Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | July 2009 10 Cover Story gaming floor in half so you’re never too far away from anything. We have a look and feel that is more contemporary.” Do players have any special tastes or habits? Baccarat for example is very popular in Macau. Chinese people often try and see a pattern in a game. So in your thinking do you see any slot players playing differently from other markets? Mr Johns: “As far as [slot] machines go, players like to play certain game titles. I’ll share with you the fact that five game titles are probably making 50% of the handle. The maths of these games is very similar, and the volatility of the games is very similar. Players are quite savvy. They like to think they can work out the volatility of the game.” MrNg: “In the local venueswe’ve realised that without the multi-stations people won’t come. Multi-stations are put there as an attraction. The reason is that the customers are already familiar with the table format. We don’t get much cross play, but we do get people coming to play tables before they go to the slots.We see this a lot at the Canidrome [dog racing track]. We have people lining up five deep to play multi-stations. They may even say ‘I don’t play slots’ but we find they will try them. “[Regarding play style] there are a lot of superstitions around luck.” Mr Johns: “I’ve been in gaming 25 or 26 years—a lot of that in slots—and I’m still learning about what the player likes. It changes month by month. We constantly monitor the data, we constantly make changes to try and keep abreast. Rather than just giving the player what he or she wants we are trying to jump one step in front. We like to pre-empt what they [the players] want. “I would say 80% of what we have on the floor at the moment we would reprise— there have definitely been some changes, though, in the last year.” If you had billions to spend on slot facilities in the Macau market what would you spend it on? Mr Ng: “I would build many many social clubs. I would get the product to the public and work with them. A lot of the Macau suburbs right now are quite run down. Perhaps a slot business could actually revamp those areas, create jobs and create a better Macau.” I’ve heard some operators tell equipment suppliers that the graphics on games for the Chinese market shouldn’t be too complex. Otherwise players will think the machine is too ‘smart’ and they won’t dare to play. What’s your take on this? Mr Johns: I think quality graphics are extremely important. People are used to seeing high quality graphics on their mobile phone and on their audiovisual equipment at home. Colours are very important on screens—certainly in the interactive parts of certain graphics from certain vendors, as it increases the players’ willingness to interact [with the game].” Mr Ng: “We saw the exact same issue when we went from a mainly stepper market toavideomarketin2003-04.Thereweremany doubts in our players’ minds about whether video machines were cheating money, whether the result was predetermined. But as the market matures people are coming to understand that the market is regulated, and that they are protected by GLI and BMM and all those regulations. And once we educate a player to that extent, it once again becomes important to attract a player to a machine. Sound is very important, as are graphics.” Who are your future customers in the Macau market? Mr Johns: “We’re so close to the Chinese