Speakers

Simon is now Executive Chairman and majority shareholder of Hippodrome Casino limited, the extensive leisure casino complex he created above Leicester Square tube station, which opened in July 2012. The project started in 2005.  It employs over 760 people, is one of the largest single-site employers in the area and entertains over 33,000 customers a week. Despite being one casino out of the 126 casinos in the UK, it welcomes 11% of the UK casino admissions and is changing how casinos are viewed in the UK, and Europe.

Simon was highly involved in the 2005 Gambling Act that finally allowed British casinos to advertise, promote, have live entertainment and removed the compulsory membership requirement (with its 24hr cooling off period), allowing British casinos to compete internationally. This allowed him to take on and redevelop the Hippodrome site in central London, turning it from a derelict nightclub into a world class asset.

Simon received a first-class honours degree from Bristol University and then spent two years at the city merchant bankers, Singer & Friedlander limited. Simon was then Managing Director of Thomas Estates Ltd, a company acknowledged as one of the main innovators in the bingo and amusement industry in the UK, until he sold it to Riva gaming in Aug 2006. Thomas Estates employed nearly 600 people and ran a national chain of adult gaming centres and three very large bingo halls, including the Beacon Bingo in Cricklewood, the largest and most successful Bingo club in the country. Simon was instrumental in the gaming deregulation that allowed sites like Cricklewood and led the way using it to create new and innovative bingo experiences. This gave him extensive multi-site leisure experience ranging from sites with 6 to 120 employees, and products including bingo, slot machines, betting, roulette, bars, restaurants, cinema, cabaret and live entertainment.