Inside Asian Gaming

JULY 2018 INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 25 Plans need to cover the three broad types of crises – natural disasters, accidents and adversarial situations – and address issues such as the safety of patrons and employees, asset protection and coordination with other stakeholders. IN FOCUS patrons and employees, asset protection and coordination with other stakeholders. Those responses must then be tested: practiced through tabletop exercises and crisis simulations internally and with public agencies, competitors and others. The results of those exercises need to be evaluated and plans modified accordingly. Planning to that degree requires a major resource commitment. It’s critical that top executives recognize crisis management isn’t just a security concern but a risk management issue with potentially serious financial consequences. “You have to speak to them in a language they understand,” Rai says. “You have to tell them that it will affect their revenue, their employees, their customers.” MIKE AND IKE AG Burnett quotes boxer Mike Tyson: “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” As surely as a punch in the mouth causes pain and confusion, a crisis generates a fog that complicates responses, and emergencies unfold unpredictably. “I like to quote President [Dwight] Eisenhower (the World War II Allied supreme commander responsible for the Normandy invasion) who said, ‘The plan means nothing, the planning is everything,’” Jacobs says. “You need to try to anticipate everything that’s going to happen and you need to educate your team, you need to drill your team so that they get muscle memory, so that when a crisis hits and the plan doesn’t work they are able to respond quickly and intelligently.” As Typhoon Hato approached Macau, Jacobs recalls, “We had a plan set to go, we knew it was coming, we had generators ready, we had extra supplies ready, we thought we were in good shape and AG Burnett , Ekraj Rai and Lon Jacobs discussed key security and emergency response considerations at this year’s International Association of Gaming Advisors Gaming Summit in Macau.