I’ve just read “Double or Nothing: How Two Friends Risked It All to Buy One of Las Vegas’ Legendary Casinos”. I enjoyed reading about about casino risk from another angle – “when a high roller gets lucky on consecutive visits and the stats around winning and losing”. The stats have definitely spurred me on to pursue a casino marketing idea I’ve had for some time.

Yesterday in Cape Town was the World Cup quarter final between Germany and Argentina. On the morning of the game, I went for a run along the popular bloubergstrand beachfront which was bustling with tourists (mainly Germans and Argentinians who were in town for the big game). As I was running past a pancake store I noticed that they only had a South African flag flying! I wonder how much more business they could have picked up if a German and Argentinian flag was flying with a sign stating specials for all Germans and Argentinians. Maybe even take it further and find out what fillings they like in their pancakes??

There are a few more games left in the World Cup. What welcoming opportunities are so obvious that your casino could take advantage of? I can think of dozens and you don’t need to be a casino in South Africa!

On my way back from Mykonos Casino this week I drove past an up-market game lodge (hotel) and like many hotels in South Africa they had the world flags flying in celebration of the soccer World Cup. However, there was one flag missing that caught my attention. I’m sure the people from that country would feel the same as I do when I’m traveling and don’t see my country’s flag – unwelcome! I’ve come to accept that most hotels etc cannot fly every countries flag but you would expect them to know where most of their guests are coming from. The missing flag at the hotel happens to represent the people from the country who have bought the most tickets to the world cup final!

By the way, Mykonos Casino did not have that flag missing. Maybe that’s why they’re such a popular destination. They send simple welcoming messages!

There are 10 days to go to the World Cup final. The first 5 people to reply to this blog post with the name of the country who’s flag was missing at the hotel will receive a World Cup shirt of the winning country (clue: they were knocked out by Ghana). Ayoba!