Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | February 2008 34 Cover Story provide a more intense and immersive gaming experience to players at the LIVE Baccarat terminals. A dealer on the LIVE Baccarat system currently handles two tables simultaneously (scaleable up to three tables), with each table linked to a separate section of 20 terminals.One hand is dealt to each section of terminals every fifty seconds—twice as fast as each hand is dealt at a regular baccarat table. Chinese gamblers are renowned for the intensity at which they play,and Mr Park acknowledges the LIVE Baccarat players in Macau are “pretty hardcore.”Many of themwant the game to go even faster. “It usually only takes people ten seconds, maximum, to place a bet, so they have 40 seconds of downtime, and during that downtime they’re very fidgety,” Mr Park reveals, adding that at the first generation LIVE Baccarat terminals, “it’s not uncommon to see one person standing up and moving between both sections,”so that they can play two hands every fifty seconds—four times the pace at which they could play at a regular table. Paradise responded by developing the second generation Paradise Box. An additional screen at each terminal offers a server- based slot game to keep players occupied during the downtime.“It’s the first electronic table game with a live dealer plus a server-based game,” says Mr Park. The Paradise Box has three screens.The pair of screens on the left provides a live feed of a game dealt by a live dealer and the interface to place bets on it. The single screen on the right offers a choice of server-based slot games. The right-hand screen of the Paradise Box currently only offers three games, which Mr Park believes is a big reason take up of the third screen has thus far been slow. However,“we believe we’re going to see a lot more people play that third screen when we launch more games,” he adds, targeting a total of 15 games on the server-based side by the end of the first quarter of 2008, and 50 games by the end of the year. Paradise also has an attractive proposition for game providers. “In order for us to go and attract the best game content and killer games, our plan is to profit share.We’ll be the only guys in Macau who will profit-share with game providers,”he reveals. Akey featureof theParadiseBox is theplush seatingwitharmrests and drink holders.There is also a two-person love-seat configuration. “Comfort is the most important factor. We want people to sit down at the machine for hours at time.We want to give them no reason to go,” says Mr Park. The Paradise Box could be considered almost an extension of the hardcore gambler, reminiscent of the pilot seat in “The Matrix” films, suggests Mr Park.