Gestionarea Si Cresterea Unei Afaceri

Lucrare de licență

Gestionarea și creșterea unei afaceri. Strategii eficiente de creștere pe piața jocurilor de noroc din România. Culisele cazinourilor

ABSTRACT

This project involves discovering the casino gaming industry in Romania, the purpose of the research being the identification of the methods through which this faultless system works without any omission, coming out always on profit. The basis of this project was to create a profound understanding of the various methods of growth put into practice by Casino Metropolis in order to reach their goal. This research highlights the importance of the under the roof machinery that perpetuum makes the gambler to comeback and it is design to highlight the impact caused by the chosen strategies of the casino, on the local market share. This has been done by examining several internal documents, reports and specialized articles, but also based on my personal experience as an intern and customer at the casino. The final phase involves the conclusions drawn upon examination of these events, a presentation of the most well-known tricks that casinos are using on the customers and a personal recommendation regarding the top most useful growth strategies for a person that wants to start a business in the gambling domain.

KEYWORDS: casino gaming industry, growth strategies, business challenges, reasons for growth, gambling, casino, psychological tricks

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract

Introduction

Chapter 1. Reasons, Challenges And Strategies For Growing A Business

1.1 Reasons For Growth

1.2 Challenges For Growth

1.3 Growth Strategies

1.3.1 Internal Strategies For Growth

1.3.2 External Strategies For Growth

Chapter 2. Research Outline

2.1. Research Purpose And Objectives

2.2. Research Methodology And Tools

Chapter 3. A Look Inside The Casino World

3.1. A Brief History Of Gambling

3.2. Analysis Of The Internal Growth At Casino Metropolis

3.3. Analysis Of The External Growth At Casino Metropolis

3.4. Analysis Of The Challenges Encountered By Casino Metropolis

3.5. The Illusion Of Easy Money

Conclusions & Recommendations

References

Appendix

introduction

One of the central questions of human existence is whether we, as human being are special or not. The two poles of power of our history and opinion makers for the everyday man, science and religion, have in this case two different answers. While for some of them, the man was just the culmination of divine creation, for others, the human species is a simplistic one being part of the animal regnum, as Charles Darwin himself stated that. But if we take a closer look at the quintessence of human beings, we can notice that we are just mammals and mammals are happy as long as they are healthy and have enough food. Then what makes us better, what makes us different from the rest of the animals from this blue-green ball that is floating around the sun? Only one answer came into my mind, namely, consciousness. Consciousness is the living proof of human evolution, of growth, of the fact that human beings are meant to overcome their conditions. But looking at the other side of the coin, I ask myself, isn’t consciousness at the same time, a disease for humanity? Consciousness is maybe the worst plague of mankind. Although the benefits available to man are of great importance, in terms of the fact that we are a species that was given great gifts, meaning opposable thump, the ability to walk up right, binocular vision and a large brain for making tools, at the same time consciousness brings a vast carpet of ethical responsibilities, tasks and expectations. One of these expectations is represented by growth. We are made to grow, and if history taught us anything, is that every species has two options, it either evolves or disappears.

As I already said it in the previous paragraph, growth was the nucleus for human evolution. The same principle applies in business due to the fact that, innate entrepreneurs always want and need to grow, always want to have more. When you got one store and clients are reacting good, then you start asking yourself, ”Hey, why don’t I make another one?”. And this is perfectly normal, mainly because that’s how our brain works. It’s part of human life. The idea of growth actually exists in the subconscious of every successful entrepreneur from the very beginning, because you can never have a vision, limiting yourself to only one single store or hoping to influence just a small group of people. You always want to grow to the maximum potential you can get, and not put your vision and passion into practice just for one single shop.

This paper hereby proposes a journey into the fascinating world of casinos, a universe that exercises a great attraction for many of us, but about whose mode of operation, illusions and strategies was said too little, so they remained an enigma, a unsolved puzzle. ”Why?” you may ask me. On the one hand, the casino world is perceived by the masses as a world where only the very wealthy can afford to step forward, a false fact. On the other hand, information about how this world of gambling works is little or not at all shared. Insiders, meaning people who actually work in a casino, know, of course, a lot of information but often are not willing to make it public, because if you would know how it works, you may not want play again. It's just like at McDonalds. If you know the conditions in which the food is prepared, you would certainly no longer want to buy it. And just because of the fact that, only few things were said and known about this activity of the casinos, most of the people forming an opinion from movies or fairytales, I exercised my native curiosity in digging deep down the problem and understand how this flawless machinery works.

The aim of the paper is to caught a glimpse of the inside mechanisms, of what happens behind the scenes, to understand better internal and external strategies for growth in a casino, so that one day, I can put my knowledge into practice. My role throughout this paper work, will be as an undercover spy, prepared to reveal as much information as I can about the ways of growth and development of the enemy, the unconventional strategies made to attract the gamblers, but also the psychology of the gambler, his way of thinking and operating. Furthermore, this case study will also develop the way casinos managed to overcome every challenge faced and will contain a graphic analysis regarding the impact of the chosen solutions for growth.

CHAPTER 1. REASONS, CHALLENGES AND STRATEGIES FOR GROWING A BUSINESS

1.1 Reasons for growth

Being an action of a deliberate intention, any firm should be careful to grow prudently because the really tricky thing about growth is that, it is a double-edged sword. Economic development can put in jeopardy the existence and stability of every single operation in a company, from Human Resources Department to Sales Department, if its not managed accordingly. On the other side of the boat, you can measure and define success taking into account the level of growth a company had achieved. In other terms, growth can be viewed as the main indicator of success for your business. Getting ahead, we are going to explore some of the primary causes and arguments used by entrepreneurs for a healthy, sustainable and feasible growth with the hope of increasing their profitability as a result of their efforts. Below, is a fundamental list where we can remark the following five most important reasons for growth (Barringer and Ireland, 2007):

Economies of scale is a simple concept, one of the main drivers of corporate gigantism in the 20th century, that arise when increasing production lowers the average cost of each unit produced. This phenomenon occurs mainly for two reasons. First, the company can lower its variable costs per unit as it grows, because it can get discounts from buying component parts in bulk. Second, by increasing production, a business can disperse its fixed costs over a larger number of units. Fixed costs are costs that a company incurs whether it sells something or not. So, the greater the quantity of a good produced, the lower the per-unit fixed cost, because these costs are shared over a larger number of goods. Hence, it might cost $5,000 to produce 100 bottle containers, but only $6,000 to produce 1,000 bottle containers. The average cost, in this case has fallen from $50 to $6 per container because the main elements of cost in producing are unrelated to the number of magazines produced.

Economies of scope is notion similar to economies of scale, that refers to the same reduction of average cost, except the fact that the advantage comes through the production of a wider variety of goods or services, rather than from its scale of production. Therefore, if a company that manufacture strictly doors, adds door handles or glasses to the product line then the company could spread certain fixed costs over a larger number of units, increasing in this case the variety of items produced rather than increasing the number of doors produced.

Market Leadership eventuate when the company in question holds the number one or the number two position in the industry in terms of sales volume. Many entrepreneurs have a lifetime struggle to achieve market dominance, to realize not only economies of scale and scope but also to be acknowledged as market leader. With this authority and power, huge benefits flow on the market, regarding premium prices for the customers due to the leader status, the ability to recruit the best employees as well as business partners, more publicity, lower product costs, lower sales costs, longer product life cycle and so on.

Influence, power and survivability. As it is natural, large business have far more influence and decision power than smaller companies in terms of setting standards in a particular industry. Their prestige sometimes even allow them to make mistakes and yet survive more easily than the newcomers in the field. Observe upon on this issue, Jack Welch, General Electric 's former CEO stated that, ”Size gives us another big advantage, our reach and resources enable us to go to bat more frequently, to take more swings, to experiment more, and unlike small company, we can miss on occasion and get a swing again.” (Welch, 1999). In addition, the vulnerability is at a very high level if company stays small and relies on the efforts and motivation of a small number of people, usually its founders. A large company, on the other hand, that gain momentum is no longer dependent on the efforts and motivation of its founders and a small number of employees.

Ability to attract and retain talented employees represents our final ground to grow as a company. The capacity to maintain high-quality personnel is in fact vital for any firm that wants to grow and it is natural for any talented employees to want to work in a company that satisfy not only his basic needs but also his fastidiousness. Last year, Google has been named for another year in a row No.1 in Fortune's annual list of ”100 Best Companies to Work For.” (http://fortune.com/best-companies/google-1/).Why? Because their benefits includes not only high salaries, opportunities for promotion and increased level of responsibility but also medical and dental facilities, valet parking, oil change and bike repair, free washers and dryers, and free breakfast, lunch and dinner on a daily basis. In the same respect, in particular fields such as software or technology, company’s number one asset is the combined talent, training, and experience of its employees, so this is why sometimes companies should care more about their employees rather than their annual big paychecks.

1.2 Challenges for growth

Growimployees to want to work in a company that satisfy not only his basic needs but also his fastidiousness. Last year, Google has been named for another year in a row No.1 in Fortune's annual list of ”100 Best Companies to Work For.” (http://fortune.com/best-companies/google-1/).Why? Because their benefits includes not only high salaries, opportunities for promotion and increased level of responsibility but also medical and dental facilities, valet parking, oil change and bike repair, free washers and dryers, and free breakfast, lunch and dinner on a daily basis. In the same respect, in particular fields such as software or technology, company’s number one asset is the combined talent, training, and experience of its employees, so this is why sometimes companies should care more about their employees rather than their annual big paychecks.

1.2 Challenges for growth

Growing businesses always face a wide series of provocation. As a business grows, a variety of different questions and problems jump in track of managers demanding different solutions – what worked yesterday, might not work today. The ability to detect and observe the common pitfalls associated with growth is essential if your business is to continue to grow and prosper, and not be just another also-ran. Decisive, a manager must also ensure that he steps takes today don’t themselves create additional problems tomorrow. Effective leadership will help you make the most of the opportunities, creating sustainable growth for the future. Although growth has many advantages for the entrepreneurial firm, including broader access to the markets, an enhancement in a firm's reputation and the opportunity to work with larger and more experienced channel partners, growth is a challenging and rigorous process. Firm growth typically involves raising additional capital, recruiting new employees, learning how to supervise a larger organization and accept more risk. These challenges of growth impose an emotional toll on entrepreneurs and managers as well. This type of sentiment should not discourage entrepreneurs but should alert them to the challenges involved.

Now, that we have reached the culmination issues of this chapter, we are going to analyze the most important challenges of growth that entrepreneurs battle with in order to succeed. Lets look more closely at these challenges. (Barringer and Ireland, 2007) Although there are a variety of factors that limit firm growth, the first obstacle that arise and that is considered to be the firm's number one growth constraint, is represented by the managerial capacity.

The managerial capacity problem, first articulated by Edith T. Penrose in her thoughtful book, The Theory of the Growth of the Firm, argues that a firm's ability to grow is directly related to its ability to add managerial capacity to administer the growth. (Penrose, 1959). Therefore, as firm goes through routine operations, the management team becomes more familiar and conversant with the firm's customers, markets and resources. This new earn knowledge carry the firm to the expansion of a firm's productive opportunity set – which is the set of opportunities the firm feels its capable of pursuing. This list may include opportunities such as: technological innovation, market growth, international expansion, licensing products to other firm's, deregulation of the market and so on. The pursuit of these opportunities causes a firm to grow. Logic seems straightforward and easy to follow, but Penrose highlights that, there is a big problem with the execution of this simple rationality. The firm's administrative framework consists of two kinds of services that are important to a firm's growth – entrepreneurial services and managerial services. Entrepreneurial services – generate new market, product, service ideas, while managerial services – administer the routine functions of the firm and facilitate the profitable execution of new opportunities. However, the introduction of new product and service ideas requires substantial managerial services, or managerial capacity to be properly implemented and supervised (Cumming D., 2006), as it is represented in figure below.

Figure 1.1 Basic Model of Firm Growth (Barringer and Ireland, 2007)

And just like history demonstrates us that, our greatest strength is also our greatest weakness, this is a major problem. But why? Mainly because, if a company has insufficient managerial services to properly implement the entrepreneurial services, it can't simply quickly hire new managers to remedy the shortfall. First of all, it is too expensive to hire new employees, second of all, it is also impossible to inject motivation and dedication of a newly arrived manager and third, it takes too much time for new managers to be socialized into the firm's culture, acquire firm-specific skill and knowledge, and establish trusting relationships with other members of the firm's. When a firm's managerial capacity are insufficient to take advantage of its new product and services opportunities, the notion is referred to as the managerial capacity problem. So, the basic idea behind this concept is that, it does little good for a firm to recognize new market, product, or service opportunities, if it does not have the managerial capacity to act on those opportunities.

Day-to-day challenges. The second barrier that need to be overtake in pursuit for growth, along with overarching challenges imposed by managerial capacity is represented by a wide range of day-to-day challenges involved in growing a firm. Newton's third law of motion, ”When one body exerts a force on a second body, the second body simultaneously exerts a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction on the first body” (Newton, 1687) introduced us for the first time in the world of the action-reaction principle. This means that if you hit the wall with your fist, the wall will hit you back with the same amount of force. To some extent, this principle affects the business world too, in terms that every action a company undertakes on her Golgotha road for growth, its competitors will respond, generating a chain of action-reaction moves. It is just like a chess game, where the opponent makes his moves based and being influenced by your moves. When it comes to typical challenges of growing a firm, the roster is the following (Barringer and Ireland, 2007):

Cash Flow Management. The irony, if we can say so, of this type of trial is the fact that, as a company grows, it requires a growing number of cash, both to keep the level of customer satisfaction high, but also in order to invest further in research development department. On the other side, in order to keep alive, the firm must manage gingerly and very cautious its cash to make sure it always retain enough capital to pay employees, debts to the banks or any other type of obligation. There are cases when some firm's intentionally will block growth, in order not to face such a problem, or establish a line of credit at the bank to overpass more easily the problem. There is also an unwritten rule of growth meaning that, once a company grows the challenges of cash flow management increase accordingly, because more and more money will swim around the firm, so, it is a direct relationship between them. The latter option is preferred by Dave Schwartz, the founder of Rent-A-Wreck, a discount car rental company, who grew his firm through earning rather than debt or investment capital. Commenting on this issue, Schwartz said ”One of the main things I tell people starting out is not to grow too quickly. Often its better to grow slowly, and when you expand, try to grow with cash flow” (Bartholomew, 2004).

Price stability. The Eurosystem’s definition of price stability is “an increase in harmonised consumer prices of below 2%.” (Duisenberg, 1998). Even though its an utopic subject, without being anchored in reality, price stability it is consider to be ”a sufficient condition for financial stability”(Schwartz, 1995) and ”the main objective of central banks”(Schwartz, 1995). So, in other words, price stability refers to the situation in which the economy don’t experience inflation or deflation, being stable and without any major fluctuations, that could lead to price war. For example, if a new entrepreneur on the market will open a brand-new-cheap coffee shop right next to a Gloria Jeans store, that begins to erode Gloria Jeans market share, then they will probably beat off and respond by lowering prices. The new entrepreneur will do the same and the whole fight will enter into a in a closed circle and into a painful and priceless cycle. On the long term, the client will be the only one who benefits from such a strategy.

Quality Control. As it is rationale, as a firm grows an increase in the firm activity is expected. And just like the sea level rises evenly, the challenges that a company must face in such cases is that, they must handle all types of problems and different requirements, from struggling with innovation, paperwork, time pressure, customers, stakeholders, banks to the capability to adapt faster to a changing regulatory environment. The main activity that suffers in these situations is represented by the quality of the products. Quality may decline if the company does not increase its resources.

1.3 Growth Strategies

”Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning” said Benjamin Franklin. A business that is not growing is doomed to failure. Whether you own a small business in Eastern Europe or you are the founder of one of the biggest multinational conglomerate in the world, the central pillar that sustain your dream is represented by continuous growth.

If business history taught us anything, is that continuous growth is essential for any company in order to remain competitive. From Standard Oil to Apple and from Exxon Mobile to IBM, this statement became a point of law, an unwritten rule for any successful entrepreneurs. Every business in order to survive needs to develop a specific growth strategy according to its own resources, characteristics and capabilities. But before embarking on a growth strategy, it is important to understand and grasp the current state and market position of the business. The plan implemented in this situation can be focus on internal or external growth strategies, or a combination between both, as you can observe in the figure below.

Figure 1.2 Internal and External Growth Strategies (Barringer and Ireland, 2007)

1.3.1 Internal Strategies for Growth

Internal growth strategies rely on the company's own capabilities, focusing on the resources of the business itself, such as new product development, other product-related strategies, and international expansion. This concept, often called organic growth, mainly because it does not rely on outside intervention, it is typically a planned and slow process that relies only on its own competencies, expertise, business practices and employees. So, it is a growth from within. Most of the companies have started from this basic level, growing through internal growth: Olive Garden, Starbucks or even Apple has followed an organic growth strategy by focusing on the development and launch of new products like iPad and iPhone. Effective though it can be, there are limits to internal growth, and this is the position in which most companies find themselves, mainly because as a company matures, it becomes very difficult to sustain its growth only through internal capabilities. For a healthy and successful growth companies are somehow obliged to conclude partnerships and agreements with other companies for the developing and promotion of their new products. This is the case of Starbucks. Even though it is still opening new restaurants and is developing new products, it is increasingly relying on partnerships with companies such as Dryers, which produces a Starbucks-branded ice cream, and PepsiCo, which distributes Starbucks ready-to-drink coffee products, to fuel its growth. (Jay, 2010)

The following list enumerate the distinct advantages and disadvantages of internal growth strategies: (Barringer and Ireland, 2007)

New Product Development involves designing, producing and selling new products or services, as a means of increasing firm revenue and profitability (Trott, 2008). In the same respect, new product development can open up new marketing channels and help to increase market share. Nowadays, in many fast-paced industry, new product development is a competitive necessity and the essence of their existence. This being the main reason, in order to remain competitive and ahead of the competition, most of the companies must always introduce new products from their pipeline. Even though this strategy has its amazing advantages from the financial point of view, it is considered to be a high-risk strategy, mainly because it involves innovation and it is not represented by simple products that are entering in already crowded markets. Every strategy that involves innovation is considered to be a high-risk strategy, but when developing such a strategy is properly executed, there is a tremendous upside potential.

As an example in stating my statements, McDonald's is maybe the best explanation for this case. Love them or hate them, but you can never ignore them. By developing the legendary Big Mac, Hamburger or Cheeseburger they led this strategy to the rank of art. And besides their permanent product strategy, they also have temporary product strategy, where they regularly develop temporary products such as McChicken and local product development, where they satisfy the demands in the local markets. In the Netherlands, for example, they have developed the McKroket, a burger featuring a typically Dutch Kroket. (http://www.lynne-enroute.com/2013/06/06/mcdonalds-mckroket-in-netherlands/)

Other Product-Related Strategies. Along with developing new products, firm's grow by improving products or services, increasing the market penetration of an existing product or service or pursuing a product extension strategy. Improving an Existing Product or Service or ”Architectural Innovation” represents innovations that change the architecture of a product without changing its components (Henderson & Clark, 1990), meaning improving of functional characteristics, ease of use or technical abilities of an already existing product or service, such as making it smaller or larger, an increase in validity or quality of the product, making it more easy to use or up-to-date. This particular way of approach, reveals not only a huge growth potential from the customers perspective, meaning that, by increasing the convenience and quality-price ratio, the company may expect larger revenues, but also from their own financial resources. It is well-known that it is much less expensive for a firm to modify and improve existing products than to develop new products from scratch. This technique is often used by the software companies. These companies always increase their revenues by coming out with ”update” versions of their existing products. In the same way, a giant in the field, Google updates, every couple of weeks, one of his main products, Google maps.

Increasing the Market Penetration of an Existing Product or Service. A market penetration strategy tries to increase market share among existing customers and seeks to increase the sales of a product or service through greater marketing efforts or through increased production capacity and efficiency. (Lamb, Hair & McDaniel, 2011). This increase is accomplished by the use of a variety of factors, such as lowering the price, increasing promotions, increasing advertising expenditures or increasing the size of the sales force. Black Friday, the moment when most of the companies, especially electrical and electronics, lower their prices to appeal more attractive to customers, is maybe the best example in this case or the moment when clothing companies offer huge sales in specific periods. The same idea of generating market share it is observed when companies like Starbucks, SensiBlu, CORA or Nike offers you a 10% discount card. Increased marked penetration can also occur through increased capacity or efficiency, which permits a firm to have a greater volume of product or service to sell.

Extending Product Lines. A product line extension strategy involves a new product that is slightly different to a company’s existing range and it occur when a company introduces additional items in the same product category under the same brand name such as new flavors, forms, colors, added ingredients, package sizes (Srinivas, Holak & Bhat, 1994). This is a strategy that allows a firm to take one product and extend it into several products without incurring significant additional development expense. Maybe the best example in this case is represented by the most famous beverage brand in the world, Coca-Cola. Over the year, the US giant introduced to the market a wide-series of drinks, with just a few small changes between them, such as: Diet Coke, Vanilla Coke or Coca-Cola Cherry. Another example could be in the area of food product line, where Nestle, worlds largest food retailer, introduced a variety of children’s breakfast cereals, but in essence all are the same.

Geographic Expansion is a strategy for growth and it is represented by the expansion of a business from the original location to new geographies. In todays world, geographic expansion strategy is an absolute requirement, due to the fact that the most important and largest companies have resorted to it. This type of expansion is most common in retail settings. For example, a small business that has a successful retail store in one location may expand by opening a second location in a nearby community. With over 18,875 outlets in 118 countries and territories as of December 2013, KFC would be a good example to illustrate this theory. (http://www.yum.com/investors/restcounts.asp)

International Expansion is the last common strategy of internal growth for entrepreneurial firms. According to a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of rapid growth entrepreneurial firms, 46 percent of the 350 firms surveyed sell in international markets (Collins,2006). The conclusion is simple, if want to be among the best in your industry, you must chase this road and understand the importance of international markets. International new ventures are businesses that, from their inception, seek to derive significant competitive advantage by using their resources to sell products or services in multiple countries (McDougall & Oviatt, 2005). Companies like Amazon, often known as ”global start-ups”, are firms that from their initial inception view the world as their marketplace and did not limit themselves to a single country. On the other hand, there are other companies that are not international from the start, but decide to enter on global markets after their product gain international recognition. The best example in this case is Samsung. The South Korean company was founded in 1938 in Seoul, but have increased global activities, especially in electronics, only in the late 80s, after their products gain recognition and appreciation on the market. Having favorable reviews and reaction to its product and service, Samsung start testing a beta version of its product in Europe. Now, they possess 32.7 % of the market share in electronics.(http://www.samsung.com/us/aboutsamsung/sustainability/sustainabilityreports/download/2013/2013_Sustainability_Report.pdf)

1.3.2 External Strategies for Growth

External growth strategies rely on establishing relationships with third parties and achieve growth due to mergers, acquisitions, licensing, strategic alliances, and join ventures. While internal growth strategies are sometimes limited or constraints by various factors, a properly executed external growth strategy can attain and reach the maximum growth potential. The main reason behind this statement is that, this type of strategy includes larger opportunities and it is more attractive to shareholders mainly because tend to produce immediate return on investment. It is the case when a company increases its profits by purchasing or establishing partnerships with other companies, rather than from its own forces. There are distinct advantages and disadvantages to emphasizing external growth strategies, as shown in the list below. (Barringer and Ireland, 2007)

Mergers and Acquisitions. Many entrepreneurial firms grow through mergers and acquisitions. A merger is a pooling of interest to combine two or more firms into one. An acquisition is the outright purchase of one firm by another (Barringer and Ireland, 2007). In an acquisition, the surviving firm is called the acquirer and the firm that is acquired is called target. Acquiring another business can fulfill several of a company's needs, such as expanding its product line, gaining access to distribution channels, achieving economies of scale or expanding the company's geographic reach. In most cases, a firm acquires a competitor or a company that has a product line or distinctive competencies that it needs. Although it can be advantageous, the decision to grow the entrepreneurial firm through acquisitions should be approached with caution. Many firms have found that the process of assimilating another company into their current operation is not easy and can stretch finances to the brink. Primarily for this reason, 65 to 70 % of acquisitions fail to deliver anticipated results (Schildt & Laamanen, 2006).

There are many example in the world of business to support our case, both in the field of mergers and acquisitions. At first sight, the most well known and successful acquisitions in our modern society were undertook by Microsoft, with an impressive list of over 180 successful companies, including the famous telecommunications company from Luxembourg, Skype for $8.5 bn (Bright, 2011) or Nokia from Finland for $7.2 bn (http://news.sky.com/story/1249375/end-of-an-era-as-microsoft-buys-nokia-phones) in September 2013. Google and Facebook do not let themselves inferior and propose a list of firms acquired almost as famous, with companies like Motorola Mobility acquired by Google in 2011 for $12.5 bn. (Goldman, 2012), Android – a mobile software in 2005 (Elgin, 2005) or a giant in video sharing domain like Youtube for $16.5 bn (La Monica, 2011). On the other side Facebook bought the world most famous instant messaging WhatsApp for $19 bn. (Covert, 2014)

When it comes to acquisitions, at the head of the table hovers the carton heaven for children, Disney-Pixar. Toy Story (1995), Finding Nemo (2003) or The Incredibles (2004), all of them hits for children around the world, are one of the most famous movie-cartoons produced by Pixar since its inception. Disney on the other side, well… when it comes to marketing to children, no one does it better than Disney. They already released all of Pixar’s movies before, but with their contract about to run out after the release of “Cars,” the merger made perfect sense. With the merger, the two companies could collaborate freely and easily. By partnering with Disney, Pixar effectively co-opted a portion of Disney 's management savvy, technical expertise and access to new distribution channels releasing new hits like WALL-E (2008) or Up (2009). (La Monica, 2006).

Licensing. A licensing model represents the granting of permission by one company to another company, typically smaller, to use intellectual property, brand, design or business programs, under clearly defined conditions (http://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/licensing-agreement.asp).Virtually, any intellectual property a company owns that is protected by a patent, trademark or copyright can be licensed to a third party. The terms of a license are clear up by a licensing agreement, which is a formal agreement between a licensor and licensee. The licensor is the company that owns the intellectual property, while the licensee is the company purchasing the right to use it. First, the licensee pays the licensor an initial payment plus an ongoing royalty for the right to use the intellectual property. There is not a specific formula for determining the exact amount of initial payment , this issue being part of the negotiations between parties, but, most of the time the licensee pays a relatively large initial payment as a way of generating immediate cash to fund their operations. Even though the main distinct advantages of licensing are generating huge income and spreading the risks and costs of developing new technologies, an ever present danger in this type of strategy is that the licensee, gathering all the necessary knowledge, may quit licensing and starts producing and selling something just dissimilar enough that it does not infringe on the licensing agreement.

There are two distinct types of licensing:

Technology licensing is the agreement whereby an owner of technological intellectual property allows another party to use, modify of resell that property in exchange for a compensation. Typically there are two cases. First, when companies are focused on developing new products and then pass on their new products through licensing to companies that are more market oriented and have all the necessary resources and channels to bring the products to important markets. Second, when companies are focused on developing technologies for their own products and then find competitors to license the technology to spread out the costs and risks involved. Qualcomm is maybe a good example of technology licensing. First, they invented and design chips and software for cell phone and then licenses these products in order to bring them to market by marketing oriented companies, such as Nokia or Motorola.

Merchandise and character licensing is the licensing agreement where a trademark owner grants a license to a manufacturer or retailer to manufacture and sell articles of merchandise with the subject in cause, in exchange for a royalty from sales of those articles of merchandise. This type of external strategy is one of the largest segments of the licensing business, and is probably the part most recognized by the general public. For example, every time you see a shirt with Batman, Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Hollywood celebrity, book or movie titles, TV shows, you should think at this type of license. Similarly, HardRock Café licenses its trademark to multiple companies that place their trademark on T-shirts, jackets, collectibles, gift item, jewelry, watches, bike accessories and so on. By doing this, HardRock Café not only generates licensing income but also promotes the sale of HardRock Café restaurants and products. According to the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers Association, this type of licensing generates $110 billion annually in retail sales. (Porter, 2013)

Strategic Alliances and Joint Ventures. The increase in popularity of strategic alliances and joint ventures has been driven largely by a growing awareness that firms ”cant go it alone” and succeed. According to a recent Trendsetter Barometer survey, released by PricewaterhouseCoopers more than half of the 339 rapid-growth firms surveyed say that strategic alliances and joint ventures will be critical to their success over the next 3 years (O'Brien, 2011). As with all forms of firm growth, strategic alliances and joint ventures have advantages and disadvantages. (Barringer and Ireland, 2007)

Strategic Alliances. A strategic alliances is a partnership between two or more firms that can boost a firm's rate of patenting, product innovation and foreign sales. (Shan, Walker & Kogut, 1994) Alliances tend to be informal and do not involve the creation of a new entity. Technological alliances and marketing alliances are two of the most common forms of alliances.

Technological alliances feature cooperation in research and development engineering and manufacturing. Research and development alliances often bring together entrepreneurial firms with specific technical skills and larger, more mature firms with experience in development and marketing. By pooling their complementary assets, these firms can typically produce a product and bring it to market faster and cheaper than either firm could alone. Maybe the most well known examples in this domain are the ones between Disney and Hewlett-Packard back in the 30s. Formed in a garage by Walt Disney and Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard themselves, the agreement was born when Disney purchased eight oscillators to certify the Fantasound system installed in theaters for its 1940 film Fantasia, or how the history will remember this moment, the first step to the digital age. (http://www8.hp.com/us/en/hp-news/press-release.html?id=171679#.U7GFojnVmfQ)

Marketing alliances typically match a company with a distribution system with a company that has a product to sell in order to increase sales of a product or service. The alliance between Starbucks and Barnes & Noble in 1993 is the best example for this particular sphere. Coffee house and bookstore – natural match. Starbucks initiate an alliance to gain access to distribution channels. The strategic logic to this type of alliance for both partners is simple. By finding more outlets for its products, the partner that is supplying the product can increase economies of scale and reduce per unit cost. The partner that supplies the distribution channel benefits by adding products to its product line, increasing its attractiveness to those wanting to purchase a wide array of products from a single supplier. In this respect, Starbucks growth has been less about aggressive advertising and more about alliances, echoing the kind of word-of-mouth growth that helps local companies expand.

Joint Ventures. A joint venture is an entity created when two or more firms pool a portion of their resources to create a separate, jointly owned organization. (Madhok, 2006) Sony-Ericsson is a successful joint venture between Japanese consumer electronics company Sony corporation and Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson to produce and design mobile phones. The combine Sony consumer electronics expertise with Ericsson leadership in communications sector. Sony acquired Ericsson's share in the venture on February 16, 2012 and the joint venture vanish. (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/02/16/sony_ericsson_divorce_final/). A common reason to form a joint venture is to gain access to a foreign market. In these cases, the joint venture typically consists of the firm trying to reach a foreign market and one or more local partners. Joint ventures created for reasons other than foreign market entry are typically described as either scale or link joint ventures. In a scale joint venture, the partners collaborate at a single point in the value chain to gain economies of scale in production or distribution. This type of joint venture can be a good vehicle for developing new products or services. In a link joint venture, the position of the parties is not symmetrical, and the objectives of the partners may diverge. For example, many of the joint ventures between food companies provide one partner access to distribution channels and the other partner more products to sell. An example is beverage partners Worldwide, which is a joint venture between Coca-Cola and Nestle. The joint venture markets ready-to-drink chilled teas and coffees, including Nestea, Nestea Cool, Belte, and Planet Java, in more than 40 countries worldwide. (http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/03/02/coca-cola-and-nestle-are-sucking-us-dry-without-us.aspx)

CHAPTER 2. RESEARCH OUTLINE

All the companies aim to maximize their profit as this is their ultimate goal, but this road to profit always pass through the machinery of growth, that is precisely why growth is known as the primary mechanism to generate success. Part two of this paperwork undertakes to submit besides the research purpose and objectives of the paper, the methodology and tools used in order to express and understand better the growth strategies of the whole casino system.

2.1. Research purpose and objectives

The purpose of the paper is to lay my eyes on the gambling domain and to catch sight of the casino underground, for a better understanding of the internal and external strategies of growth applied in this sphere and in order to be able to exploit my knowledge gained into future projects. When it comes to research objectives, these can be divided into two subcategories, theoretical and practical. The basic theoretical objective of the paper have been reduced to a deep understanding of the basic concepts, namely, to get a picture of the reasons and arguments of growth, make sense of different obstacles encountered by entrepreneurs in the chase of growth, either as they were attribute to the managerial problems or daily activities, and, in particular, to have knowledge of the internal and external methods of growth including all benefits and drawbacks imposed by the two systems. The entire documentation through the world of casinos, with the help of technology and rapid flow of information that circulates in today's society, helped me to understand better the ins and outs of each method with concrete examples of successfully implemented methods by the big companies in the world. Numerous cases of mergers and acquisitions under the tutelage of Facebook, Apple or Microsoft, the crucial importance of strategic alliance in this particular field, or the importance of the continuous improvement of your product, are just some of the theoretical knowledge put in practice, that I have gained along the research.

When it comes to the practical part, objectives and outcomes of the paper ought to be much more important for me, mainly due to the fact that, ever since I know myself, my favorites subjects in school, were those that contain real life scenarios, case studies, simulations or role playing because they linked real world problems that you face in business every day with different ways and policies to overtake them. I deem this practice beneficial seeing that my dream is to develop and grow my own successful business. In essence, the practical objective of the paperwork hereby was the perception and insidious understanding of the internal and external methods of growth, implemented by Casino Metropolis and the analysis of the expected effects.

2.2. Research methodology and tools

As regards to the secondary sources of data that support my paperwork, were obtained on the basis of internal documents provided by the Casino Marketing Manager, Mrs. Andreea Ion, along with other documents and specialized reports, that will be listed below, provided by Casino Metropolis General Manager from Timisoara, Ioan Rus. As for the main sources of support for my research, were obtained in person through my short experience as an intern in two separate occasions, first in the summer of 2012 at Casino Metropolis from Bucharest, and second, in the summer of 2013 at Casino Metropolis (ex. Casino Valoro) from Timisoara, but also through my role as a customer on some different occasions. Being a family business, I managed to catch a glimpse of the system due to my numerous visits at the casino since I was a young boy, but also due to numerous family discussions, especially with my father and uncle, both having an experience of over 20 years in the field.

Literature review on Romanian gambling market and on the impact of growth was an extremely important instrument for my research. To reach such conclusions and in order to develop more eloquent this subject, it was necessary for me to consult no less than 16 articles, that can be found in the digital library of Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, 7 ”Casino Inside” magazines full of detailed interviews with respected managers in the field, 2 PricewaterhouseCoopers reports: ”Global gaming” and ”Playing to win” – an outlook for the global casino and online gaming market in 2014, Emergency Ordinance No. 117/2010, article III in order to understand better the organization and operation laws of gambling in Romania, Emergency Ordinance No. 77/2009 to catch on the access fees for live casino activities and two books: ”Roll the bones: The History of Gambling” by David G. Schwartz and at the base of the pyramid, a book written by Bruce Barringer and Duane Ireland, ”Entrepreneurship: Successfully Launching New Ventures”, on the theme of growing methods. This was my primary source of information and served as the fountain for numerous figure and tables.

As I said it before, my direct experience was another important tool, giving the fact that I worked there in two different occasions and in two different locations. If initially I occupied the post of Assistant Marketing Manager, my main activities and responsibilities being the correspondence with business partners of the company via telephone and email, assisting the manager in writing promotions, posters and flyers and book different meetings, venues or halls, the second time I occupied the position of Human Resources Assistant Manager, my role was limited to filtering resumes, scheduling interviews with candidates and presenting a short list with the candidates details to the manager directly involved in the selection process. In the same vein, there were also other types of documents that have targeted the company's internal growth and that I have analyzed and consulted in the vision of a more complex paperwork, and they were internal documents made available by the company management.

CHAPTER 3. A LOOK INSIDE THE CASINO WORLD

3.1 A Brief History of Gambling

Just like Marcel Proust was In search of lost time, so was I looking for a lost history of this ancient habit – synonymous with human existence. What was the trigger for this drug known as gambling in ancient times? Maybe that wise old proverb that says ”Money won is twice as sweet as money earned” or maybe the fact that human beings have always possessed a predisposition for risk, for curiosity, a strange pleasure in taking things to the edge while adrenaline was pumping into their veins. Yes, indeed, in today's society the commodity of human being beats his curiosity, but in the old days people were more concerned and interested about what's happening around them.

Even though gambling it is consider to be a problem of the ”modern man”, evidence suggest that many centuries ago communities from different cultures, such as ancient Greece, Rome, Egypt or ancient China were well known aware of this powerful attraction of human existence (Appendix A). Of course, there were no modern forms of gambling like the ones that are present in todays society, but the essence, the quintessence of betting is deeply entrenched in human nature since the beginnings. Going even further, Mayas, Native Americans, Eskimos or Aztecs, used to gamble with prehistoric dices, that were just flat objects with just two sides, having unusual shapes and markings, such as plum stones, peach pips, pebbles, seeds, bone, deer horn, pottery, walnut shells, beaver teeth and
seashells. (Schwartz, 2006) (Appendix B).

According to historical records and archaeological findings there are evidences of such an activity in ancient China in 2300 BC, so over 4300 years ago. A pair of ivory dice was found at Thebes
(Egypt), and in the pyramid of Cheops, an engraving dated 1500 BC describes gambling. (Clarysse, Schoors, Willems, 1998). In one of Sophocles tragedies regarding the Trojan War, about 1000 BC. there is a mention about the game of dice that was taught to the Greek soldiers in order to banish boredom. In this regard, there is also an Amphora Vase in Museo Gregoriano Etrusco in Vatican, with the image of Achilles and Ajax playing a game of dice. (Appendix C)

Continuing on the same idea, the first finding of a lottery dates back in the Chinese Han Dynasty somewhere between 205 and 187 BC. The money raised from these lotteries helped the government to finance the project called "Great Wall of China" (Barboianu, 2009). Evidence of the lottery dates also from ancient Rome, when this wide spread “disease”
got roots in peoples behavior. But this vast practice should not surprise us at all, because even the Greeks and Romans gods were used to gamble, actually that is how Zeus got the sky – Olympus, Hades the underground and Poseidon the sea.

Gambling was also used for settling disputes due to the fact that rolling the dice was supposed to determine the will of the gods. A true historical fact, from around the year 1,020 AD, was between King Olaf of Norway and King
Olaf of Sweden who were supposed to decide the borders of their countries, both kings claiming the same district of Hising.
Since the dispute could not be resolved diplomatically, the two kings agreed to roll the dice – the one with the highest
number would claim the district. Norway won and the two kings reportedly departed on good terms. (Schwartz, 2006)

We must understand once and for all that gambling is part of human condition. Even the most intelligent among us have posed powerless in front of such a strong vice, proving that the fact that intelligence is worthless when the strong desire and greed are in one team. Here we recall Mark Twain, Albert Einstein that once said: ”You cannot beat a roulette table unless you steal money from it”, George Bernard Shaw, Jerome Cardan – the famous mathematician from the Italian Renaissance period, Rene Descartes – "The father of modern philosophy", Claude Monet the founder of French impressionism or even Nero and Caligula, two of the most well known roman emperors. Fyodor Dostoevsky, the famous Russian novelist and one of the most influential writers in history has lost his entire wealth at roulette in Baden-Baden, getting to write "The Gambler" in less than a month and the last chapters of "Crime and Punishment" in a matter of days, just to be able to pay his debts to the loan sharks. (Schwartz, 2006)

3.2 Analysis of the Internal Growth at Casino Metropolis

In general, it is very difficult for a company in the gaming industry to establish as a method of growing, the organic growth, precisely in the light of the fact that it is a slow method, that requires time and patience, and investors do not have these qualities. When it comes to the gaming market in Romania, this area is mainly dominated by foreigners and business people, generally Jews or Russians. These foreigners, once they open a new casino, they wait to earned more than they invested, a certain amount they consider satisfactory in direct relation with their initial investment, and then, after a while, usually two years, sell the whole thing and go on to another country. They are just like nomads, once they considered ended their meters square goodness, they go on to other places.

At this very moment, perhaps the biggest advantage and the biggest disadvantage at the same time, is that Casino Metropolis has for more than 20 years, the same shareholding structure and a 100% Romanian Capital (Appendix D). In this respect, the founders of the Metropolis brand being exclusive from Romania, have all interest for their business to grow healthy and to offer their clients the best possible services. The main evidenced is the fact that the company is number one in the country, when it comes to local customers.

As we discussed early in the paper about the difficulties in opening a new live casino in Bucharest, this type of investment is deficient, or scanty when it comes to internal growth, precisely because of the fact that it is not able to grow relying only on her own strengths and resources. From this point of view, companies are somehow located at the crossroads of winds, being either obliged to sign a contract with a company specializing in marketing, which presents a number of opportunities for the promotion of the service, within a predetermined budget, or to conclude direct contracts and partnerships with different companies in order to promote their product.

New product development. First of all, it is important to understand that gambling is an area that is deficient when it comes to new product development and innovations that are essential in terms of product or services. The present games rules, regardless it Poker, Roulette or Blackjack, are the same for hundreds of years, and the casino industry only offers the players the opportunity to satisfied their desires in terms of gambling and adrenaline. All casinos deliver the same product, the only difference in terms of innovations can occur only when we refer to the internal method of work, customer care or various methods of providing the services, but then, these are just tangential and minor innovations. The central idea here is that all casinos promotes the same cabbage on the stalls, the only slight difference that could occur is in the way the stall it's arranged or the way the finished product is handed to the customer.

Floating with the same idea on mind, when it comes to the uniqueness of Casino Metropolis in comparison with rivals on the market, the prime pillar that stands up it is represented by the Non-stop program and jackpot system. While Casino Metropolis is the only live casino in the country that operates 24/7 for his clients, it is also the only live casino in Romania where slot-machines can be found inside the casino (Appendix E), right next to the live poker tables or roulette and not in an auxiliary location or room, design special for such a game. This system represents a strong advantage both on the part of the player, because he can enjoy all the services and atmosphere offered by the casino, and for the casino as well, because this method brings clients to the slot-machines and live games, at the same time. What I am trying to say is that, in different moments in which a certain player gets bored or won a significant amount of money at slot machines, because he is surrounded by such a variety of games on his way to the front door, he tends to go ahead and gamble to other games, too.

Even if it does not represent an innovation in the field, another novelty on the Romanian gambling market in comparison with the rest of the competition is the daily lottery with cash prize. When its rivals tend to hold a raffle once a week, usually Fridays, Casino Metropolis is the only casino in Romania that offers its customers the chance to win 15,000 RON daily. The system is very simple, and any player once entered the casino can participate. The claimant just have to choose a number of roulette. If the white ball falls on the number selected, then the player will be the lucky winner of a cheque of 15,000 lei. If the white ball falls on one of the selected number neighbors, then the player will be rewarded with 6,000 RON. If the ball falls on one of the second neighbors, the player wins 3.000 RON, on third neighbor – 1,500 RON. (Appendix F)

These innovations tend to have a very short life span, given the fact that the other top casinos send regularly, specialized employees or hire professional people to spy the best improvements made by the rival casinos on the market. It is something known and accepted by the industry and nobody forbid the practice. It all started from a niche, which became a basic rule in the casino business nowadays. For example, if one of the casinos will bring some flowers and a small fountain, in a couple of weeks, the other ones will get the same flowers and a similar fountain, but packed more pumped, more imposing, only to look better. It's a competition and some unwritten rules that increase the competitiveness of the industry, that's exactly why no one recant from it.

Improving an Existing Product or Service. From this point of view, the gambling sphere is a simplistic, banal and trivial environment, giving the fact that it is totally part of this subcategory of internal growth. Why am I stating this? Mainly because, from the very beginning, he offers to deliver an existing product or service to already crowded markets, preferring only to slightly improve it and to make it more appealing to the customer, in comparison with the competition. From certain angles, their activity is similar to software companies or the path chosen by Apple applications, in light of the fact that they always choose to come with an "update" version of an existing product. The whole live casino industry is based on satisfying the customer, keeping him happy, regardless his demands; demands that are directly proportional to his financial potential and the amounts he bets at the tables. There are cases when Casino Metropolis offers customers that gamble a certain amount of money, Cuban cigars, personalized champagnes, expensive wines or even various traditional souvenirs, if the customers is a strain. Among the strengths of the Casino Metropolis, as well as related capacity of improvement the services already offered by the competition, stands out among others, the VIP room. The VIP room it’s available only for very powerful people, extremely rich players and celebrities, especially those who do not want to be in media attention when they satisfied their gambling addiction. Of course, this status of the player in VIP room automatically includes certain benefits. First, it is a private environment where the customer is not bothered by those around him, where he can relax and play alone the type of game that he desire. Secondly, he is provided, on request, with a personal escort, luxury car and a personal driver who will transport him to the hotel, airport or wherever he wish. (Appendix G)

Besides VIP room, casino location and design are another two big advantages (Appendix H). Most owners choose to build casinos or rent locations that are different from most buildings, which will create an atmosphere of luxury and majesty. A casino will be decorated as elegantly as possible. If there are other casinos around, a new casino will always try to look better than the others. Often, casinos are located inside of luxury hotels or near them, or on the big boulevards of the capitals of the world, where they can be seen very easily. The reason is simple: at these luxury hotels there come persons with a financial situation better than most. It is also one of the reasons for which an ordinary person who works in a supermarket, for example, would not dare to enter such places. It is also a psychological matter. You have money come in, no money, go elsewhere. Casino Metropolis is located in the city center at the base of a famous hotel in Bucharest, Hotel Novotel. This strategic location gives it both a wide opening to the local public, as well as a curious research from tourists traveling through Bucharest, given the fact that Calea Victoriei is of the most famous streets in town.

Another investment that situates Casino Metropolis above rivals, and is worth mentioning is the 4-star kitchen and 35-seat restaurant inside the casino, where extremely well trained and professional personnel operates. Leaving aside the fact that it's a far too big operation for this kind of activity in Romania, the ex. Big Chef was among finalists in a large-scale, cooking competition, broadcasted at Antena 1, Top Chef. Having some structured customer service, Casino Metropolis has a number of chefs for specific occasions, comprising no less than 3 different types: Arab, Chinese and Italian, each serving and preparing special meals for their community (Appendix I). Although the acquisition of such a skilled and popular chefs is extremely expensive, customer satisfaction from every point of view, even culinary, is one of primary importance. Every time there is a traditional holiday or a certain theme party, the kitchen and cook adapts to the specifics of the respective country, from Italian pastas food to Chinese and from a classic American burger to Indian spicy food. Furthermore, every evening the menu change, customers having the ability to choose from a variety of recipes that cater all tastes. And the best part is that, above all stands gratuity. Clients are free to choose and eat whatever they want, however they want. Drinks of any kind, be it an Italian wine, a German beer or a simple Coke are on the house, everything just so that the client could be happy and gamble with a peace in his mind and belly.

Other strengths that represents an improvement in comparison with the rest of the companies and need to be mentioned here, may be, private parking with high quality and respectful jacks. Casino Metropolis, is one of the few casinos that offer customers such a privilege. They also offer a valet service, the people responsible for parking the car’s client and bring them back in front of the hotel when he decides it's time to go. Casino Metropolis offers its visitors and those who have won a large sum of money, security and protection system, in terms of a personal escort to the desired place, home, airport or club. Escort is not only responsible for the security or transporting the player, but is obliged to stay with him all night if he decides to return back to the casino. An ATM machine, inside the Casino, and POS service, from which the client may deposit, or withdraw money from his personal account, are available at the players demands. In case of an emergency, Casino Metropolis also endowed a private ambulance, for both clients and company employees. All these superior quality and services make Casino Metropolis a top pillar on the Romanian gambling market. These methods of internal promotion also included hiring some PR delegates very well trained, informed and being the representatives of diverse cultures. From Chinese culture to Arab and African cultures, PR representatives of Casino Metropolis were able to understand and know the customer's behavior, thus being able to attract the client to his side, by small details and subtleties. (Appendix J)

Going forward, in order to simplify and to summarize certain facts mentioned in this paper, we'll use certain figures in order to be able to understand better the specific needs of the casino and the strategies used in order to increase its market share. Figure 3.1 illustrates one of the most important needs of a casino, and that is the need to improve their customer service and different techniques used in this situation.

Figure 3.1 Strategies for the casino to improve their customer service

Market Penetration of an Existing Product or Service. Attracting customers is, undoubtedly, the most important and hardest things especially in this particular industry, because no matter what area of business you are in, if you don't have customers, than your business will eventually fail. The customer, actually, is the central reason and the main argument that explains why the casinos are fighting each other. If we have to put everything into a visual image, the gambler is the one who stands in the middle of the rope, while casinos are located at opposite ends of the rope, trying to bring him to their ”dark side”. Nowadays, it's not enough just to attract customers, you need to keep them coming back and to make them loyal to you and your business. The real secret to the success of a casino is to keep the clients playing and keep them coming back. The more clients, the better because the longer they play, the longer they lose. In the end, they get it all. To achieve this goal, a casino uses different methods to attract and retain more players. But, how do you attract customers, how do you convince them that your product is the right one? Attracting customers is not about promotions and advertising, it is about understanding the consumers' mind and the ability to make them crave for your product, to make them see your product not only as a necessity, but as a way of life. And how do you do that, you may ask? First of all, you need to understand what you do, what makes you special, what makes you different, and try to put yourself in the skin of your future customers and ask yourself why, from an objective point of view, would you choose your casino instead of other? You must completely understand that, it is not about you or your needs, it is about serving them because they are the ones that put money on your bank account, so indubitable, the focal point of your business. It is one of the basic principles of Hollywood stars. When they meet a fan, they know that, its not about them, but about the fan, a firm handshake, a back beat can weigh greatly in the final equation. Secondly, you must understand your customer, who are they, what motivates them, are they rich or poor, educated or not, and try to adapt yourself and your business on their demands and expectations.

Just like any other human being, the subconscious of the casino player is attracted primarily by discounts, promotions, low prices, and the fact that it is possible for him to satisfy his pleasures and remain at the same time with some money in his pocket. The gaming industry has understood they need to lower their prices to appeal more attractive to customers because this is how the human beings mind work, so, Casino Metropolis is not at all foreign to such promotions and special offers. For example, according to the new rules of Emergency Ordinance No. 117/2010, article III, section 7, it is specified that the access fee for live casinos activities is 20 Lei, while for the games of slot machine is 5 Lei (Appendix K). The math is simple, every time someone walks into a casino is obliged, under the law, to pay the sum of 20 Lei. Being an inconvenience to players, casino management has tried to take advantage of this detail, organizing and establishing various promotions.

Related to this issue, there are cases when for a pre-determined period of time, Casino Metropolis undertakes to pay the entrance fee for the players or to shrink at half the price. These cases are very common when it comes to newcomers, those who walk for the first time in the casino and are registered for the first time in the database. In the same respect, there are many times when the player pays his own ticket, but the casino offers chips in exchange for the ticket. The logic is simple, and the hidden idea behind this promotion is to reward the player and to "compel" him to play one way or another. Another very exciting and interesting promotion, which was taking into consideration when I was in internship there, was the reduction of the minimum bet in the morning, from 10 lei to only 5 lei, mainly because the casino industry suffers from a lack of clients at the beginning of the day. Another example of promotion at the time, was the fact that, for every hour spent at any live game, the player receives three tickets for the daily lottery or tickets that will no longer require the payment of the entrance fee.

When it comes to increasing the competitiveness, besides promotions, raffles, sweepstakes and various theme parties are the main ways. Therefore Casino Metropolis held each week raffles that includes cash prizes, a dinner at a fancy restaurant, a two-week holiday in a hotel where a certain casino operates, cars, apartments or even parties where all the food and decorations are made according to one theme. The examples are diverse and varies from Mexican, American, Hawaii or Back2 school party to Russian, Chinese, Venetian or Alien Invasion party. Moving forward, Casino Metropolis also celebrates famous holidays, such as Halloween, Christmas, New Year's Eve, Easter or Valentines Day, but also traditional holidays of various countries, to satisfy foreign clients (Appendix L). Icing on the cake is represented by weekly short-live performances by renowned artists from the music and entertainment industry. Because of the fact that the players seems to be bothered by the music at a volume too high, and this activity is not only a way to cheer up the audience, music performances, magic shows, striptease performances or even wine or perfumes tastings, run slowly, at intervals of time during an entire evening and lasts between 3 and 10 minutes in order to not disturb or distract the players from the main activity, gambling (Appendix M).

Figure 3.2. Strategies for the casino to improve their customer loyalty

Extending product line strategy. In the world of gambling, this example is a eloquent one, when the casino presents the customer a new type of game with some easy changed rules, but which in essence is the same with the original and classical one. For example, throughout its existence, Casino Metropolis has put its customers a wide variety of seven different types of poker: Texas Hold ‘Em, Omaha, 7-card Stud, 5-card Draw, High/Low Chicago and Follow the Queen. The same strategy can be noticed when it comes to roulette and Black Jack (21). Besides the fact that there's live roulette and an electronic roulette, Casino Metropolis has also an American roulette (Double zero roulette) with 38 numbers on its wheel, including 1 to 36, 0, and 00, and a
European roulette (Single zero roulette) with 37 numbers on its wheel, including 1 to 36 and 0. Atlantic city, European, Spanish and Vegas downtown are the main four head-lines when it comes to Black jack (21) at Casino Metropolis. This is basic idea of extending their product line, exists at every game in the casino. Each one, from Baccarat to Craps, has at least one confrere in the respective field. Things get complicated when it comes to of slot-machines. Here there are hundreds of variations of games on each slot-machine, with different themes and characters, the customer having the possibility to choose from a dozen opportunities and preferences.

Geographic Expansion is represented by the expansion of a business from the original location to new geographies. First of all, it is important to mention that Casino Metropolis was itself born from a geographical expansion of the Casino Metropolis (ex. Casino Valoro) from Timisoara, in 2012. Secondly, it is very hard for a casino, on the Romanian gambling market, in less than two years, to recover its investments and then to be able to give ”birth” to another child in a different geographical location (Appendix N). And even if this would be possible, this strategy would be extremely unprofitable, a lost cause, mainly because the Romanian gambler does not have the culture of such a phenomenon, but this is something that we'll explain later in the paper.

International Expansion. Eventually, reaching the last method of development and internal growth, we need to mention the fact that although Casino Metropolis did not intend to be, from the beginning, a "global start-ups" or to confine to a single country, they already plan to enter on global markets, more specific in Hungary and Nigeria, if their product and services will gain international recognition.

Figure 3.3. Strategies for the casino for business globalization

3.3 Analysis of the External Growth at Casino Metropolis

While internal growth strategies can limit the development of one company, due to various causes, the true growth potential can be reached by performing a well-organized and elaborate strategy that implies some external factors. These factors involve first of all, establishing a strong relationship with a third party, through a wide range of opportunities such as, mergers, acquisitions, licensing, strategic alliances, join ventures or franchising. With an initial investment of over 3 million euros, the patronage of the Metropolis Casino, with all the patience, wants to amortize the investment as soon as possible. Because of this, the nucleus that sits behind the company development is based mainly on establishing long-lasting relations with some external reliable companies, rather than growing through her own strengths, growth that would imply more time. Therefore, the method of external growth, though it is not as healthy, it is far more accepted in the field of gambling, both in light of the fact that it involves some greater opportunities for development and growth, but also because tends to bring a profit faster.

The most prevalent method of external development and most cost effective in this industry, is based on strategic alliances. In such a case, as a result of a partnership, two or more companies decide to share resources to undertake to mutually beneficial project. They don’t need to create a special entity in a form of a new firm, but to maintain their autonomy, while gaining new opportunities working together.

Since its inception, Casino Metropolis has developed a long list of viable partners, precisely in order to progress and enhance the advantages against competitors. As the field of existence of Casino Metropolis is not one that relies so much on research and development, most partnerships are marketing alliances. They're meant to unite a company that owns a network of fairly extensive distribution, with a company that wants to increase sales of a product or to increase the level of awareness of their services. Due to the location of the casino, the first allied in this battle on the gambling market is obviously Hotel Novotel. As a result of the partnership signed between the two companies, Casino Metropolis will ensure to accommodate any player who manifest such desire at this specific hotel, while Hotel Novotel offers to promote the casino. ”In what ways?” First of all, trunks of the pyramid, pens, flyers or even cigarette lighters will be available in every room in the hotel, but also at the reception. Furthermore, the hotel is bound, by contract, to display a roll-up banner at the reception, and also to inform the clients about the existence of and current promotions of the casino. Furthermore, this partnership includes also some promotions for the benefit of the hotels clients, especially in summer. These promotions include clients that have rooms with a certain value, in terms that, they will receive some free chips or a free entrance ticket for one night in the casino. This understanding of the casino Metropolis with Hotel Novotel, is part of a deal at a much higher level, an agreement between live casinos and big hotels of the Romanian capital, including Marriott, Radisson, or Intercontinental, namely, the so-called protocol agreement. To better understand, we take a simple example. If a customer wishes to check in at one of the hotels mentioned above, he will have to pay the sum of 100 euros/night, let's say. If, however, the Casino Metropolis or any of the five live casinos in Bucharest, namely Athenee Palace Hilton Casino from Palace Hilton Hotel, Queen from Howard and Johnson Hotel, Casino Bucharest from Intercontinental Hotel, Platinum Casino from Radisson Hotel and Grand Casino Marriott from Marriott Hotel, informs it that he is a client of their own, then the amount will be reduced around 50 euro/night. At the same time, hotels must inform curious clients about the existence of all the live casinos in town. On the current market this action is not taken into consideration, given the fact that each hotel tends to promote only its own casino. And just because that all do the same, with no exception, no one says anything, being a convention already accepted by every casino.

Another strategic alliance signed in order to attract more clients, is between the casino and CRISTAXI – a taxi company from Bucharest. The cab company offers to distribute flyers, to put stickers and future promotions on their cars and to inform the clients, who are looking for an entertainment night, about the existence of the casino. In exchange for these services, Casino Metropolis will call only CRISTAXI cabs for its customers and employees.

Such a partnership exists between Casino Metropolis and specialised magazines in the gaming industry, namely, Casino Life and Business Magazine and Casino Inside Magazine. Casino Metropolis undertakes to purchase monthly dozens of items to exhibit inside the casino and to distribute to loyal and interested clients, when it comes to the vast world of the casinos. In exchange for these services, the two magazines identified themselves to write annually a certain number of articles about Casino Metropolis and its services. Keeping in mind the idea of strategic alliance in the field of magazines, Casino Metropolis has collaborated with the famous American adult magazine, Playboy. They have provided the location for a photo shoot, while the casino logo appeared behind the model pictured on the front page. (Appendix O)

The most important strategic alliance that Casino Metropolis currently dispose and any casino in the world can be happy to have it, whether it is in Las Vegas, Macau or Belgrade, is represented by the junkets. In the gaming world it is known as junket operation. It all starts with the fact that the casino sign a contract with a so-called scout. This scout is responsible for attracting large groups of foreign players, especially in countries where the law does not allow such activities. Russia and Israel are just a few of the countries where gambling is not regulated, so those who are passionate got to satisfy their pleasures of live casino only in other places and countries. Also, such a contract is concluded by the scout only with live casinos that are located in cities that have international airports and are directly connected with such countries.

But how does it work? Therefore, the scout is committed to bring a group of foreign and very rich players, at the full expense of the casino, from first class plane tickets, to accommodation and meals, even guides to present them the city, everything with the sole purpose that players gamble a minimum amount of money and remain at the game tables a certain number of hours, stipulated in the initial contract between the casino and the scout. This sum is usually around 5.000 euros and 6 is the minimum number of hours that a player must spent at the gambling table. All this activity is taken usually on weekends: Friday, Saturday and Sunday and it ends with huge sums of money into the casino account. Throughout this whole story, the scout is having a percentage, stipulated in the contract, from the money lost by his men at the tables. So, in the end, everybody is satisfied. While players have satisfied their gambling pleasures, the scout and the casino filled in their pockets. For some reasons, which I will explain in more detail below, Casino Metropolis operation to bring large groups of junkets is a disadvantage, mainly because of the fact that the vision and mission of the casino comes into contradiction with the idea of junkets and the whole operation. Though it is a method recognized as highly profitable, in the long run can cause quite a lot of problems.

The argument of the casino in this situation, it is based on an old travel principle, which says that "Restaurants in the tourist areas are never good.". It is well known that, when a casino is struggling to have a group of junkets in their own yard, in the player's subconscious is formed some sort of advantage, it creates a certain power, given the fact that everyone else struggling just for him and for him. It invoke him a false sense of superiority. Precisely for this reason junkets tend to take full advantage of the kindness of the casino, eating all the food from the kitchen and unfolding himself more noisy, being a callous, who throw and break things or even arguing with other peaceful clients. However the casino cannot get him out, just because they struggled so much to have him and with him out of the picture there's no possibility for more gambling. Another way of looking at this image, is the fact that the casino is giving the junket the opportunity to be in charge. Top Casino management believes that you should kiss the soles feet of the daily customer and not the junket, which in the best case scenario comes to you once or twice a year. Although it is a much heavier and with more obstacles, this strategy proves to be a useful long term, proof being that Casino Metropolis has been voted by the local market in 2013 as the Casino of the year in Romania. Precisely because of the fact that almost the entire activity is focusing on the local market. (Appendix P)

Another so called strategic alliance, but without a signed contract, it is between Casino Metropolis and local celebrities or public figures. This partnership consists of the fact that, Casino Metropolis will satisfy all their fads, offering them expensive drinks and free chips for their whole group of friends, while the stars are obliged to make pictures and post them on various social networks, like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and so on. In this way, by associating their image with a leader of opinion in today's society, market share and market awareness of the casino will grow visible (Appendix Q). Casino Metropolis has also served as a location for one of the newest Romanian movies, namely Limani (2014), starring Monica Barladeanu and Mircea Diaconu and following to have premiere on the big screen this year (Appendix R).

A temporal strategic alliance, that lasts only for two weeks, took place in December 2013 between Casino Metropolis and the famous Romanian football club, Steaua Bucharest, during the time they played quarter-finals in Europa League against Chelsea London. Casinos hostess were obliged to wear the red and blue jerseys and scarfs with Steaua Bucharest and to approach rich clients with VIP tickets for two weeks, while the casino had the opportunity to communicate their services to supporters, on the billboards that surrounded the playing surface, in the football match on the National Stadium, in order to increase the casino awareness and profitability.

Besides the methods that we presented already, there are, of course, other ways of external growth. This methods can be represented by a contract sign between the casino and a company that offers a number of opportunities on the market. Among other strategic alliances that promoted the casino, were the contracts signed with the Trattoria Il Calcio, an Italian restaurant and El Bacha, a Lebanese restaurant. As appeared in the contract, the entire operation was named, co-branded wipes. A large number of napkins were printed with the logo of the casino on one side and the restaurant's logo on the other side and placed on every table in the restaurant in question, but also in the casinos restaurant, for more than two months.

Figure 3.4. Strategies for the casino to improve their networking

Casino Metropolis had signed a contract with an advertising company that promotes the company outdoor, while the whole Metropolis trust has signed a contract with INTACT trust, that provides the promotions through media portals, but we'll talk about that later in the paper.

To begin with, when it comes to outdoor advertising, we can mention the fact that Casino Metropolis rented for 3 months, 7 huge led screens at the COCOR mall near Piata Unirii, where 30 seconds spots with Casino Metropolis and promotions ran during the whole period of operation of the store, namely, from 9.00 to 21.00 (Appendix S). Another 8 led screens that promotes and distribute the image of the casino, are available at the Henri Coanda airport at the main national and international gates, precisely because of the fact that the airport is known as the main entrance gate in the country and on the market. On these led screens, strategic placed, at every 8 or 10 minutes, depending on the demand for advertisements available to the airport management, a promotion spot of 30 seconds, runs continuously, day and night. As a result of a simple calculation, over a month, the casino has over 40,000 appearances on the screens. Still in the airport, there are 2 roll-up banners at the main exit doors at the airport, as well as flyers and pyramid trunks that promotes the casino at two of the bars located inside the complex. Led-screen campaigns under the Metropolis Casino took place in over 25 locations in Bucharest, including the Piata Universitatii, Piata Unirii, Stefan cel Mare, Piata Lahovari or even in front of a rival casino, "Casino Queen" by a 10 second spots running at an interval of 3 minutes.

Another way of promoting the casino was through street banners and advertising panels, especially in urban areas with heavy pedestrian traffic, at the main entrances in the city or also in the areas of expats. The largest and most imposing banners were in the Lipscani area, Piata Muncii, Universitate, Alba-Iulia, but also in ”Dragonul Rosu” mall, to attract the Chinese community from Bucharest. In a nutshell, locations that are easily accessible to the general public. Also locations with a history in this type of activity were also targeted in particular, so that old clients should come since the early days of functioning the casino. The marketing company within its services, offers also an audio spot on ProFM and on a few locations considered important by the casino management. Among these locations we can find "Dragonul Rosu", both in Romanian, Arabic and in Chinese language – for the same reasons as those mentioned previously, but also because those ethnic players are an important pillar of the casino.

In order to keep the same idea, the contract signed by the Metropolis trust with INTACT trust, offers the casino the chance through 30-second spots on Radio ZU and Romantic FM to widen its market share, but also to increase the percentage of awareness for clients. With time, however, because of the fact that the public radio is much too young, uneducated in this sphere and has no financial capacity held steady at going into a casino, it was stated that this method is not at all effective and all that's left now is the spot from "Dragonul Rosu". Casino Metropolis is preferring now to use their own resources in other directions.

Due to the fact that Casino Metropolis is a part of the umbrella-brand Metropolis, it will take advantage of the notoriety of this brand to make it known in a shortest time possible that this is the newest initiative of the group. In this context, a media plan will be build together with the representatives of the trust INTACT, which will enable the new brand Casino Metropolis to be visible and assimilated through the following media channels:

-Television: Antena1, Antena2, Antena3, EuforiaTV, GSP TV

-Press and Magazines: Financial Week newspaper, Jurnalul National, Gazeta Sporturilor

-Magazines: TopGear, Felicia, Confidential

-Radio: Radio ZU, Romantic FM

-Web: all sites the trust media

In addition, the entire trust Metropolis acquired from the famous French mobile telephone company Orange, a software that allows them to communicate and inform clients weekly about their latest casino promotions via SMS and newsletters. This platform allows a more efficient communication with customers via a SMS of up to 160 characters at 0.002 eurocent/SMS. Because of the fact that customers are bound by the rules of the Casino, to enroll when they first step inside the casino, the company has two separate lists of players, one vast with all the players and a small one with loyal and important players. All the SMS are sent in the afternoon, usually on Tuesdays or Thursday, given the fact that the majority of sweepstakes are held, and despite any expectations Casino Metropolis received numerous feedbacks.

Figure 3.5. Strategies for the casino to improve their brand awareness

Based on the information that is collected over the years through every single player that put a step in the casino, because when a new entrant is first registered, he must determine what was the distribution channel in which he heard about the location, the most encouraging news for casino ownership is that more than 60% of the new customers came by a “Recommendation from a friend". This speaks for itself about the quality of products and services offered. The second place is occupied by the "Outdoor advertising", from the Calea Victorei with almost 20%. On the last place in top 3, stands the partnerships with Hotel Novotel with 10%. The remaining 10% of the customers were attracted by: Facebook, Internet, and Magazines, as you can see in Figure 3.6. (Appendix T)

Figure 3.6. Most popular distribution channels of Casino Metropolis

As we already stated before, the impact and the outcome of these strategies can be further seen in Figure 3.7. Based on the information and internal documents offered to me, by the Casino Marketing Manager, Mrs. Andreea Ion, the market share in 2013 was nearly 65%. If we look at this figure, as a total of 100%, the biggest impact has been represented by the need of the casino to create loyal customers. It has influenced the market share with over 45%, proving the fact that attracting clients with an aggressive schedule of headliner entertainment, big prize promotions and special events for the players is still the most efficient method through all. On the second step, the strategy that has helped the most Casino Metropolis to grow came from the need to improve their customer quality, and the VIP room, personalized custom care, personal escort and gratuity at the bar and restaurant have increased the market share of the casino with over 36%. The strategies chosen by Casino Metropolis in order to make partners with mutual benefits and in order to popularize and extent their brand recognition, increased the market share with 5% and 11% and brought what was needed, so at the end of the year, they became leaders on the local market. The casino need to globalize their activity seems to be the most unproductive strategy, mainly because coming in the capital, from a smaller city, namely, Timisoara, could not influence enough the market share.

Figure 3.7

3.4 Analysis of the Challenges encountered by Casino Metropolis

Being a universe so complex and with so many sides, the challenges in the world of casinos are extremely diverse and divided on several criteria. The chart below is a creative tool that indicates us the five major factors that influence the daily life of Casino Metropolis, namely, economic, social, cultural, political and administrative. It is designed for the purpose of an easier understanding when it comes to various factors that challenge the casino operation. It must, however, be mention that this is a result of a purely personal estimation being based on personal experience acquired over time as an intern and customer, but also on the basis of some internal documents provided to me by the top management of the casino.

Figure 3.8

One of the casinos daily challenges that this industry is facing is represented by the casino's ability to keep in check and to limit as much as possible all the irregularities committed by gamblers. In spite of all those benefits and well prepared services, the casino industry is also well known for it’s rigidly and strictness when it comes to irregularities. In the gambling market, when it comes to sinuosity, ”The Blacklist” is a synonym for anything relating to irregularities, and is largely composed of outright, old and fashioned cheaters to those who have certain intentions in cheating and from aggressive people to those people who take advantage of the casino’s services. Also, the casino is automatically bound by the regulation to add on the Blacklist people who are related to organized crime. The history of this list, named in Las Vegas the ”Black book” goes back to the 60’s.”This book is only 36 pages long but lists some of the most notorious names in gambling crime since its creation in 1960. It was born out of the fear that if Nevada couldn't keep organized crime out of gambling then Congress would eliminate the industry completely through high taxes. Eleven names were drawn up in the original list, consisting of individuals defined as having a "notorious and unsavory reputation which would adversely affect public confidence and trust that the gaming industry is free from criminal or corruptive elements." (http://www.nextshooter.com/blackbook) (Appendix U).

In the past, the process of placing someone on this book was an administrative process, but nowadays nominees are forbidden to participate in a public hearing regarding their trail. Also, the casino’s top management can decide on their own if they want to place that person on the blacklist or not. On the other side, this Blacklist it is also an exit door from this casino and gambling drug and vice, meaning that it is also available for those who, being aware of the problems they have, make certain requests regarding their restriction in the casino. So, to simplify, they can signed certain papers barring themselves from any sort of gambling activities in that region. There is also another strange situation, that I experienced while I was in internship, it is available also for the relatives, meaning they can make certain requests so that their children, brothers or husbands, in general, addicted players, shouldn’t be allowed to entry. These methods, to let gamblers and relatives to put the loved ones or themselves voluntary on the blacklist, it is an excellent and a crucial step for out of control gamblers.

There is also another group of players called ”no-players”, meaning those who only eat/drink & run and never gamble. If a person like this, engaged himself in such an activity for more than twice, and is observed by the staff and by the surveillance operators, it will automatically switch to ”The Blacklist" of the casino. It is important to understand that once you are on their Blacklist database, the casino it will restrict your full entry for an indefinite period of time until the approval of the top management. It will undertake necessary checks and then they will determine if you deserve to be kept as a customer or not. Of course, all players are forbidden to gamble in any casino with the exceptions of bars, airports or stores with 15 slot machines or less and no gaming tables.

Another information that I found to be very interesting it is the method on how the casinos communicate and exchange their Blacklist between themselves. As long as a client is listed in casino’s Blacklist, then that particular casino will automatic transmit his name and his personal information the other casinos, with full details and the reason, on why he was restricted. So, it’s important to understand that a problem for one casino from a specific region, represents a problem for all the casinos from that particular region. Also another fact that I founded to be very interesting is the fact that, the casino hires some ex-cheats who know every trick in the house just to watch the gamblers not to cheat at any game. Even though such irregularities are known to have a high level importance in a casino, based on which certain dealers or surveillance operators can be promoted, as you would expect are signal rather rare than often. Why? Because the idea that he would be forbidden to enter any live casino in the country, pardon my French, it scares the hell out of the player. Cheaters go from casino to casino looking for weak dealers just like lions are looking for antelopes, but the worst thing that could happen to any gambler is to be places on ”The Blacklist” of the casino. He could never step foot in any casino from that region legally. Even it sounds a little bit Science-Fiction, some of them even came back with fake nose and fake beards. And you catch them after the way they bet. If they weren’t so greedy, you wouldn’t catch them. But, in the end, they are all greedy.

Most of the times, when such an irregularity was signal and the top management was inform, the surveillance manager alongside with the General manager will analyse the video tape and if the assumption is indeed true then the player will be asked respectfully to leave the casino and it will be escorted outside. Casino tries to stick his opponent in the ropes, just like a world class boxer. Then, first thing in the morning, after some consultations and researches between the top managers, the General manager will decide if the player will be add immediately on the Blacklist and then upload his picture in the reception database. Also, it’s important to know that all irregularities are treat in the same way, it doesn’t matter for the top management in what category your incident is situated, if you been caught counting cards or just eating and drinking without playing, you are still going to be on the same Blacklist. Also, if one casino operator refuse to report a specific illegal gambling activity then the casino could risk to face fines and licensing problems. The big advantage is that, after a while, you can be granted if the problem you caused is considered to be a small one.

Another test that casino management must face successfully is the process of recruitment of new employees. Due to the fact that it claimed itself a top class casino, Casino Metropolis must dispose of a very strict and rigorous system for the selection of employees, in order to keep a high level of services. But because of the fact that, in Romania, live casino gaming industry is very poorly developed, it is very hard for the top management to find the right people. The recruitment process is a critical activity in any company, that’s because having the right person, in the right place, at the right time is very important in achieving the goals and the desirable performance settle by the top management. When it comes to a casino, this process is more complicated than usual. It all starts when the casino identifies a vacancy position, most of the time due to the lack of personnel or to the continuous movement of personnel in this industry. After they determine the ideal recruiting target and they evaluate that need, they find themselves at a crossroads. There are many ways to find candidates, both internal and external. Besides the top positions there are not too may cases in Casino Metropolis, where the staff is hired from the internal environment. So, we are going to focus our attention on this environment and method.

In the initial phase, when the casino wants to generate interest from the people outside the company, in most of the cases, they post different ads in the local newspapers searching for local and available labor force. Because of the non-profitability of this searching method, demonstrated by the recent past and because nobody actually read the local newspapers, they use to shift their intentions to the national market. This action is commenced by posting jobs on various Romanian websites, such as: http://ejobs.ro/, http://www.bestjobs.ro/, http://www.myjob.ro/ and so on. If neither this method of recruitment is considered to be profitable, nor worth to the company, the main reasons being the lack of training, experience and preparation on the Romanian gambling market, they turn out to the last resort, seeing themselves obliged to search for candidates outside the borders of our country. So, in this respect they use to post all types of job offers available in the company on specialized websites all over the world, such as http://www.casinostaff.net, http://www.icasinojobs.com, http://www.casinocareers.com or http://www.worldcasinojobs.com. Of course, there are other methods for recruitment new employees. For example, because they are a company that operates in Bucharest, they always ask at the ”Municipal Agency for Employment Bucharest” for available labor force and besides press advertising and online recruitment they also tend, one or two times a year to organize a special course for training and development the new young generation interested in this business environment.

The first step is represented by how the applicants will submit their personal resume alongside with a letter of motivation. Beside this, another advantage, another avail that the employee could benefit from is a letter of recommendation from a person accredited and acknowledged in the field or from his old company where he used to work. Then, depending on the competitors’ capabilities, aptitudes, age, but also experience, the gambling market being an area that requires first of all a vast experience, the company, especially the Human Resources department responds to the contender with an email or with a letter informing him or her about date and location of the interview. If the candidates also successfully passed this stage of recruitment, a one to one interview, then the manager will be able to call up the final, the decisive and the eliminatory test, so-called table test. Tables test is an evaluation where the manager, tests the skills and the capabilities of every remaining candidates, every couple of days, for one for two weeks, at every existing game in the casino, from Blackjack to Roulette and Poker.

After this final assessment, the General Manager, based on his managers’ feedback, reviews but also on his analysis of the video footage with the candidate performing at the table, decides who is hired and who is not. If the candidates skills and aptitudes at the table test will not met the expectations and the outlook of the Casino’s General Manager they he will be introduced in a databases and with the earliest opportunity will be contacted by the casino HR department for available positions. For those who’ll pass the test there are other activities that need to be done in order to be finally hired as casino’s employees. The HR department will take care of checking employees CVs and also take care of contacting his previous workplaces, asking respectfully about his behavior, about his problems and conflicts, trying to find out why he left the company and in what circumstances. All those things are part of the recruitment policy of the company in which they wish to check their employees before hiring them. After the contract is signed, the casino will submit the employees its schedule, the number of working hours per week, the number of days off, it will handed his equipment meaning the appropriate attire and will allocate him the necessary space, the key locker and give him the final instructions. Now, the new employee has a trial period of three months, after which, if the satisfaction and expectations of the casino are met, the period becomes an indefinite one.

When it comes to the biggest challenge, the biggest fear in the field, everybody has one single point of view and that is represented by legislation. Because of the fact that the poles of political power are changing constantly in Romania and each one used to bring their own representatives, there is a certain legislative instability at the some level that affects the gaming industry. It is very difficult to have long term planning or business stability due to dynamically changing environment, where the law is changing without sufficient notice, making former business plans obsolete and creating the need to redefine your whole business model way to constant (Casino Inside Magazine Nr. 28/2012). So, due to bad politics that degenerate into too many changes of the law, this is an essential factor and an impending obstacle in the way of success of any live casino in Romania. Russia, for example, has developed so much in the gambling market, but when a new law was enacted, the industry suffered a shock, all the casinos form all over the country being closed. In the same way, there was a dramatic change of gambling law in Poland in 2009 resulting in progressive closing all the casinos and gaming halls for a period of 6 years. (Casino Inside Magazine Nr. 34/2013).

Although the gambling sector brings many advantages for the country, legislation continue to be terrifying in Romania. The main and the most important benefits from the casino gaming would be that it creates jobs, meaning employment opportunities for the people in Romania reducing at the same time the level of unemployment. The gambling market also generates tax revenues for the state, meaning that the government would be able to invest money in infrastructure, in education, in the health care system, public safety, housing, state aids or welfare, finally leading to a positive economic impact. Also, depending on the level of development, the gambling market can attract tourists leading to higher earnings for the hotels and restaurants, so a specific development of tourism within the country. My idea is that, at any time gambling activities could serve the public benefit. It could safeguards the future of the sustainable model in which the entire profit is used for the funding of sport, social projects, culture and the environment.

Keeping the same core idea, in this very moment, it can be stated that, this area knows a little slight regression and involution, all of which are caused by the taxes and levies that are too high and need to be paid to the state and the licenses, that are as consistent as the taxes. Relative to the average income of a Romanian, the power of purchase, Romania is the most expensive country in the EU, when it comes to gasoline, groceries, cinema ticket, freeways, I-phone 5S or taxes to the state. Furthermore, gambling industry even more narrowly, as it is the only area in Romania in which the State close the entire activity and cancel all the licenses in a moment, if taxes to the State are not paid within 30 days of the due date. Moreover, the banks tend to not provide loans for such an operation and the whole Romanian gaming market is in the immediate danger of being overregulated and overtaxed and could loose customers to the completely uncontrollable international online gambling and betting market.

Romanian government needs money. Lots of it. As a result, all the gambling market is facing with some brand new taxes and increased levies. The problem with such a measure is that, sometimes the side effects of the medicine are worse than the disease itself, meaning that on a long run the consequences of governments raising taxes could well produce a wave that could be disastrous for the entire industry. Under such harsh conditions, the gaming halls will find it harder to create an entertaining environment to attract certain types of players. They will have no choice but to limit their product and services offerings to customers mainly, food & beverage gratuity, entertainment nights and parties, but also the number of gaming tables, in order to be able to pay such amounts of money. So, when the state is increasing the gaming taxes beyond the tipping point, they don’t understand that by doing so, they make casinos and other locations unattractive for a large part of the population. The conclusion to this important idea is that, how you tax is how you get. (Casino Inside Magazine Nr. 40/2013).

Although the market is so mess up in some respects, the roman government also has some gaps in the system. For example, on official data published by Ministry of finance on the internet, you can find that in January, there were 42 companies with authorized number of machines below the number required by the law of 50 machines. If a company has less than 50 machines – gambling license should be immediately revoked. So Ministry of Finance admits officially that 42 companies are breaking the law. Another thing is that if you go for a trip to visit gambling locations you will notice that there are many locations with 8-12 machines while according to the law should be up to 5 or above 15. (Casino Inside Magazine Nr. 26/2012).

When it comes to the organization licenses in the field of gambling in Romania, fees for gambling casino activity consist of 400,000 lei, while for the slot-machine 25,000 lei. When it comes to annual fees relating to the authorization of exploitation of gambling in Romania, we can find the sums 250,000 lei for each table in the municipality of Bucharest, 120,000 lei for each table in cities other than Bucharest, and 8,000 lei for each slot-machine. The minimum issued share capital on the date of the request for the obtainment of organizing gambling license must be 1,000,000 lei when it comes to live casinos and another 30,000 lei for organizers who exploits the slot-machines. All these amounts have been published in the Official Gazette No. 439 dated June 26, 2009. (Appendix V)

When it comes to testing related to their own existence, Top Casino management acknowledges that customer care is the biggest hurdle, this industry being several times seen as the industry with the most difficult customer care in the world (Casino Inside Magazine Nr. 32/2013). Trying to comfort or to cheer up, a man who just lost the last money from his wallet, a man full of outbursts for which even water no longer has any taste, has to be the most difficult job in the world. These feelings and desires awaken in certain people are like many people's reactions to alcohol. Some people, when drinking too much alcohol, become aggressive, others are nervous, but, some are calm and control their impulses. The casino needs to know how to manage each player's reaction and never look him up, but humble, to make him feel important, even if he lost everything.

Regarding challenges is sometimes even more complicated. For example, a constant threat that it is always discussed over and over again is summer. Why? Because most of the customers in this period of time, prefer to spend their money on different destinations or vacations rather than in a casino. Of course, leaving aside those casinos from Las Vegas, Monte Carlo or Macau, where tourists spend their summer vacation there special just to gamble. Precisely for these reasons, the rest of them have struggling hard to maintain a high flow of customers and revenues. It is well known that the casinos have the lowest revenues during the summer and the highest revenues during winter, when, besides those who return from abroad, most people use to spend their holidays in the family.

As a conclusion, one last challenge encountered by the casinos, can be equally represented by a wall that separates Romania from that so long and dreamed Western Europe and America, a wall that symbolizes culture and mentality. What do I mean by this? Romanian people don’t have a culture of gambling, don’t have an educated a mentality in this direction. So, keeping this in mind, we return to the initial challenge presented in the rows above. I would like to add that in cases when, out of control gamblers are putting themselves on the Blacklist, the casino industry salutes the Miller's Crossing, meaning that it is in the casino’s best economic interest to keep this group of players because they generate large amounts of profits, but on the other side, leaving aside the gambling laws, the quintessence of the casino’s mission is to educate the population, so that the large majority understand that live casino, should be seen just as a way of entertainment, of networking, as a way of fun or enjoyment, and not as a way for people to lose their homes, cars and possessions, as it is perceived by the rest of the Romanian people. People should understand that the casino is a bittersweet experience, a way of relaxing, of breaking free from their all day realities. Unlike countries like England, Italy of United States, gambling is perceived negatively by society in Romania. This perception results in the situation that a relatively small percentage of people are going to gaming halls or casinos for fun and entertainment. The Romanian player is still heavily focused on gambling with an ”all or nothing” attitude (Casino Inside Magazine Nr. 41/2014), rather than spending time on a machine and being entertained. This is actually the main problem of the Romanian people when it comes to casinos. There are countries that have a certain culture of gambling, such as the ones above, where the families use to held once or two times a year a ”Gambling night”, meaning that the whole family, husband and wife, with a pre-established home budget, for example 500 pounds each and no more, go to the Casino and spend their night there, eating, having fun and enjoying the party.

3.5 The Illusion of easy money

This last teaching of the chapter is a succinct presentation of the most well known and used psychological weapons that casinos are using on the players. These maneuvers are conferred based on documentation (Mazur, 2010), (Casino Inside Magazine Nr. 37/2013) along with my personal experience, and can function as a shelter or as informative list for any person interested in this sphere of business. As I already state this for a million times by now, casinos are some irreproachable structures, and this due to the fact that are psychological minefield. The whole activity, from the subtle design of the builing up to the smallest detail, have been planned in advance and well-established by some specialists in the field, so that the players fell warm, important and comfortable spending as much time as possible in the casino. The cobweb that is cleverly designed by the casino to catch the customer is made special and based on some techniques and some strategies very well defined. Following are seven tricks used by the casinos to roll your money into their pockets:

NO CLOCKS. One of the unwritten but essential rules in any casino, is the total absence of clocks in the room. Without no clocks adorning casino walls, day melds into night and night into day, letting the time slip away carefree and untroubled for any gambler. Don’t expect to get the time from dealers, because they are trained in such a way, that they don't wear and know nothing about this issue, for this very reason.

NO WINDOWS. In any major casino the only windows you will see are the ones near the entrance or exit. Once you are in the middle of the action, will be hard up to see any. The subconscious of human beings use to react and induce a certain felling of sleep, when a particular person notice that is getting dark outside, that is why the casino won't allow any windows. This strategy works hand-in-hand with the idea of having no clocks. Once you have entered, the most important thing for any casino is to keep you in there, with the intention of not offering you even the slightest option to leave or to know what is happeing in the outside world.

NO CHAIRS. Lack of chairs inside the live casinos has also a psychological explanation. After a long and tiring night, when the gambler wants to rest or sit for a while, the only chairs that are available to him are those at the gambling tables. In this respect, if a player wants to stay, just for a second, away from the agitation and turbulence, he is indirectly placed in front of a gambling game, where the risk of playing money grows.

LIGHTS, SOUND AND TEMPERATURE. With a temperature considered ideal for gambling, always fixed at 21 degrees, the casino is a bunch of scintillating lights and constant barrage of noises, the sound of coins hitting metal, of slot machines spinning, of people yelling – all of this being extremely addictive and captivating, inducing the gamblers a sense of false hope, a non-verbal communication of the idea that if all those bells are ringing, somebody must be winning! Furthermore, the light in a casino is always low and mellow giving you the impression of a friendly and comfortable zone, inducing you a certain feeling of safe and peaceful.

FREE ALCOHOL. Why free booze is delivered to gamblers without them having to get up is easy to understand does not require any further explanation. It is perhaps interesting to notice that the waiters also tend to serve customers with a little more wine than they need, the reasons being easy to understand. By free-flowing alcohol the casino promotes poor play, generating a certain intention of the dizzy gambler to continue his irrational act of playing and lossing eventually, felling like the whole universe had plotted against him, to misconstrue a bit of Coelho.

NO CONTROL OVER THE MONEY. Furthermore, to convince a man to whom you took all the money, all the reserves and resources of the family, to come back to you with the money being borrowed from loan shark, in order to keep playing, must be the second most difficult job in the world. The central question is, how can they do that something like that? The main solution to this problem is wrapped into a psychological trap. The casinos do not offer the customer the control over the money he plays. What does that mean? First, the players spend out from their own pocket an amount of money that will be exchanged into game chips. This feeling of buying something that is not yours is truly very strange. Tokens used in casinos are more easily handled by the dealer, and make the game to be much faster than if you were playing with real money, banknotes. This makes the casino to win as much. More games, more money. The feeling that comes, playing with plastic chips will make you forget the amount of money that you changed as a player. Each token has its denomination and can be bought or rented, by the player during the game. The second phase is not to take into account and not to have control over the amount that counts. Everything becomes a game with plastic chips, with different colors and values. ​​What I mean is that, for everyone, it is much easier to gear up with a chip that says $1,000 and is pink, rather than play with ten $100 bills. The feeling is not the same. So, just by simply playing with plastic chips, having different values ​​or colors, creates a diversion inside yourself, and, at some point, you forget how much you actually bet. Here, in this moment you have no control over the money you came to play with. And it will draw you into a trap where your desire to win will only lead to loss.

LABYRINTH CONCEPTION AND DESIGN. One of the most important points of departure in a casino is its design and psychological conception. For example, the casino restaurant is always located as deep inside the building as possible, in the exact opposite side of the entrance, so that when someone wants to go to grab something to eat, must traverse the entire place and pass through all the gambling tables. The carpeting is also chosen on the basis of psychological criteria, so it contains different patterns and designs with colorful swirls and lines in order to create a specific route and to manipulate the player to go in a certain direction desired by casino. The cashier window, for example, the place where the lucky ones cash their prizes are always located near the restaurants, bars, bathrooms, near any highly trafficked areas deep down inside the location, for the sole purpose that, when someone wants to change the chips for real money, besides that fact that he is obliged to walk through the whole place the temptation of gambling being high, the guy right next to him could spot him immediately. It is a method by which the casinos induces the customer the illusion of easy winning. There are also floating myths out there, that says casinos are pumped full of oxygen so the players feel more energetic and awake. The truth, as always, is somewhere in the middle. The color of the wall most of the time is red, because certain studies discover that it evokes a safe and comfortable feeling. Not to mention that casinos are design in a special way for you to get lost in, being hard to escape from this giant maze. The strategy is to keep customers inside for as long as they can so you end up playing more. It is so brilliant and subtly designed that you will not find any logic arrangement. A type of machines that you will find in one particular location, will be located in the exact same position 10 meters away. (Appendix W)

Conclusion & recommendations

The present study was designed to determine the effective growth strategies implemented by Casino Metropolis on the Romanian gaming market and to investigate the impact of these hand-pick methods on the local market share. This paper set out to explain the central importance of the numerous challenges encountered by Casino Metropolis and to offer a brief explanation of the whole cognitive system of gambling behind the scenes, giving a short list of psychological illusions conducted by the casinos all over the world.

Returning to the hypothesis posed at the beginning of this study, it is now possible to select the most effective and useful growth strategies, as a personal recommendation for any person who takes the slightest interest in gambling domain. Based on internal documents and financial data provided by the casino management, I was able to determine the best growth strategy put into practice successfully by Casino Metropolis. Math logic indicates us, that the strategy with the greatest success came from the casino's need to create a body of loyal clients. Even though, through this research we reach the conclusion that, all the casinos promotes the same cabbage on the their stalls just packaged differently, this particular type strategy influenced the local market share with over 45%, highlighting the true gravity of that old Harry Gordon Selfridge basic marketing principle. “Rule number one: The customer is always right. Rule number two: When the customer is wrong, refer to rule number one.”. Now we begin to understand the true financial importance of this carefully and neatly wrapped package and services offered to the customer. It doesn’t matter if until then, the player won or not, these numbers show us once again that, the central pillar that sustain this industry is that the player must always be satisfied. Actually, live casinos are just like the gypsies musicians. The more you give them, the more they play.

Te second scenario that I believe you need to follow if you want to succeed on any gambling market in the world, is to improve your customer services, by adding and elaborating fresh value to customers. Not having an enough budget to sustain a powerful marketing compaign, Casino Metropolis was focused more on services, paying a close attention to details and trying to cover all tastes. An old American proverb says that "what goes around comes around", and at the end of the day, that has made the difference between casinos in Bucharest and the main reason why Casino Metropolis was voted by the customers as Casino of the year in 2013. The secret to all this? Besides the personalized services, there is an old axiom that governed most of the successful enterprises over the history. Win-win situation. The top management from Casino Metropolis understood very well this double valence of the word ”win”, and adopted in their strategy. They know that they should provide win to customer in exchange for their win, in whatever form it may be.

And as a last recommendation, but crucial from my point of view, is the implementation of a strategy that extend your networking. I personally believe that the most essential skills for an entrepreneur is the art of networking. And I am not referring just to gain more contacts, establish a rapport with each of them and help each other sometimes, but to share information, maintain and strenght the relation with that particular contact, in order for you to uncover future opportunities. In this particular case, Casino Metropolis have networks that reach fewer firms, but the firms are well connected to one another, helping them in this respect to gain more than 11% of the local market share, and that is why I advise you to ”Go network!”, as for me is the obelisk, the most bright star in the sky of business.

In a nutshell, based on the current findings it is clearly supported that, casinos are selling people dreams with a flavor of passion and adrenaline for cash. This is their job. This is what they do. We must keep in mind that casinos are institutions that work only with gambling; at the end of the month they do not lose, they always win! Of course, there were thousand of cases in media and especially in Hollywood movies talking about how the casinos are cheating or how the casino fudges different games, so, customers perish significant amounts of money. Do not misunderstand! Casinos do not steal and do not cheat! Since humans have existed they have gambled away their fortunes, and it is probably the fate of man to continue gambling so long as there is anything left to bet on. What they do, is that they exploit a very simple system. Absolutely all games that exist in a casino are designed to increase adrenaline of a person who takes a chance, doing its best to make the outside world nonexistent, in order for the player to spend as much time as possible at the gaming table. Just like the politicians give you the illusion of choice and the illusion of freedom, in the same way the casino gives you the illusion of easy money. That’s the most devilish thing about this industry.

, just because of the fact that old gambling axiom always applies, "The house always wins". No matter what.

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Madhok A., (2006), How much does ownership really matter ? Equity and Trust Relations in Joint Venture Relationship, Journal of international Business Studies 37, page 10-11.

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References

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Barringer Bruce R. & Ireland Duane. R., (2007), Entrepreneurship: Successfully Launching New Ventures, 2nd Edition, Prentice Hall

Bartholomew D., (2004), The Perfect Pitch, Priority Publishing, page 124

Bernovici D., (2013), How you tax is how you get, Casino Inside Magazine Nb.40, Gamblers Media Publication, page 9

Clarysse W., Schoors A., and Willems H. (eds), (1998), Dicing with the Gods, Leuven Publication, page 45

Cumming D., (2006), Adverse selection and Capital Structure: Evidence from Venture Capital, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, number 2, page 68

Duisenberg, Willem F. (1998), The ESCB’s Stability-Oriented Monetary Policy Strategy, speech in Dublin, November 10

Henderson Rebecca M. & Clark Kim B., (1990), Architectural Innovation: The Reconfiguration Of Existing, Administrative Science Publication, First Edition, pag. 9

Lamb Charles W., Hair Joseph F. Jr. & McDaniel Carl, (2011), MKTG, South-Western Publication, 4th edition, chapter 2, page 22.

Madhok A., (2006), How much does ownership really matter ? Equity and Trust Relations in Joint Venture Relationship, Journal of international Business Studies 37, page 10-11.

Mazur J., (2010), What's Luck Got to Do with It?: The History, Mathematics, and Psychology of the Gambler's Illusion, Princeton University Press, page 88

Mihaila C., (2013), Gambling in Poland, Casino Inside Magazine Nb.34, Gamblers Media Publication, page 67

Mihalache O.,(2014), All or nothing attitude, Casino Inside Magazine Nb.41, Gamblers Media Publication, page 21

Mogin A., (2012), The gambling legislation, Casino Inside Magazine Nb.28, Gamblers Media Publication, page 33

Newton I., (1687), Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica

Oviatt B.M. and McDougall P.P, (2005), Defining International Entrepreneurship and Modeling the Speed of Internalization, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 29, page 255

Panait M., (2013), The most difficult customer care, Casino Inside Magazine Nb.32, Gamblers Media Publication, page 47

Penrose E.T., (1959), The Theory of the Growth of the Firm, New York: John Wiley and sons Publication, page 159-160

Raileanu M., (2013), The Prestige, Casino Inside Magazine Nb.37, Gamblers Media Publication, page 37.

Sava C., (2012), Gaps in the system, Casino Inside Magazine Nb.26, Gamblers Media Publication, page 80

Schildt H.A. and Laamanen T., (2006), Who Buys Whom: Information Environments and Organizational Boundary Spanning Through Acquisitions, Strategic Organization magazine, no.2, page 10

Schwartz A., (1995), Why financial stability depends on price stability, Economic Affairs Publication, Volume 15, Issue 4, page 21–25.

Schwartz David G., (2006), Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling, Gotham Publications, page 66

Shan W., Walker G., Kogut B., (1994), Interfirm Cooperation and Startup Innovation in the Biotechnology Industry, Strategic Management Journal 15, page 387-88

Srinivas K. Reddy, Holak Susan L. and Bhat Subodh, (1994), To Extend or Not to Extend: Success Determinants of Line Extensions, American Marketing Association, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 261-262,

Trott P., (2008), Innovation Management and New Product Development, 4th Edition, Prentice Hall, page 49

Walker J., (2006), Learn from entrepreneurs mistakes, Desert Morning New Publication, page 52-53

Welch J., (1999), Growth Initiatives, Executive Excellence Magazine, no.6 , page 8-9.

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Collins P., (2006), Alliances and Acquisitions increasingly important for fast growth companies, PricewaterhouseCoopers Finds, accessed on March 18 2014 from www.pwc.com, PricewaterhouseCoopers Homepage.

Covert A., (2014), Facebook buys WhatsApp for $19 billion, accessed on March 22 2014 from www.money.cnn.com. Available at [http://money.cnn.com/2014/02/19/technology/social/facebook-whatsapp/]

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http://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/licensing-agreement.asp as accessed on March 25 2014

Jay M., (2010), Starbucks Company Overview, accessed on March 13 2014 from http://www.investorguide.com

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La Monica P. R., (2007), Google about to buy YouTube, accessed on March 22 2014 from www.money.cnn.com. Available at [http://money.cnn.com/2006/10/09/technology/googleyoutube_deal/index.htm?cnn=yes,]

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