Inside Asian Gaming

35 Paradise has a patent on a progressive jackpot at regular baccarat tables, which could become one of the company’s biggest earners. Paradise first launched the progressive jackpot as a side bet on LIVE Baccarat last year, and on January 16, launched it across 18 regular baccarat tables at the Galaxy-run Waldo Casino, located across the street from Sands Macao. Waldo now boasts “the largest number of baccarat-based progressive linked tables anywhere,” says Mr Park, with the side-bet standing at HK$20. Progressive jackpots—“we call it the ‘life changing jackpot,’” says Mr Park—hold great allure for Chinese gamblers. Paradise’s trademarked Paradise Jackpot is the world’s first baccarat-based jackpot, which pays out when specific card sequences are dealt during a LIVE Baccarat game. The “Paradise Jackpot” pays out 100% of the pool when the five cards constituting a Royal Flush are dealt, while fixed payouts are also available for four of a kind,three of a kind and banker or player pairs. In 2007, Macau casinos generated about US$9.0 billion in baccarat revenue—$7.0 billion at VIP tables, and $2.0 billion in the mass market, representing a combined 86.7% of the city’s total $10.4 billion casino revenue for the year.“If for each game 50% of players place the side bet, the pool will grow by about half a million a day. The potential payout will take about one month or even longer. I wouldn’t be surprised if the jackpot goes up to 50 million.” It is early days at Waldo, which is a small, low-traffic venue, but if it proves successful, the Paradise Jackpot could be implemented on regular baccarat tables in larger locations. Getting the Paradise Jackpot into VIP rooms is also a challenge, given the complicated structure and fragmented ownership of Macau’s VIP market, as oft described in Inside Asian Gaming . If any company has the local connections to get a new product into a large number of Macau VIP rooms, however, it is Paradise. The company is poised to sign an agreement to supply its Paradise Jackpot on a further 120 regular tables at an as yet unnamed casino location, at which point the progressive jackpot will begin to grow quickly, along with interest in the Paradise Jackpot. Mr Park is confident that“over time we would have a penetration for the majority of all baccarat tables in SJM and Galaxy.” If that happens, Paradise’s final ace will start paying off handsomely, and could become its biggest earner. Life-changing jackpot