Christmas decorations up at Maybury casino with 120 days to go

THERE’S just 120 shopping days – and two temperate seasons – to go until Christmas.

But that hasn’t stopped at least two city casinos getting into the festive spirit four months early by mounting huge Christmas trees in their grounds.

Bosses at Gala Maybury Casino in Corstorphine and Genting Club Casino in Fountain Park are hoping to steal a march on their rivals by touting for Yuletide business before summer is out.

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It is understood the casinos decorated and installed the trees over the last few days but a premature start to the giving season has caused something of a storm on Twitter – with one user branding it “a joke!”

Scott Kincaid, general manager of Gala Maybury Casino, said it was good marketing to erect their tree early, adding: “If people aren’t already booking their Christmas party nights and events then they’re thinking about them, so all we’re doing is looking to remind them that we are available.

“All of the hotels in the city are taking Christmas bookings already so I see nothing wrong with it. Besides, I love Christmas, it’s a great time of year.

“In business there’s no such thing as bad advertising so I‘ve no problem with putting a 25ft tree in the car park to draw people’s attention.”

Dan Renton, sales manager at Genting Casino, revealed he will be donning a Santa outfit in the coming weeks to promote his firm’s Yuletide activities.

“We normally do pretty well at Christmas time but I think we were a bit behind last year and wanted to get in early this time round,” he said. I think we started much later last year, with the tree going up around November.”

Steve Cardownie, the festival and events champion, said: “I think these two casinos are probably hedging their bets by putting [the trees] up this early to attract Christmas parties and the like. They will get some publicity out of it but I think most people like a bit of respite during summer without having to worry about Christmas.”

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