While the two may seem worlds apart, for Petra de Ruiter, CEO of Holland Casino, the gambling and aviation industries are like two peas in a pod. Having worked with Transavia Airlines, and its parent company KLM, for the majority of her career from 1991 to 2022, De Ruiter left the company with close to 25 years of experience under her belt. Yet, despite being with the “low cost, holiday airline” for longer than expected, the jump to the gambling industry seems to have caused minimal turbulence.
MANAGING A GOOD TIME
“I started with hotel management school,” reflects De Ruiter, looking back at where her career began. This was all about hospitality for De Ruiter, learning how to have fun and bringing fun, care and finery to guests. Combining both strategic teaching and hands-on experience, De Ruiter worked on a range of hospitality traineeships; one of which just so happened to be at London’s Luton Airport (not the most glamorous airport she has worked at, she laughs), sewing the seed of things to come. “After hotel management school, I went to university. But, somewhere the airline industry grabbed me,” she says.
De Ruiter joined Transavia Airlines in 1991 as an Account Manager, with her journey within the business seeing her take on roles across a range of departments. In 1998, she became KLM Netherlands’ Product Manager, being promoted to Senior Account Manager Leisure in 2000. In 2004, she shifted to being the Project Manager of Air France for KLM Brussels, before becoming Director of Marketing from KLM UK that same year. From July 2007 until November 2011, she was the Sales Manager of Leisure Market Netherlands for Air France KLM, before becoming VP, Cabin Operations for Transavia for close to five years. Finally, she became COO of Transavia, holding the role for just shy of six years.
With any career in one industry of such length, De Ruiter has been present through a lot of change. While the internet certainly would have been influential, the complete overhaul of commercial aviation in the early 2000s was also cause for adaptation. But this adaptability seems to have proven helpful, both in her ability to move around the business and now, as a CEO working in an industry that changes year on year. Looking back, she says: “I could work in the commercial department, marketing department, operational department. It meant every four years I had another job. I’ve headed up the cabin crew as part of Transavia Airlines. I’ve been a Marketing Manager in the Netherlands. I worked in London as a Marketing Manager for KLM France for the UK and Ireland. I got to see the world, but I also got this combination of commercial, operational and strategic jobs.”
The role of CEO is one that benefits from a diversified skillset. After all, when you are the head of everything, having insights across the board can prove more useful than having specialised knowledge in just a single aspect of business. Maybe this was why De Ruiter was approached for the role of Holland Casino CEO – an option opened to her following her exit from KLM during the Covid-19 pandemic. Across many of our CEO Specials, the impact of Covid has been unavoidable. Just look at 2024’s CEO Special, when we spoke to MGM China President & COO Hubert Wang on the pandemic’s impact on Macau, or former Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chair Cathy Judd-Stein on the authority’s move to Zoom. This is unsurprising, given how it affected just about everything, both in and outside of the gaming industry. Of course, Holland Casino itself was also hit hard by the pandemic – but more on that later.
De Ruiter says her orientation began when she was asked “Have you ever thought about CEO of Holland Casino?” She had been to casinos before, though admits the workings of the industry itself were relatively foreign to her. “I remember when I was at an airline conference in Las Vegas, I stayed in the Bellagio and it was where Ocean’s 11 was being recorded at the time. I did see George Clooney there in the lobby, being recorded. That attracted me,” she recalls. However, despite stepping into a new industry after over two decades with aviation, similarities between the industries soon became clear for De Ruiter. “Like the airline industry, we’re an asset-heavy industry, and land-based is very interesting. But, also like the airline industry, years ago you saw the development of online.Though, most importantly, the land-based casino industry allowed De Ruiter to utilise the skills she had been educated on and honed in her career: Combining operational and strategic planning with working with others and, ultimately, giving guests a good time.
Even now, two years into the role as CEO, De Ruiter does on occasion return to her roots and take time on the casino floor. “I don’t mind sometimes cleaning glasses and things like that,” she says; something she doesn’t “get to do that a lot these days,” understandably. “But, we have something at Holland Casino we call ‘Sylvester Night,’ just after Christmas but before New Year, and we’re open longer. I really enjoyed joining one of the casinos one night.” While she admits her role for the evening had her relatively on the ground, it was a nice experience – on that likely feels a little nostalgic, given where her career has taken her now.
We see that the age of casino visitors is rising. We have to innovate our products. We need to think about how a casino in 2035 looks
STEPPING INTO SOMETHING NEW
The industry was kind to De Ruiter when she joined, she notes. For readers, this will not come as a surprise – as so many will tell you, once you’re in, you’re not likely to be going anywhere anytime soon. “It’s a warm industry,” she explains. “If you’re new in the industry, always, people like to explain to you how it works and that’s very nice. It’s easy to enter an industry if people approach you like that.” Such teaching was critical when entering a senior role in a sector so prolific in its regulation. Though, tight regulation is something else the gaming industry has in common with aviation. Considering the circumstances, that makes a lot of sense.
They’re “very strongly regulated, both industries,” comments De Ruiter. “A lot of complexity in processes, that’s also the same. Everybody has an opinion on it. It doesn’t matter what you do, you can quickly land on the front page of a newspaper if you work for an airline or a casino.” Best method to avoiding the headlines? Learn the rules, learn the regulations and don’t stop learning. “I had to learn the real skills of the casino world. I wasn’t aware of all the rules around table games and how we do it. It’s real craftsmanship you have if you work in a casino. I didn’t know that at all. I wasn’t aware of everything behind the scenes. I had to learn a lot when I joined.
Of course, other factors besides the pandemic influenced her decision to make the leap. She also noted that both industries were predominantly male-dominated, and while it was not her reason for making her move to gaming, it is interesting to note. Primarily, though, moving into gaming two years ago simply felt like the right thing to do at the time. Being in a leadership role for some time is good, De Ruiter points out: “It’s good if management doesn’t stay only two to three years. But, it’s also good if you, after a certain period, move.” Indeed, moving on and allowing someone else to take the reins allows for fresh faces, ideas and innovation to take centre stage. It is what De Ruiter did coming into the gaming industry with no prior experience. “I bring different things because I’m not from the industry. Everybody had to think, ‘Why do we do it that way?’ The answer: We’ve done that for 20 years, it’s good. But, you still need to understand why,” she says. “My predecessor did a very good job innovating Holland Casino. A lot of entertainment was added in his period, and when I spoke to him, he also said, 'I think it’s good that somebody else now moves in and has the next focus and vision.' So, in that sense, it was good for me to change.”
Her predecessor, Erwin van Lambaart, is now the General Director of Casinos Austria, having joined the business in April 2022 after being named Bettina Glatz-Kremsner’s successor at the end of 2021. During his tenure at Holland Casino, and as such during the pandemic, Van Lambaart worked on restructuring within the business, accounting for additional online regulations introduced around the time. The pandemic took recovery, but “together with the team, we brought some stableness, some rest and some enjoyment in our organisation again. Covid is finally gone. It has been my task to leave that period behind and look forward again and find ourselves, specifically online. We have to deal with a lot of changes from new regulations, learnings and findings.” This need for change and a fresh perspective also goes for the role De Ruiter left behind at Transavia, as COO. Despite being “good at it,” getting someone else in that “could bring fresh ideas” following her almost six-year tenure was, in her eyes, the right move both for herself and the business. Plus, while she believes “there are people who can run a company for 20, 25 years and do it with the same freshness every day,” this is “more an exception than the rule.” Keeping things fresh requires fresh faces – and for Holland Casino, this is what De Ruiter has strived to be.
LEADING A LEGACY
Being an executive in any business comes with its own stakes and pressure, but when you are the leader of a legacy brand like Holland Casino, with a longstanding national reputation, there is a lot on the line. After all, no one wants to be the person to bring down a cultural staple. However, legacy brands do come with a few perks; namely, a well-tested infrastructure. “It’s a real pleasure to work for a company that, in a year and a half, will celebrate its 50th birthday,” says De Ruiter. “That means you are joining a brand with history, with people who have experience, but also people who recently joined. It’s a privilege to work for a company with heritage. I also said, in introducing myself, that staff always make the difference. We’ve got 3,800 people working for us,” of which 800 have been appointed in the last two years, “so, working at the casino is still quite popular!”
Still, legacy brands are not immune to changing times, markets and requirements. The Covid-19 pandemic was proof of this. The brand was “hit hard” during the period, leaving Holland Casino with a tax debt “we still have to pay” and “guests trying to find us again.” Recovering from this, re-establishing business norms (“Holland Casino is quite known for always looking for new innovation,” De Ruiter explains) and picking up the pace was key for De Ruiter – something made possible in no small part due to the team “which is focused on bringing it forward” at her disposal. “We refreshed our strategy going forward. We were able to get the guests back in the casino... We have a vision going forward. We know what we stand for. I think we’re good to work towards the future.”
It doesn't matter what you do, you can quickly land on the front page of a newspaper if you work for an airline or a casino
PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE
For De Ruiter, the future of Holland Casino, and indeed, the Dutch market as a whole, is a big picture with a lot of moving parts to consider, both regulation-wise, market-wise and player-wise. On the player front, finding out “what the guests of the future will look like” is a big task on De Ruiter’s agenda. “We see that the age of casino visitors is rising. We see we have to innovate our products. Not tomorrow, but we need to think about how a casino in 2035 looks. That’s a big challenge.” Moreover, the cost of living is on the rise, limiting disposable income among some groups. In terms of market trends, a growing interest in iGaming – and an expected government revision on its stance on the vertical in Q1 – is a notable point for De Ruiter. While the “land-based industry has been very stable, actually, over the past year,” the same cannot be said for iGaming, which will be entering its third year of regulation in January.
“I would wish for the stable situation in the land-based market in the Netherlands for the whole industry,” she says. For Holland Casino, the instability of the iGaming market has been less of a threatening issue, with the operator’s online offering accounting for just 10% of the business. Still, this does not mean the operator does not understand the challenges that come with the market. Having received warning from the Dutch Gaming Authority (KSA) “primarily on our online products,” De Ruiter and the Holland Casino team learned quickly that what works on land does not always work online. “We were a land-based operator which joined the online market because we wanted to be a player. We had to learn our lessons on how to do that, if you don’t come from a tech background.”
Moreover, with the long-term establishment of the land-based industry, and Holland Casino’s place in it, things such as RG and AML are “well taken care of,” allowing focus to be placed towards the “fun part of our industry;” after all, “there’s a lot of people having a nice night out” when they head to a casino. Legal and regulatory changes must also be considered when looking into the future. Just around the corner in the Netherlands is a banning of sports sponsorships, which is set to go live on 1 April 2025, although this is something Holland Casino already implemented. The nation is also expected to face not one, but two gambling tax increases over 2025 and 2026, that will have “a big financial impact on us as a company. I have to make sure business continuity is well taken care of. That’s not very easy when you have such an enormous tax increase.” Generally, “we need to work together with our stakeholders, and the regulator is one of those stakeholders, just as the ministries, the public and the sector are. We need to talk together on what is good for the industry.”
CLOSING THOUGHTS
Still, despite all the plates she needs to spin, De Ruiter has not only been able to balance them all, but has done so while never losing sight of the guests the casino is there to please in the first place. But what is next on the agenda? Of course, 50th-birthday celebrations are high on the priority list, with 100 “maybe a little bit far away” to think about just yet. Keeping the land-based market stable is also another high priority, though “making sure we also get that in the rest of the market,” providing legal online products to dampen illegal market growth. A few smaller innovations are currently in the pipeline, she says. A “big bingo show” is currently being experimented with, which targets smaller bets with bigger emphasis on entertainment. “We also renovated our casino in Enschede, and we have our casino in Groningen, which sadly burned down in 2017,” she adds, noting that the Groningen property, hopefully, will be back up and running in two years’ time.
Before we wrap up our chat, De Ruitermakes a point of her position on the board of the European Casino Association (ECA). She speaks on a recent trip to Slovenia, where she met with other ECA members, and the importance of collaboration between operators across the continent. “I think they’re there as operators to make sure we are in contact and learn from each other,” she says, noting how, among European operators at least, many issues are universal. “Let’s try to work together and learn from each other. I think that would be very good.” Wise words to end on.
