Richard Noble, General Manager, Aspers Casino
Nov 15 2010 by Chris Knox, The Journal
From calling bingo at a seaside arcade to running the North East's busiest casino, Richard Noble certainly knows a few things about the gaming industry. Christopher Knox caught up with him.
ASPERS at The Gate has become one Newcastle’s biggest attractions since it opened in 2005 and regularly attracts 13,000 customers a week, many of them having been introduced to the world of gaming with the help of the venue’s open-door policy.
The venue has benefited from the rocketing popularity of gaming among a wider customer base, with the old image of smoke-filled gentlemen’s clubs now replaced by a friendly and less intimidating environment.
Certainly, walking through the casino to meet Aspers’ chief operating officer Richard Noble, I was struck by how busy the place was, especially considering that it was 2pm on a Wednesday afternoon.
Covering 45,000sq ft, Aspers is by far the largest casino in the North East, offering 27 traditional gaming tables, one interactive electronic roulette table and 87 electronic gaming terminals offering roulette, blackjack or punto banco, as well as 20 slot machines.
Away from the bright lights and excitement of the gaming tables, Noble, 40, tells me how much of his career has similarly been left to chance.
He spent his early years in Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire, while his father John, who was in the Royal Anglian Regiment, was stationed in Germany.
After returning to the UK in 1975, his dad set up and ran a hotel in York with his wife, with the young Richard left to make a playground out of its many rooms and corridors.
He said: “The hotel included a Conservative club and I have vivid memories of bouncing on my Space Hopper around the pool tables. I guess it was during a time when people didn’t mind kids being around as much.”
It was while living at the hotel that Noble’s rise to the top of the casino industry may well have been stopped in its tracks early.
“I fell off the hotel roof one day and was only saved by one of the top floor balconies,” Noble said. “My injuries were serious enough for me to spend a night in hospital but it could have been so much worse if it wasn’t for that balcony, as it was a four-storey drop to the ground.”
Not long after dusting himself down, Noble moved to Saudi Arabia with his parents after his dad landed a job with an American oil company based there.
He was then sent back to the UK to attend a boarding school in Leicestershire, with the promise of a heavy incentive from his father.
He said: “I was being sent to Grace Dieu Manor School in Leicestershire and was told by my dad that I would be welcomed by a trunk filled with sweets.
“Well, I was completely sold on the idea and sure enough when I got to the school there was a box full of sweets waiting for me. I was so excited.
“I loved every bit of boarding school and looked forward to the longer holidays I was allowed in order to visit my parents in Saudi Arabia.
“I think being handed such independence at an early age gave me the confidence to stand on my own two feet.” After finishing school Noble decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and join the Army.
