Inside Asian Gaming

32 47 n 1954, Len Ainsworth founded the company that would become the world’s second largest slot machine manufacturer, Aristocrat Leisure. Mr Ainsworth has thrived in a cutthroat industry. On the night of November 20, 1954, the roof of the Aristocrat factory was blown off, allegedly at the instigation of a rival manufacturer.This perhaps strengthened Mr Ainsworth’s resolve to “gobble up” his rivals “one by one” by bringing mass-production to the industry, and offering his machines at much lower prices. He came to be dubbed “the poker machine king” of Australia. When Mr Ainsworth was diagnosed with prostate cancer in the mid-90s, he portioned off his shares in Aristocrat to his family,which still holds a sizeable share of the listed com- pany. The family was forced to surrender its voting shares,however,so the company could win regulatory approval in US markets. Having already parcelled off his empire, Mr Ainsworth may have felt an ever-so-slight tinge of chagrin when a biopsy later cleared him of cancer. Given a new lease on life, de- spite his age – he turns 84 on July 11 – he was not yet willing to retire. After all, he has over 50 years of experience in slot manufac- turing, and retains his edge for conceiving innovative products. He therefore decided The Aussie Slot King With the legendary Len Ainsworth at its helm, Ainsworth Game Technology is holding it’s own against the industry’s giants to go into competition against the industry heavyweights Aristocrat and US-based IGT, “which really metamorphosed from being his American sales agents,” into the world leader, according to the Australasian Gaming Magazine . Against the Goliaths The small, hungry Ainsworth Game Technol- ogy (AGT) was founded in 1995. The com- pany reported a loss in the last financial year, due in part to delays in getting regulatory approval for its new product range. With ap- provals being granted,Mr Ainsworth predicts a brighter future. AGT has made progress in streamlining procedures to enhance oper- ating and cost efficiencies, and building its sales networks in critical markets in order to boost income. Those markets include Russia, and of course, Macau, where Ainsworth will be ex- hibiting at this months G2E Asia global gam- ing expo. “Macau is not new to me. I have been personally selling slot machines in the city since 1960,” Mr Ainsworth told Inside Asian Gaming . At G2E Asia, he will unveil “at least 20 completely new models as well as some old favourites, and in particular, an ex- citing new link product.” AGT has developed games targeted at Chinese players, and found that “Chi- nese games not only appeal to Chinese people, but also to a whole lot of oth- ers.”The Year of the Dog and Year of the Cat are two AGT games that have devel- oped a significant universal following. Although slot machines contributed a paltry 3.6% of total casino revenue in Macau in 2006 – compared to around 70% in Las Vegas – Mr Ainsworth ex- pects that share to rise considerably over the coming years as Macau “pro- gressively becomes Americanized or Europeanized, for better or worse.” He adds: “You can’t educate people in five minutes. It might take five years or fifty years,”but the process is inevitable. Going forward, Mr Ainsworth says Macau will attract more tourists from beyond mainland China, and “international tourists are slot players.” Furthermore, the coming mega-resorts, including the sprawl- ing 3,000-suite Venetian Macau, which opens August, will “have every possible facility you can imagine.” This will create huge demand for slot machines. Mr Ainsworth also predicts other coun- tries around Asia will begin legalizing casi- nos, inspired by Macau’s success – Singapore will see the opening of its first casino resorts in 2009, and Japan is expected to follow soon.“No country can afford to see hundreds of millions of dollars going to an adjoining country just because it has casinos,” he ex- plains. Mr Ainsworth also points to the Eu- ropean Union’s urging of member states to liberalize gaming, which “helps the industry.” Still, he says no other country, in Asia or oth- erwise, matches Macau’s potential. Mr Ainsworth is a passionate advocate of free markets and economies of scale. He con- tinues seeking new markets to expand the reach and sales of AGT. He may not gobble up his new rivals,but is poised to at least grab greater share of the rapidly growing interna- tional slot market. I

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