Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | April 2009 12 Cover Story and taxation. This happens regardless as to whether the government concerned labels itself as socialist or free market in its thinking. That’s why the online gaming sector has to facenot only theGreat Firewall of China, which blocks direct marketing or advertising of online cash gambling in the PRC, but has also ended up lumbered with the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act imposed by the United States Congress, an institution not noted for its left of centre views but one with quite strong protectionist instincts when it comes to supporting the local taxation system, local trade and American jobs. Texas Hold’em can withstand this challenge to its marketing model in North America because it’s a relatively mature product and already has a wide following. It’s worth remembering that until ten or even five years ago poker was not an especially popular game even in continental Europe. What has made a huge difference it seems in the West is television coverage. Poker can now be seen on subscription sports channels and in Europe in some cases (albeit late at night) even on free-to-air television. Tuned in “I guess a crucial aspect that really fuelled the growth of poker in North America and Europe was television,” said Jake Kalpakian, President of the online gaming company Las Vegas From Home, during the recent discussion forum at AiG. “It’s just a matter of time that once it becomes more mainstream on TV, you’re going to see that exponential growth, beyond recognition,” added Mr Kalpakian. Given the sensitivities of the Chinese authorities around gambling, it’s likely, however, to be some time before poker receives such on-air coverage (even for play-for-fun games) in the PRC. For live table poker to become a truly sustainable seven days a week, 24-hours per day business in Macau, in the manner of VIP baccarat, it will need to develop a major following beyond the buzz factor created by the various visiting poker tours with their headline grabbing big money prize pools. The prospect of too many tables chasing too few players in a still maturing casino poker market could actually set the game back. Patent medicine Poker operators can learn lessons from the success of Western consumer branding in Asia Why would a young Chinese woman rather be seen with a genuine Prada bag than any number of locally labelled alternatives? The answer is likely to be because the foreign designer label is considered chic or cool, despite the fact it may have come out of a factory in the same Chinese industrial city. If handled deftly as a product type in Asia, there’s little reason why poker shouldn’t have the same kind of brand status as high fashion items. It is exotically foreign and an educated urban elite is currently championing it locally. Combine those factors and you get an aspirational product—just the sort of commodity that can be marketed virally via peer-to-peer recommendation. It’s possible to argue that the ‘brand values’ that have made poker appeal spontaneously to an urban elite in places such as Hong Kong are exactly the values that will allow the game to build its popularity in Greater China. So what are the ‘brand values’ associated with Texas Hold’em poker? Skill The first brand value arguably is skill. Poker appeals to well educated professionals because it is seen more as a pastime than as a hard gambling game and therefore less prone to negative judgements by family or peers. Players try to outdo each other by using skill, judgement, timing and mental arithmetic rather than relying purely on luck. A little caution is required when talking too sweepingly about luck for Asian gamblers. It’s worth bearing in mind that for many Chinese players baccarat is as much about skill as about luck. Many players genuinely believe they have the ability to ‘create’ the outcome they want from an already dealt baccarat card through supplication and mental effort—hence the interest among Chinese players in card squeezing. To a Westerner raised on empiricism and theories about probability, the idea of squeezing luck into a card may seem bizarre. But the important thing about any belief system is that it creates its own reality and that sense of reality is enforced when events occur that seem to chime with that particular believer’s expectations. As Western belief systems and cultural ideas of personal autonomy take hold in Asia, however, poker is likely to get more, rather than less popular.