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About
A production company that happens to work in felt and brass.
Shotovergrand is a New Zealand event entertainment producer based in Manapouri. We build and run casino-themed evenings as hospitality, with the gambling deliberately engineered out of them.
Why we exist
The atmosphere was never the problem. The money was.
We started from an awkward observation: the things people love about a well-run table have almost nothing to do with the stakes.
What guests actually respond to is craft. A table that is level and properly lit. A host who can teach a stranger something in four minutes without making them feel slow. A room where the light falls on the felt instead of the ceiling. The small ceremony of a last round with everyone watching.
None of that requires a single dollar on the table — and once you remove the money, you can produce the evening for a far wider guest list. A company can send the invitation to everyone. A private host does not have to guess who on their list would rather not be there. The compliance conversation takes one sentence.
So that is the business: casino-themed evenings produced as hospitality, with symbolic chips, trained hosts and a written set of rules that we hold to even when a client would rather we did not.
How we work
Four commitments, in order of importance.
The rules come first
Symbolic chips, no stakes, no cash prizes, 20 and over. These are not negotiable for a client, a budget or a venue, and our hosts are authorised to close a table over them.
Hosts over hardware
We hire for temperament before dexterity and we train for teaching rather than performing. A beautiful table with the wrong person behind it is a flat evening.
Plan it before the day
Floor plan, access window, power, running order and host count agreed in writing in advance. Almost every bad event story starts with something nobody checked.
Leave no trace
Quiet de-rig, chips reconciled, the venue handed back as we found it, and photographs of private rooms on arrival and departure.
The equipment
Owned, maintained and checked before every build.
We own our tables rather than sub-hiring them, which is the only way to know what will arrive in your room. Felt is replaced on a schedule rather than when it finally looks bad. Every table is levelled on site, because very few event floors are flat.
Chips are symbolic and are counted in and out of every event. They carry no denomination, no currency symbol and no implication of cash value, because they have none. Branded sets carrying a client’s own marks are produced to the same rule.
What we do not own, and will not supply, is anything mechanical or screen-based: no slot machines, no electronic gaming machines, no gaming screens. It is not the product and it is not the business we are in.
Keep reading
Next step
Work with us on your next evening.
A written proposal takes two working days and costs you nothing. It includes a floor plan sketch, a host count, a running order and a price for your specific evening.