of steam with my sf/matrix/dtd employees, friends, family etc etc and I'll post the date on this thread when I know.
