YOU wouldn't be surprised to hear Neil Howells admit that the casino business is a numbers game. But it's not necessarily about the numbers you might think.

Yes, the figures imprinted on the gaming baize at the Alea Casino play their part but it is the stream of management information automatically fed through to Neil that tells him whether the numbers at the Upper Parliament Street operation are heading in the right direction.

These numbers come from sources which include, among other things, the membership cards people use in the gaming machines. Just like supermarket loyalty cards, these unassuming devices are a stream of priceless consumer data.

As Neil tells me over lunch, the numbers have been looking good for sometime at Alea, which occupies the prime position in what is still referred to as the old Co-op building.

Last year, this one part of the London Clubs International empire (which is ultimately owned by the Las Vegas giant Harrah's) turned over £40m, a 25% year-on-year increase. It also employs around 100 people, and is one of the few places in the city where you can still get a decent meal in the wee small hours. Whether the old Co-op ever saw numbers like these is a moot point.

They're not unfamiliar territory for Neil, though. Beyond a short spell in banking he has spent nearly all his working life in the gaming industry, some of it afloat, some of it in glamorous locations.

The appetite for something different was there from the start: "When you go to see the careers master at grammar school you end up in either banking, insurance or the armed forces. Banking was what they thought I was be good at.

"I wasn't – I was bored. I was working in the West Kensington branch, getting on the tube every day from the same place on the platform, and I found working in an office soul-destroying."

Salvation came in the form of an ad in the Evening Standard for croupiers in a casino. It wasn't an automatic entry to a world of colour and excitement – he had to train on a course where there was a high drop-out rate – but he ended up in charge of a dice table at a central London casino.

It was a good career with a great social life and the opportunity to travel – natural attractions to the young Neil. When his girlfriend got a job in the South of France he followed her, ending up working in the Loews Casino in La Napoule, a short hop down the coast from Cannes.

On his own he spent several years working in eastern Europe, taking in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Latvia. There was also a stint on cruise ships sailing out of Haifa.

A spell in the Czech Republic saw him hired to run a leisure complex off Wenceslas Square in Prague which also took in restaurants and shops.

The skills garnered from running what was effectively a mixed-use development had a return to the UK written all over them. Not just because such developments became all the rage here but because the industry he'd started out in need this broader range of abilities.

Ultimately, this was brought him back to Nottingham, where he was headhunted from Gala to join an Alea operation which needed to find its feet.

"All the travelling stands you in good stead," says Neil. "It gives you a better understanding of people and you tend to be able to do things differently.

"I probably haven't had an original idea in my life. But I've seen what works – and what doesn't. I'm not running a casino here – I'm running an entertainment and leisure business."

Those numbers suggest it is being run well. Alea is a big operation which has the space and the momentum to get bigger still. With Neil Howells at the helm it isn't short of ambition.