Why Brexit means Exit for UK casinos?
No more deals on “Buy one Italian, get one Czech free”
How many of your colleagues are Italians and called Giuseppe? Up until 2012 i have never met a single person called Giuseppe among Poles, Hungarians, Slovaks, Lithuanians and Latvians working in the casinos in UK.
Then i started to meet and say good bye to Giuseppes every few months. All from Palermo, Sicily — one of poorest region in Italy with one of the highest youth unemployment in Europe. They kept coming and kept leaving — to London, Malta, Switzerland etc.
There are few industries in UK entirely built and totally dependent on immigrants. Whole shift of workers from EU with a British supervisor and manager is a common story in casino industry.
There are few industries in UK with shocking retention rate. Casinos “introduce” new members of staff to their customers non stop. Show me a British casino which is not hiring dealers at any time of the year.
“Casino magic” experience means very little magic for a regular casino employee. Working unsocial hours and almost never having a day off on weekend means that one is permanently stuck in a zombie lifestyle of not seeing a daylight in winter months. Your social circle is down to few fellow casino employees, because regular people sleep at 4 am and do not go out on Monday because they work Tuesday morning. And you can get same money or more working any other job. British workers have lived too good for too long to be attracted to that. For industry to keep growing, the plan was to look east.
2004 marked a wave of experienced eastern Europeans coming to UK casinos and contributing to industry expansion. That wave was eventually exhausted after few years.
Then Italy was discovered and Giuseppes discovered Stoke-on-Trent. Very few were impressed by the quality of pizza they’ve found there. Fish and chips did not help to keep them for long either. Sooner or later all of them leave. First to London, then abroad. But suddenly…
Czech PIGS out!
Italy was one just one of few skinny PIGS contributed to the fat growth of UK casinos. Young Portuguese, Greeks and Spaniards tried to escape up to 60% youth unemployment rate in some of their regions. After Peter Czech left Chelsea and joined Arsenal he said he likes north London a lot. Especially Primrose Hill area. Many girls from Czech Republic decided it’s now or never to get a job in UK casinos and move to London, Stratford.
What’s next?
EU announced they will start membership talks with Macedonia and Albania, where minimum salary is $215. I’m sure most of the casino staff from those countries would be happy to get a job in the UK. However… That’s not what a regulars British casino employees want. After years spent of working with Giuseppe, Agniezska, Martyna, Jose, Marius and Dimosthenis they said enough. Majority support Brexit and don’ hide it. Their salary increase is guaranteed next year. A significant one. Human resources officers and Chief financial officers of casino companies soon will have a lot to think about.
2019 is the year of Irish invasion for UK casino industry. They are the last ones left from original PIIGS company…
