Responsible Gaming

The house position

Wislavin Casino is one room with eight tables, open five evenings a week, inside a hotel of forty-nine rooms. It is a small part of the hotel's business, and that shapes how we run it. We would rather a guest played for an hour and went to bed than played all night, and the staff on the floor are told as much when they are hired.

Everything on this page is arranged face to face, on the premises. No form, telephone line or outside scheme is involved: you speak to a person at the desk and it is done while you stand there.

Strictly adults

Eighteen is the legal age in Poland and the door staff have no discretion over it. Photo identification is checked on every visit, for every guest, however familiar the face. A passport, a national identity card or a driving licence is accepted, and a photograph of a document is not. Nobody under 18 is admitted to the second floor at any hour, with or without an adult.

What the staff can arrange

Ask at the desk at the head of the stair, or at reception on the ground floor, and any of this can be set up in a few minutes:

• A time limit. Tell us when you want to stop and a member of staff will come and tell you the time has arrived. It sounds like a small thing, and it works more often than people expect.
• A spending limit. A figure for the evening or for the stay, written down at the cash desk and held to. Once it is set, it stays put for the rest of that night, however the conversation goes.
• A break. A stated period, a week or a month or a season, during which the door team will not admit you. You do not have to explain, and no reason is recorded.
• A quiet period. A cut-off hour after which you are not admitted, which suits people who are fine early in the evening and less fine at one in the morning.
• Confidential self-exclusion. Arranged in person at reception, with the duty manager, in writing and in one conversation. It stays in force until you come back in person and ask to review it after the stated period, and the review is a real conversation. The record is held by the duty managers and the door team, it is not discussed with other guests, and it is shared outside the hotel only where Polish gaming law requires it.

We do self-exclusion face to face for two reasons. We need to know it is really you asking, and somebody should explain what it means before you sign. A written request by email will get a reply inviting you to the desk.

Credit and cash machines

The house lends nothing to anyone, in any form. The gaming floor, the stair and the lobby have no cash machine, and staff will not walk you to one. Cash and cards are handled only at the cash desk inside the room, and only while it is open. Chips are not sold at the bar, at reception or against a room bill, and a room bill cannot be used to play.

Worth noticing in yourself

Most people who play here do it the way they order a second glass of wine. For a few it becomes something else, and the difference is rarely dramatic at the start. These are worth noticing in yourself:

• Staying later than you meant to, visit after visit.
• Going back the same evening to get back to where you started.
• Playing with money that was already spoken for.
• Being vague with people close to you about where you have been.
• Finding that the hour only works if there is something at stake.
• Walking out ahead and feeling flat about it.

None of these means much on its own. Two or three together are worth talking over with someone, and the duty manager is a good place to begin.

How the staff are trained

Everyone who works the floor, the cash desk and the door completes the operator's responsible-gaming training before their first shift and repeats it every year. It covers the age checks, how to set and hold a limit, how to open a conversation without an audience, and when to stop serving. Inspectors keep a shift log of anything that gave them pause, which the duty manager reads the next morning. Reception staff are trained on the same material, because reception handles the self-exclusions and is awake at four in the morning.

Staff are not paid on what the tables take. No commission or bonus is linked to the floor's result, and nobody is encouraged to keep a guest sitting down.

How to ask

Come to reception on the ground floor and ask for the duty manager. It is a desk in a lobby, staffed around the clock, and requests like this are a routine part of the job. If you prefer to raise it before you arrive, call +48 56 412 87 30 and say you want to speak to a duty manager about the second floor; they will arrange for you to be met at the desk when you get here.