Oct 2007 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING Editor and Publisher Kareem Jalal Director João Costeira Varela Business Development Manager Matt Phillips Operations Manager José Abecasis Contributors Karen Tang, Aun-Ling Chia, Mike Grimes, Octo Chang, Richard Marcus Photography Ike Graphic Designer Brenda Chao Inside Asian Gaming is published by Must Read Publications Ltd Suite 1907, AIA Tower, 215A-301 Av. Comercial de Macau - Macau Tel: (853) 6646 0795 For subscription enquiries, please email
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[email protected] or call: (853) 6646 0795 www.asgam.com Printed by Icicle Print Management (Macau) Ltd Tel: (853) 2871 2818 Fax: (853) 2871 2898 www.icicleprint.com Bally’s iView E D I T O R I A L O ver the coming months, Venetian Macao will prove whether Asians have sufficient appetite for Vegas-style non-gaming offerings to fill the coming pipeline of large scale integrated resorts set to mushroom around Asia—particularly in Macau and Singapore—over the next few years. The mega resorts will change the face of gaming in Asia, as the scope of casino properties expands from offering gambling and not much else, to a full array of hotel, retail, convention and exhibition, dining and entertainment facilities. The evolution and its implications are detailed on “’I’ is for Integration” on page 20. Paying for the behemoths will be no easy feat, especially as the cost of traditional debt rises in the wake of the US sub-prime mortgage difficulties. Operators are coming up with novel solutions to the financing issue, including monetization. Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS) is at the forefront of deploying creative funding strategies, with LVS planning to eventually pay for the building of the entire Cotai Strip™ through the sale of retail space and holiday apartments. Deutsche Bank estimates that thanks to monetization, LVS will in effect have made a billion dollars profit on the estimated US$16 billion it is spending on real estate in North America and Asia. The financing plans of LVS and other operators in Asia is discussed in depth in our cover story, “Capital Ideas”, on page 4. Integrated resorts are expensive, and experience so far in Asia is that the higher the capi- tal spend and the longer the pay back period, the lower the return on invested capital. As resort capacity increases, investors will need to look more closely at the numbers to make sure new projects make financial sense. In “Profitability Check” on page 26, Deutsche Bank analysts examine the profit profiles of projects in Macau, Malaysia and Singapore. iView at Venetian Macao Another capital idea Inside Asian Gaming chanced upon when visiting the recently- opened Venetian Macao was the Bally iView screens on all of the property’s 3,400 plus slot machines. Bally Asia Managing Director Cath Burns stresses that unlike competing manufacturers’ products, which are usually “just a screen,” the iView “is like a PC, so it has intelligence.” iView links to and operates in real time with the casino management system—also sup- plied by Bally at Venetian Macao—allowing it to be used for a variety of functions, from displaying players’ rewards in conjunction with the loyalty program to advertising the property’s other amenities, such as the shops and restaurants at Venetian. iView can be used for a myriad marketing functions. For example, when a player hits a jackpot, a mes- sage can be displayed on all iView screens in the property. “Slot techs can also use it as a trouble shooting device,” adds Ms Burns. “Instead of having to open the machine up and look inside, they [the techs] can now go up to the screen, press the screen, key in their slot tech number, go in and trouble shoot the diagnostics and see what’s wrong, all from a touch pad.” Meanwhile, “some of our [casino operator] customers have put a service help desk on it,” Ms Burns continues. “Say the machine malfunctions or something goes wrong—your ticket gets jammed as it’s coming out. A live streaming video message will come on of someone real, saying: ‘Hi, I’m Joe the slot tech, we apologise for the inconvenience, someone will be with you in just a minute to fix your machine.’” A slot machine equipped with iView can offer side jackpots that come out of marketing dollars, rather than from the game itself. iView can link to Bally’s Power Bonusing suite, including Power Winners, which allows casinos to run targeted promotions to designated customers. “We could use it to do a game within a game,” says Ms Burns. Examples in- clude giving all carded players whose birthdays it is the opportunity to win an additional jackpot, or offering special rewards to players during off-peak hours. Ms Burns offers another possible use for iView: “Say Venetian wanted to run a promotion. They could print a coupon, hand it out at the border gate, put something on it saying come to the Venetian we’ll give you one free pull.” Players would bring the coupon to the property and insert in machines, and the system would allow them to redeem the offer. With iView, “you’re only limited by your imagination,” says Mr Burns. “You can link it up, for example to valet parking. You put a valet parking button right there, the customer hits ‘valet’, valet would query the database, and the customer’s car would be brought up. This is the beauty of having a single database that it’s linked back to.” Also part of the Power Bonusing suite is Power Banks, which allows customers to load up their money to their player cards at the cage, bringing the convenience and efficiency of cashless gaming. Kareem Jalal We crave your feedback. Please send your comments to
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