Inside Asian Gaming

12 Choy Sun Doas and your 5 Dragons and 50 Dragons [all from Aristocrat Technologies] are popular—but then games like 100 Lions and 50 Lions which have been‘Asian themed’ are just as popular. I think it’s all about the game itself. Important factors are the math model and the language on the screen. We have a corporate policy that we stick to traditional [long form character] Chinese on all our buttons, but I’ve put machines side by side—one in English and another in Chinese—the same game on the same bank [of slots] and we see virtually no difference [in revenue] between those two machines. Maybe that’s just our customers. I don’t see screen language being a big important driver in our venue, but obviously venues change [over time].” Mr Hurst: “One supplier tried a number of Asian themes and they were the biggest dogs on the floor. I’ve seen another vendor do the same game [in terms of play dynamics] but with a mahjong theme on the steppers at Sands [Macao]. The mahjong had double the performance. So there is certainly something to do with the artwork and the graphics. “I agree with Peter that people pick up many games pretty easily regardless of language. If it’s a touch screen interaction, though, or a second screen feature like a lot of WMS games and so on, I think it’s absolutely necessary that you get the Chinese version. The Great Wall [of China] game [from WMS] is a classic example of that, where you really need to understand what is going on. “An industry colleague showed me a game in Australia where he turned it into Russian for me to play. We stimulated the second screen feature, and I had no idea what to do at all. I was basically just randomly ‘touch flashing’ things on the screen. Oneminute I’d find I’d been awarded 800 credits, but had no idea how. There was no value created for the [non-Russian speaking] customer at all. So it all depends on what kind of a game it is and what’s involved in the process. But I would just say as a default [localised language content] is a smart thing to do.” Penny slots are becoming big in the US. Is this a trend in Macau? I heard The Venetian [Macau] is putting in one-cent machines, but other than that I heard the lowest denomination is two cents. Mr Johns: “Our two-cent Cash Express [Aristocrat] machine is doing 100,000 Mainland that that market is still going to be the biggest customer base over the next five years. Certain players from Macau may go to Singapore when that market opens. But I think there’s enough mass-market growth in China over the next five to ten years to make that the focus [for the Macau industry]. The people in Macau’s catchment zone are still going to supply the growth.” Mr Hurst: “I agree. I also think there’s a lot of opportunity in Taiwan and Japan [players from there] especially. We’re seeing [in Macau] a lot of play from Singapore and Malaysia. Malaysia already has a casino but players still want variety. I guess the question for the people that run Macau resorts is whether they want to make Macau the destination in Asia or whether they’re just happy to taste the money from China. China is certainly big enough to keep everyone going for a long, long time.” Mr Ng: “We are limited right now to the local market. I would love to tap into the Chinamarket, but I don’t think our sites really cater for that, unless we can start running [in] RMB [Chinese currency].” What are the most popular types of game? Mr Ng: “Chinese games certainly make it easier for the player to take up [the game]. Most of our players don’t read or speak English—only Chinese—so having a Chinese-themed game makes it naturally easier for a Chinese person to approach the game and start reading it. “The theme doesn’t really matter as long as it’s done well. A lot of the early games [in the Macau market] done by certain manufacturers kind of played on theWestern stereotypes about the Chinese too much— in terms of the fonts and the colours of the graphics—the colours were actually wrong. I’m a Chinese and if a ‘gweilo’ [Cantonese nickname for Westerner] comes and does that it’s kind of offensive to our culture. Over the past few years they’ve actually got it right and got the graphics spot on. So it’s getting better, but in the early years I have to say some of them [the slot products sold to Macau] were pretty horrible. They were kind of ‘step in the dark’ games that were about trying to tap into the market as soon as possible, but they weren’t really themed for this market. I think any game is fine, as long as it’s executed well.” Mr Johns: “It’s horses for courses. If you say Asian-themed games, then yes, your