Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming May 2014 58 in the words of Wayne Freeman, SHFL’s product director of EGMs for the region. “It’s the same as the development of Duo Fu Duo Cai,” he says. “We’re continuing on with that strategy and really focusing on Asia.” It’s a strategy that envisions a steady rollout of new games to support Duo Fu Duo Cai. The newest, Diamond Eternity, will be shown at G2E Asia alongside 88 Fortunes and 5 Treasures, the hearty performers that have contributed so much to the link’s success with the distinct volatility experiences they provide. “We have more backup games coming that will support this link for the next couple of years,” says Mr Freeman. “We will always maintain a focus on Duo Fu Duo Cai to make sure it has longevity for all our customers.” The same goes for the e-tables business, and operators from the Philippines to the Malay Peninsula to Indochina will be glad to hear it. Its importance for the combined company as a wedge into Macau also ensures that Bally will keep the investment in R&D flowing, especially now that the patent issues that hung over SHFL Fusion Hybrid, the live dealer multi-game, appear to have been cleared away in the Macau courts. The five-station virtual dealer TableMaster Fusion is ready for deployment in a new multi-game format that’s been graphically enhanced and includes a Chinese version of SHFL’s Ultimate Texas Hold’em dealt by a Mandarin-speaking dealer. (Ultimate Texas Hold’em also will be shown on SHFL’s i-Table along with the popular Three Card Poker.) Five new PTGs also will be shown. They include a fast-paced variant of Casino War called One for the Money; a variation on Caribbean Stud called Six Card Poker; Double Draw Poker, which features three rounds of ante betting in which players can throw back cards in each round to try to build the best possible hand; Fortune Asia Poker, which pits player against dealer for the best two out of three four-card hands; and Dragon Bonus Baccarat, which could well prove the star of the bunch: it’s an intriguing twist on the “It’s about driving all the aspects of the different parts of the industry that we now cover. In the past, you looked at Bally, it was a great slot machine and systems company. Now they’re a slot machine company with great games, and now also maths from SHFL, and then, of course, you’ve got multi-station table games, the utilities and the extensions of that. We’re across all markets.” Ken Jolly , executive vice president, SHFL entertainment (Asia) traditional game in which Banker bets are a push if the Banker hand wins with a three- card total of seven and winning Banker bets are not charged commission. It also comes in a commission-free version featuring a side bet called Fortune 7 that pays if Banker wins with a three-card total of seven. Utilities, a business that SHFL dominates just about everywhere in the world, are also getting a Macau focus with the debut of i-Score, a double-sided portrait-style table display for baccarat measuring nearly 61 centimeters and colorfully themed around dragons. Bally’s renown as a global leader in premium licensed games will be on full display with Titanic and Michael Jackson II, both available as wide- or local-area progressives. Titanic, based on the blockbuster 1997 “We have more backup games coming that will support this link for the next couple of years,” says Wayne Freeman, product director of EGMs for Asia. “We will always maintain a focus on Duo Fu Duo Cai to make sure it has longevity for all our customers.” Feature