Do you Dare to Enter the Madhouse?
The question is being posed by Alice Cooper as he introduces the trailer for House of Spades, a brand new casino and poker venture that’s aiming to bring together online gaming and good old fashioned rock ‘n’ roll in a unique, immersive package.
House of Spades is already live in a number of countries and has big plans for the future. “The concept is a rock ‘n’ roll hotel - basically it’s rock ‘n’ roll hospitality for you as a player like you are a hotel guest,” says co-founder Pelle Wiman. “So you don’t register; you check in to the House of Spades. You get a rock star at the reception - like, we made Dee Snyder a hotel manager, and we have other people we have access to. Which is amazing, by the way, that we can utilise these legends. And we built this fictional world which is like a six-floor building and every floor represents a stage in the VIP programme, so basically you can get different treats and the higher up the building you get, the better the treats - it’s all a metaphor for depositing higher, of course.”
36-Level Achievement Program
A big part of House of Spades’ strategy is a VIP programme that rewards customers with a more immersive rock ‘n’ roll experience. “We’ve got this 36-level achievement program called a House Tour that’s like a digital escape room concept, he says, “Where you collect artefacts from one room and then you level up to the next one, and we built different rooms and chambers inside the House of Spades, like luxury hotel suites and the kitchen and so on. So everything in this casino has a very clear theme, and that’s what I like about it - it’s definitely a rock ‘n’ roll-themed brand.” More than just a theme, though, that rock ‘n’ roll content is baked into the whole gaming experience. “If you go on to the site you’ll see we have something called the Rock ‘N’ Roll House of Games, and that’s all the bands and legends and artists’ games that have been released through the years. So that’s Alice Cooper and Twisted Sister and KISS - and some smaller bands as well, by the way - it’s a catalogue of 15 rock-themed games from Play’n GO, which is one of the bigger gaming providers in the industry. There are also six new games coming this year with new artists - I can reveal Def Leppard is coming, and after that we have this Finnish band that won Eurovision a couple of years ago called Lordi…” I interrupt to let Pelle know that I am familiar with Lorde’s work; being quite partial to a bit of rock ‘n’ roll myself, I am finding by now it quite hard to contain my excitement. “So I’m working with an illustrator to make fictional characters out of them, so like Alice Cooper and Dee Snyder could become avatars in the casino that you can choose from...”
It is at this point that I lose my cool and confess to Pelle that I am a massive, lifelong Alice Cooper fan and I think that all of this is a brilliant idea. “It is!” he agrees, and goes on to tell me about how he became involved with the project. “It all started when we were drinking wine until 3am and talking about Led Zeppelin…” So many good stories begin this way. “So I made a decision about a year ago that yeah, let’s go ahead and do this. You know, I could do any safe, secure job, but I was at a point in my career where I was - OK, which path should I choose? So I jumped on this train and I’m glad I dared. Because a lot of things happened, from an idea to a brand to setting up a company, finding investors… And here we are and the company’s alive and kicking, and I’m looking forward to it all - it’s just great.”
“Just a Really Great Party”
Pelle’s got some pedigree in the online gaming industry, having previously worked as an online marketing manager at Mr Green before moving to Metal Casino. “What they should have done is what we’re trying to do at House of Spades. They took in a lot of money, and they brought in Ozzy Osbourne as an ambassador, but they never made a connection that, the artist can release their own games. For me, I thought that connection was missing - at the end of the day they were just a traditional casino with a theme, and what I wanted to do was connect the rock stars with games, and connect the brand - and not just cliches like ‘metal!’ and ‘horns symbol!” In the name of research, Pelle attended the Sweden Rock Festival several times with one of his House of Spades co-founders, and found it to be, “Just a really great party.”
Talking of parties, Pelle enjoys live poker festivals and has plans to get involved with live events, and has already had some discussions with The Festival. “I like the spirit of live,” he says, “Feeling the rush of live gaming and live music and everything together - I like that. As Lordi are releasing their game in April, we were talking about maybe… What if I could get Lordi down to do The Festival? Like get them onboard at an event that we can do content from? Then we all can benefit - Lordi, us, you. Maybe that’s something we can pull off, I don’t know. Lordi are very cooperative, and it’s on a timescale we can work with. It’s definitely a possibility.” If I wasn’t already excited for The Festival in Tallinn this June, I am now. “They’re really nice guys actually, behind the masks,” Pelle adds. Of course they are. Squee!
House of Spades’ plans for the site are all very impressive, but most importantly: what’s Alice Cooper like to hang out with? “Ah I haven’t had a chance to meet him yet due to covid,” Pelle laments, although Alice has been busy at work recording voiceovers and green screen shots for the site. “I’m looking forward still to meeting him for the first time. But he was really good to work with - he recorded everything first time perfectly. I got an hour of one liners from him. Like, ‘Don’t worry, it’s on the house!’ ‘Cash game!” You know, stuff like that. ‘Cash out at House of Spaaaades!’ He’s just really charismatic and, you know, he’s old but he’s still got that glimmer in his eye. We’ve got a lot of cool things up our sleeves so we can make a lot of cool campaigns.”
Summing up House of Spades’ philosophy, “At the end of the day it’s a casino,” says Pelle, “But everything else these days that’s starting up is just Vegas-this and Vegas-that and so on - it’s just so boring. Everybody is basically H&M, everyone has the same marketing window and the same games. And I was thinking, if I was going to do something, we need to do different shit - brand a bit and position ourselves with something that’s a little bit exciting. I don’t know many casinos that align their gaming with the actual theme of the brand. We’re daring to be different.”
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