Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | Dec 2007 16 er’s growth seems to have been not so much endorsement from Hollywood celeb- rities but more the development of online play-for-fun sites offering free lessons and a chance to move up the skills ladder to real stakes games. Online feeders The leading poker tours visiting land- based casinos work in tandem with online operators to feed players through the ranks. In APPT’s case, its partner is PokerStars.net Mr Haas says:“They’ll either start playing at home with their friends, or online. Once they’re comfortable with that they start to move toward real money games,and eventu- ally they’ll be able to play in cash games here in Macau. It’s entirely a skill-based game, and about moving up the skills graph. Our APPT tour becomes aspirational for them. We’re trying to position our tour as the highest quality, high-calibre professional tour in the market. There will inevitably be additional poker tours coming to Asia and a few stand- alone tournaments here in Macau, and I be- lieve that anything that grows the market benefits us all.” Tom Hall, Global Business Development Director for Playtech, the world’s largest provider of online gaming software, says there’s a fundamental explanation for online poker’s popularity in Asia:“On some Chinese language sites poker is being marketed as ‘Fair Poker’.This is because it’s a lot harder to cheat online with poker than it is with other games such as mahjong, or games where you throw cards away that could be of ben- efit to an accomplice who is also online.” Land-based casinos still attract all the headlines, especially when a new one opens. But with mainland citizens’ access to Macau still restricted by the central government, the influence and growth of online gaming shouldn’t be underestimated. Although North America and Europe are by far the biggest creators and consumers of online gaming products, reflecting the high penetration of the Internet in those regions, the Asian market is growing steadily—espe- In Focus Jeffrey Haas presents APPT Macau 2007 High Roller Event winner Eric Assadourian his trophy