Tough times at Holland Casino see CEO depart

After five years in the Holland Casino chief executive’s hot seat, during which both online and land gambling key strategies had to be planned, CEO Dirk Flink is on the way out, reportedly a casualty of the dire financial straits the operation finds itself in and the “…profound and structural reforms necessary” to address the problems.

At time of going to press there was no indication that a new appointee may be in the wings.

Last year the casino suffered a loss of Euro 652,000 and in the first three months of this year, the results have continued to disappoint.  Player numbers have declined, and those that are playing are wagering less, resulting in the retrenchment of over 10 percent of the casino’s 3,000 employees last November.

A statement from Holland Casino quoted Flink as commenting that his management strengths lay in “…the development and realization of new concepts and formulas”, but that his ambitions for the company in those areas had been “under pressure” from economic and market conditions in recent years, leaving little space to develop strategies to improve the situation.

The Dutch Ministry of Finance, under which the state-owned casino monopoly operates, merely acknowledged that it had been notified of Flink’s departure.

Reuters noted that the government has already let it be known publicly that it will seek to privatise the operation.

Ralph Smeets, head of the FNV Union, said that the departure of Flink was inevitable after expensive tactics and strategies had produced very little in the way of yields.

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