Michael Boettcher, the founder of global casino operator Storm International, has achieved much success in the industry. However, that success has been hard-earned. Here, in his own words, is the first part of the story.
I left school at 18 having been to six schools after I was 11 because of the changes in schools, plus spending a year in Germany as a 12-year-old.
Later I had a place at Goldsmith's College to become a teacher but failed my A-levels, so I worked in a travel agency and as an airline reservations agent for Alitalia for about three years before becoming a mini-cab driver for a while.
Of course, I was looking to do something else but didn't know what and while sitting in a traffic jam in Leicester Square I saw an ad in the Evening Standard to go for an interview at Charlie Chester’s casino in Soho's Archer Street to become a croupier.
The interviews were at 7pm. It was just around the corner from where I was stuck in the traffic and a car parked right next to me signalled to get out, so I took that parking place and went for the interview, after which I got the job.
Then two weeks later I began training for two hours a day (from 7pm to 9pm) in the Golden Horseshoe, also owned by Chester’s and on the other side of the street. That was in 1971 and I was 24. There were some truly unsavoury characters in and around those casinos and I remember seeing many infamous people there, including the Krays.
I also remember Saville Row CID coming in every Friday night to get 'paid off', an enlightening discovery and the beginning of learning how the world really works. All the doormen were ex-criminals who would look at us as if they wanted to kill us.
Read the full article in the August issue of InterGaming.
