My Friend Recession!

For the past three years, I’ve been employed in industries which have been fairly reliant on people having money floating about! I’ve worked in a hotel since 2005 and have slowly seen its trade deteriorate! As of the beginning of this year, I’ve joined an industry that’s been very reliant on the Celtic Tiger, the poker industry! I have seen drastic changes to both industries in a short period of time and as the country starts to tighten their belts, I’m forced to follow!

Last year I’d be lucky to go a day without a bus load of medicated Americans pulling up at the door of the hotel. I don’t use the term medicated lightly, because I swear to God they each have one suitcase for nothing but medicine! If the fat bastards exercised every once in a while then they wouldn’t need as much…. just a thought! Anyway, rant aside, this year the hotel is dead. Barmen are scratching their balls instead of pulling pints, porters do nothing but fluff pillows and receptionists invent phone calls to keep themselves occupied. Last year the average wedding size was in the 200s, now we’re lucky to see weddings of a 100 grace the premises! I think a situation last week is the best example of how bad things are getting, I was in the bar for a function of 50 people for a Wedding Anniversary. After 6 hours, the total drinks bill came to under €100. That’s an average spend of 33c per person per hour! You could argue that they weren’t heavy drinkers, but I alone would have spent €100 quid in 6 hours!

The poker industry in Ireland is something that on one hand can be said to be flourishing, but on the other can be said to be floundering. While record numbers of players are reportedly making a living from it, it’s clear that these are all established players. The amount of casual players is dwindling as they realise that it’s not just a bit of fun anymore as they lose their bollocks every week! Numbers are falling in all the major events and the recently announced IPO will be a real test of the feasibility of poker events in this country. Last year it attracted over 1000 players and with more significant marketing power behind it this year, they expect numbers to rise. Whether it will or not is the million dollar question.

I’m a bit worried that the only two industries that I’ve been involved in, are heavily reliant on a strong economy. Considering that seems to be going to shit, I wonder is a career change in order! Perhaps I’ll become an undertaker, I hear people are just dying to use their services…