Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | July 2008 18 area he is truly passionate about—gaming. Mr Sampoerna owns MANSION, which runs an online casino, video poker, sports book and betting exchange from Gibraltar. Mansion is reputed to be one of the most financially secure online casinos in the industry. The Sampoerna family fortune was built on some of Indonesia’s more traditional industries: namely palm oil and rubber production. Later, it expanded into tobacco, automobile and telecom interests. But Mr Sampoerna sold the family’s clove kretek cigarette business to Altria (formerly Philip Morris) for more than US$5 billion in 2005—a move that gained him a position on Forbes magazine’s Indonesian Rich List. 20 Kunio Busujima Founder and Chairman, Sankyo Co 21 Putera Sampoerna Founder, MANSION (Gibraltar) Ltd Mr Busujima worked for rival pachinko manufacturer Heiwa, the company that helped launch pachinko in Japan after World War II. He witnessed the growth of pachinko manufacturing from a “cottage industry” into an innovative modern industry, as the pachinko machines themselves evolved from early manual contraptions into impressive automated devices. In the 1970s,Mr Busujima contributed to the revolution of pachinko manufacturing by inventing the immensely popular “Sankyo Fever” machine. His creation prompted a new wave of advances in pachinko design that used high-tech, state- of-the-art manufacturing equipment and techniques. Sankyo is now one of the few listed companies in Japan’s pachinko industry. To this day, Mr Busujima’s management philosophy encourages originality among Sankyo employees and the company’s motto—“Do the impossible”—breeds innovation. The ban on casino gaming in affluent Japan has led to the rise of quasi-gaming in the form of the pachinko industry, which by most estimates generates hundreds of billions of US dollars annually,far surpassing all of Asia’s casino revenues. As the world’s second-largest manufacturer of pachinko machines, Kunio Busujima’s Sankyo is a force to be reckoned with. Mr Busujima’s self-made gaming fortune sees him consistently ranked on Forbes ’ Japan rich list. In 2008, Forbes ranks the 83-year-old as the third richest Japanese businessman. Before founding Sankyo in 1966, Indonesian tycoon Putera Sampoerna has diversified his family’s business into an Asian Gaming 50 Since his father’s death in 1994, Mr Sampoerna has been professionalizing his empire by bringing in executives from Singapore,Taiwan, the US and Korea. He has also shown interest in luxury casinos with his purchase (and later sale) of London- based Les Ambassadeur casino. Gambling appears to run in the Sampoerna blood. Mr Putera’s son Michael, who runs Sampoerna Strategic, is a professional poker player. His daughter Michelle, on the other hand, manages the family’s philanthropy, including the Sampoerna Foundation, which was established to improve public education in Indonesia, train teachers and support model schools. he owned the nation’s largest alley. In the 1970s,Mr Han returned his focus to pachinko and rode the wave of the 1980s economic boom,which left himwell-positioned to take advantage of the long slide in asset prices in the 1990s to continue growing his company and increasing his share of pachinko parlors. Even as Japan struggled to regain its feet after the decade-long economic slowdown, Maruhan Corp. prospered. Mr Han expanded his parlors into central locations as space became available; he built multi-floor emporiums that lure customers with no- smoking sections,free parking and improved odds of winning. The cash flow from these large,successful parlors helpedMaruhan add 22 Han Chang-Woo Chairman and CEO, Maruhan Corp Korean-born Han Chang-Woo made Japan his home following World War II and has seen his fortunes rise steadily in line with the pachinko industry since 1953, when he began working at his brother-in-law’s pachinko shop. Today, Mr Han’s Maruhan Corporation runs the largest chain of pachinko parlors in Japan. As Japan prospered, pachinko thrived and Mr Han did well enough in the 1960s to move into the bowling industry. At one time more locations and enabled the company to diversify into movie theaters, bowling alleys and a doughnut franchise.