Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | January 2008 22 put one on Banker and the other on Player and walk away with a 50% instant profit each, then back to the border again to resume their day job.Can’t say Crown does not do its bit for the locals, can we? Non-kid-friendly Goliath The Venetian. Well, it may be the world’s largest but it certainly isn’t the best. Its pri- marily claim to fame is its puremonstrosity in terms of scale. User friendliness? Try and find a toilet when you are there for the first… or second time.Takes you at least 15 minutes to get there, so you wouldn’t want to leave it till the last minute, would you? Or try and find your room from the hotel reception, with a couple of young kids—who are not allowed to enter the casino that spans much of the ground floor access—in tow. Insofar as the promised MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) business is concerned, I believe the official response from the kind folks at the Venetian is: we are booked out for the next 6 months, but we still have space.What? As for the retail section, I believe the tenants are still waiting for the manna to drop down from the blue heavens above—albeit the spray painted version. And now the verdict To round it all off and in determining the winner and loser of my inaugural Brickbat and Bouquet Award, the following factors were considered by yours truly (who said this was a democratic poll?): dining facilities, easy access, innovation, customer friendli- ness, entertainment and overall appeal. The Brickbat award has to go to the Grand Lisboa for the most unimaginative design and overall user-unfriendliness. I don’t even know why anyone would go in there at all. The winner of the Bouquet has to be Wynn.It has class,easy access to its dining fa- cilities (but I pity the hotel guests who have to walk through the throngs in their robes to get to the pool), nice gaming area and a very classy feature out front in its dancing fountain. Octo Chang is the pseudonym of our regu- lar columnist, a casino marketing professional with extensive qualifications and background in the gaming industry. Please feel free to for- ward any amusing anecdotes or observations of the marketing variety to him at ka.chng@ gmail.com Brickbats & Bouquets The winner of the Bouquet: Wynn Macau