Forbes: Casino to go
This article was published in the Romanian edition of Forbes magazine, on October 19, 2009. Section: Small business / on the wheels. Author: Elena Stanescu / Foto: Sorin Stana / Translation: Anca Berlo
Casino to go
Anca Berlo and Diana Ciorba try their luck with a casino where you do not play for real money and that moves at client’s request.
For five months now, Anca Berlo and Diana Ciorba, two 27 year old girls from Cluj-Napoca organise themed evenings with poker, Blackjack and other gambling games. They bring the tables and the croupiers to any city the customer want. Apart from classic casinos, Your Fun Casino (the name of the business of the two girls fromCluj) players do not lose money. They play by using immaginary money (fun money) just for the entertainment of the participants.
One January morning this year, Anca Berlo, bored by the overcast weather outside, was playing with a poker layout in her friend’s house, Diana Ciorba. She kept on immagining, out of boredom, what to do with that piece of cloth. For 7 years she had worked in casinos in Cluj, Morocco but also on Carnival Cruise Lines ships (where she became during her last contract a Duty Manager, the second position in line after the casino manager). Table layout, casino, boredom, place your bets! This is how the idea arose! To organise parties that would recreate the casino atmosphere! With table games, chips and cards! But everybody does that! Romania is full of casinos! Anca Berlo raised the ante: a casino where players would not lose any cent.
She has told this idea to her friend Diana Ciorba, who already had her own marketing consultancy business for two years already. Diana loved the idea. The two girls picked up the phone and called ten friends who loved poker. They told them that Anca would organise for them the next poker evening, by the rules of a “real” casino. That is when they first tested the market. Successfully. Anca and Diana started trusting the idea after the second “request”, received from two friends in Cluj-Napoca. They asked them to organise a mini tournament at a birthday party. The girls accepted without hesitation. They bought with 1300 lei a poker table from a specialised store in the city. Anca called her acquaintances from the world she had just left and looked for a croupier. The party, that took place at the English Bar, was well appreciated.
But in order to start such a business, more than a party was needed. Anca and Diana did not now anything about this type of entertainent. They had heard something that abroad it is a popular concept and that in the Great Britain a whole industry bloomed around the mobile fun casino. They have applied the “baby steps” strategy. They have searched the internet for casino tables, casino chips and casino gaming cards. They were not happy with the offer of the Romanian market, since mostly everything they found were “chinezarii” – cheap Chinese products. So they ordered their logistic from the Great Britain. The tables they ordered were modified to be easily folded and transported.
In april, Anca and Diana had four tables: Roulette, Blackjack, 5 cards Poker and Texas Hold’en Poker (another type of poker). All this has cost 13.000 euro. They did not hire employees. “We try to have, as possible, as little fixed costs as we can. We work with partners and collaborators, including for transportation and croupiers” says Diana Ciorba.
FROM DOOR TO DOOR
Finding clients was a problem because the business of the two girls is exotic. How would it be possible to order the casino at home and, imagine (!) not to lose money at the roulette! More so, it was in vain trying to explain to potential clients that the games were played only with fun money. In their minds, the casino meant money laundering. Because many did not like the idea, the girls turned to the clients Diana already had at her marketing consultancy business. That is how they eventually got, in the month of May, the first contracts to organise casino parties in Cluj-Napoca clubs, like Avenue and the English Bar. During summer time, promotion was done mostly by word of mouth. For example, English Bar representatives recommended them to the Chios restaurant, also in Cluj-Napoca.
“We present ‘Your Fun Casino’ as a marketing tool for companies. We offer clients entertainment and determine them to consume the products of the companies we have a contract with”, says Diana Ciroba. This is how they have done when they got involved in the promotional campaign for Red Bull, Jack Daniels and Absolut Vodka in Avenue club. For a Red Bull they bought, for example,the client received a voucher that could be used to play poker in the mobile casino. At the end of the evening, the client who earned the most points in chips received a prize.
At the end of September, they signed, with the same club, Avenue, a contract to organise weekly fun themed parties: James Bond Night, Casino Night, Poker Race, Black Tie Night. The entertainment Anca Berlo and Diana Ciorba offer costs a few hundred euro for three hours of fun gaming. Depending on the complexity of the casino desired by the client (number of table games, chips, branded gaming decks of cards and number of hours of entertainment) the amount may rise to thousands of euro.
Also being present at themed events has grown their portfolio of clients. They have managed to establish a partnership with the publication “Poker Magazin” by participating at the Bucharest Entertainment Arena. Their mobile casino has hosted a mini poker tournament. At the end of the three expo days the winner received an entry ticket to a real poker tournament. Recently, the two have signed a partnership with the tourism company Eximtur, but also with Continental hotel, City Hotel and City Hotel Center in Cluj-Napoca.
They have attacked Bucharest as well, but they encountered even more reticence than at Cluj. Still, last month they agreed a partnership with Carol Parc Hotel and Ghica Palace. The agreements consist of the fact that these institutions can also offer to their clientelle “Your Fun Casino” as entertainment.
Out of the 20 events organised so far, Anca and Diana have earned 50% of their initial investment of 13.000 euro. Overcast days approach again. But Anca Berlo and her friend will not have time to feel bored. “The winter season arrives and this is when our real season starts” exclaims Diana Ciorba.
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