Inside Asian Gaming

clubs in Australia and much of Asia, includ- ing the Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore, in addition to Macau. There are differences between the vari- ous Asian jurisdictions, however. While hy- perlinks have done tremendously well in Macau, they are not available in Singapore due to regulations there. Aristocrat Gen- eral Manager Asia Pacific Ken Jolly expects those regulations will soon change as the city’s first proper casinos become opera- tional from 2009. Singapore currently has around 100 slot clubs with a combined 2,000 machines. Mr Jolly puts his company’s success down to focusing “our R&D efforts on producing good games that roll out around the world, and produce good results.We’ve been fortu- nate with our jackpot range of products and hyperlinks over the last decade, and that’s given us a lot of dominance globally.” Jackpots and hyperlinks perform par- ticularly well in Macau, which is still a rela- tively immature slot market—as recently as 2003, all of Macau had fewer than 1,000 slot machines. In more mature slot markets, such as Australia, “people are looking more for en- tertainment. They would probably be look- ing for smaller wins over a longer period of time, whereas in a market where players like to gamble, they are more inclined to put on bigger bets for a bigger win,”explains Mr Jol- ly. In Macau, by contrast,“players are looking for a bit more of a win, rather than a flutter.” Still, Mr Jolly adds that “the good games that Aristocrat has in this [the Macau] market, are coming up as the good games in other mar- kets as well.” Aristocrat has chosen Macau as the launching pad for several new games.“For in- stance, last year we brought out some games 35 here, including Water Margin, Monkey Chal- lenge, and 50 dragons, that were released first in Macau, and on the back of the success here we’ve taken them into some other mar- kets,”points out Mr Jolly. Past and future performers The Cash Express jackpot game and Jackpot Carnival clown theme are Aristo- crat’s most successful linked products in Macau. Other consistent earners in the mar- ketplace include 5 Dragons, 50 Dragons and Choy Sun Doa. “Also, we’re trying to bring in other themes in the jackpot products to suit the market,” reveals Mr Jolly.“For instance, Gold- en Goals, the soccer-themed game, suits Asia, where soccer’s a very big game.” Among the recently released Aristocrat products Mr Jolly believes could prove suc- cessful in the market are 5 Koi,“a game with beautiful art,” and the 100 line games. Other potential hit products which only started rolling out last month include Cheeky Mon- key and Spring Festival.Aristocrat is alsowait- ing for approval from Macau gaming regula- tors to release Mr Woo, a game with lots of exciting bonus features.