David Boden With a leisure industry history that spans, to date, some seven decades, the rocky ride down the years of the company we now know as the Rank Group has been well documented. From Odeon cinemas, through diversification into hotels, motorway service areas, holiday camps, nightclubs, Xerox, film and entertainment services and much more, it wasn't long before the sprawling unwieldiness of the company began to take its toll. In the 1990s, ill-advised acquisitions and mountainous debt combined with failing brands to send Rank's credibility, along with its share price, into freefall. Enter, in 1999, Mike Smith. The new CEO had a gargantuan task ahead, to divest the company of its underperforming businesses and enhance and add value to its continuing divisions. It didn't take him long. Just three years on, having realised £1.5 billion from strategic disposals, The Rank Group Plc is now slimmer than a supermodel, profitable, robust and raring to go. The company's gaming division, which includes casinos, bingo and coin-machine services, contributes almost 50% of group profits. Steering it - and widely acknowledged as Smith's strong right arm - is David Boden. A career leisure manager, Motherwell-born Boden joined Mecca in 1977 at age 20 as a management trainee. He ran bingo units in Scotland and took up regional directorships in London, Scotland and northern England before, in 1988, being summoned back to London to become operations director. Rank acquired Mecca two years later and Boden was appointed operations director of the enlarged group. In 1994 he became managing director of Rank Amusements Ltd. and in 1998, managing director of the reformed gaming division, incorporating the casinos business, Rank Leisure Machine Services and Mecca Bingo. Widely admired by his industry peers, he is, says Urbium PLC (formerly Chorion) chair John Conlan, "one of the most experienced and talented operators in the licensed gaming sector and constantly able to anticipate trends." Boden is based in leafy Maidenhead, but today meets me in the boardroom of the group's central London HQ. A building reminiscent of the old days of overindulgence, I venture. "The top three floors are now sublet to a firm of headhunters" he is quick to point out, keener to talk, in a still-broad Scots accent, about the business that is, clearly, his passion. With the nitty-gritty of the division casinos and bingo, I begin, why hang on to the low-profit (£2.3m in 2001) machine business? "It's about supply, logistics and engineering and not core in context, but it's of great value to us" Boden says. "We looked at selling it but opted not to, as the risk of putting hands-on control of our machines elsewhere could be enormous - we get a huge contribution from slots. It's not material to our profits on a grand scale, but it's a very good business." Material to Rank's profits on a very grand scale indeed is Mecca bingo. In financial 2001 the 124 clubs, including 6 in Spain, contributed £71 million of operating profit on sales of £240 million, an increase of 23% over the previous year. Spend per head in Mecca clubs is a higher-than-average £9.45, 11% up, which Boden puts down to heavy investment in sophisticated mechanised cash bingo equipment. In the UK, the bingo market has long been seen as static and fully mature, but Boden is unwilling to accept that there is no scope for growth. "We acquired two clubs last year, in Rotherham and Wakefield, and they are both trading ahead of expectations" he says. "We are in the market to acquire clubs at the right price and of the correct quality and we are also relocating our clubs in York and Croydon." He has given commercial director Nigel Sibley specific marketing and operational responsibility for Mecca, and promotional activity, including free bingo on Thursday evenings and TV advertising, has improved declining admissions. As a director of the National Bingo Game, Boden sees scope to enhance the country-wide, £100,000-a-day linked game, given new legislation. "It will develop and evolve, provided we can offer larger prizes, plus we have the infrastructure in place to take the game to Europe." The Game's CEO, Paul Talboys, admires the dynamic thinking that Boden has brought to the organisation - "David has an uncanny ability to deliver creative solutions to so many issues" he says. In Spain, Top Rank España ("we may re-brand sometime" says Boden) boasts 6 bingo clubs, with another opening soon. "We started acquiring in 1992, and the business is developing nicely" says Boden. "Our clubs are highly respected and are amongst the top 20 in Spain. We've kept them tight geographically and I would hope we can build up a chain of a reasonable size by selective acquisition and greenfield development." The Spanish bingo market is larger than the UK, although there are fewer clubs - 500, mostly independents, against Britain's 700 or so, not including holiday centres with bingo licences. Clubs are modern, flat-floor units and trade from 4pm to 4am. Bingo is not run by session, as in the UK, but a game is played every 5 or 6 minutes. "People play a few games, get up, get something to eat or drink, then carry on, stop again, have a chat with their pals, start up again and so on" says Boden. "There's no entertainment in clubs, but we have an opportunity to introduce it, as well as more machines and mechanical cash bingo, which doesn't exist over there. As the Spanish local authorities draw revenue from bingo tickets, they are keen to encourage participation and so have reduced gaming duty - not the sort of thing that would happen here!" Rank owns and operates 34 casinos, including five in London and two in Belgium, providing a spread between the top and bottom ends of the market. It says much for Boden that he refuses to blame the events of September 11th for the relatively poor results delivered in 2001 by the two upper-end London casinos - the Clermont and the Park Tower - although, elsewhere in the group, Hard Rock cafés bore the brunt of reduced tourism numbers. "London clubs will always have an element of volatility - you are dealing with a smaller core of customers with larger spends" says Boden. "One particular development didn't help, either - London Clubs moved their casino out of the Ritz to 50 St James and then Ritz then re-applied and got a licence, adding another top-end casino to an already soft market." The provincial casino market remains what Boden refers to as consistent, steady and predictable, combining low spends with high visitor volumes. A programme of relocation of existing casinos in Blackpool, Birmingham, Brighton, Yarmouth, Southampton and Newcastle was undertaken, moving out of side-streets onto more visible sites. Boden says "Traditionally, we had 4,000 or 5,000 sq. ft. casinos, with wall-to-wall gaming tables and two jackpot machines stuck away in a corner. What we needed was bigger and better premises to accommodate the deregulation that we knew was coming." The Brighton and Portsmouth casinos are next to be relocated, with two more scheduled this year. With less than 2% of the adult population of the UK ever having visited a casino, the scope for development is enormous. "Some people think you have to be either James Bond or a gangster with 20,000 quid on you to get in!" Boden laughs. Two new units open this year under the Hard Rock brand - Rank owns the eponymous cafés - in Manchester in July and in London, on the site of the failed Fashion Café off Leicester Square, in November. The 18,000 sq.ft. London venue will offer 15 gaming tables, electronic roulette, 25 machines, bars and, unsurprisingly, a diner. Development cost of the two venues is around £7 million. "We wanted to develop a unique casino product for the UK that couldn't be copied. A number of 18-40 year-olds who had visited casinos said they were too staid and stuffy, too serious, 'not for us'. Hard Rock casinos will not be down-market, but will offer a fun environment and a good night out for a relatively low spend and aim to attract high customer volumes", Boden says of this radical approach to hard gaming, which could eventually spawn dozens of themed casinos country-wide. The Budd report, the government's 18-month review of gambling regulation, was published in July 2001. Boden welcomes its proposals unreservedly, particularly citing deregulation of slot machine numbers in casinos as being of most value. "We will" he says "be able to generate a strong profit from slots, instead of the current 5% contribution, which is very low." The chance for gamblers to enjoy entertainment, drink alcohol on the gaming floor and join a bingo club or casino without waiting 24 hours is also a boon, as is the proposed lifting of advertising restrictions and the abolition of permitted areas. The report also proposes permitting multiple gaming activities under one roof, a prospect clearly welcomes by Boden, with Nigel Sibley a clear candidate to drive such a project, given his overall operational experience. "Bingo has been fortunate over the years with deregulation, but now we're looking to million-pound prizes and rollover jackpots" Boden says. "Things are now moving a lot quicker than they have over the last 30 years, as government has doubtless realised that there may be a revenue opportunity for the treasury - bookmakers moving off shore and internet gaming has really made them sit up and take notice." The company's e-gaming operation is in what Boden refers to as "very early days". The impressive and easy-to-use Rank.com website, launched in November 2001 at a cost of £1.8 million, is now up and running in beta (trial) mode. "People who want to game online are happier dealing with a known and trusted name" Boden says, while considering it unlikely that on-line will ever replace in-person - "in the same way that interest in the cinema was awakened by the advent of video, traditional gambling may well benefit from e-gaming." Rank was granted a licence by the government of the Isle of Man to operate an on-line casino, which will be incorporated into the website by June this year. The days when Rank staff used to ride up and down in the lift in the hope of bumping into their headhunter tenants are long gone. The lean, mean gaming machine that is Boden's chunk of Rank is now perfectly placed to travel the elevator to the very top floor, taking the rest of the group along for what is bound to be an exciting and profitable journey. My favourite things - what rolls David Boden's dice? Film: "'Gladiator' or 'When Harry Met Sally'" Least favourite film: "'Casino' (1995, Martin Scorsese), because of the way it portrayed the industry." Overseas place: "Las Vegas - it never disappoints. But no longer than 3 days at a time, thanks!" Book: "Elephant Song" by Wilbur Smith Car: Ferrari 355 Food: Indian TV show: "I don't watch TV on a regular basis, but I like football…oh, and 'Sex And The City'."