Inside Asian Gaming

July 2009 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 13 [dollars] right now. The 20 cents is getting over a million dollars, so they [players] like that. The jackpot has got to be obtainable within three to four weeks.” Mr Hurst: “We’ve got two-cent machines [at City of Dreams]. So far they look to be pretty popular, though I haven’t looked at the numbers too closely. It’s very hard to get the average bet up to generate some income. People [operators] blank out some button panels. We’ve done that a little bit where we can. Peter’s tried different things with that as well. “Brandon Patterson over at [SJM’s] Grand Lisboa has done some fantastic things I think with Bally machines and putting plastic strips across the touch bet part of the screen, so that you’re guaranteed the player has to bet max lines at least on the really super- low denom [denomination] stuff to try and boost that average bet. I think that’s the way to go. It’s certainly popular, but I think we’ve seen since the opening of Sands [Macao] movement both ways—movement to the low denom for the mass, to much higher denoms for the much higher value players. “IGT have done some things with buttons recently too, where you have to bet the maximum lines.” Mr Johns: “I’m not a great believer in blanking off buttons. I know we have the ‘true’ two-cent machines in our place. We have a couple of banks, but I don’t see it being a mass wall. Blanking off buttons does force up the average bet, but I don’t see that as a big indicator of turnover. Occupancy is more important to us. We see where we’ve used the buttons and didn’t blank them off, people sit on them [the machines] in a 24-hour period for 85% to 90% of the time and you’re going to get the churn. The big player’s going to go on there and max bet anyway. Let the grind customers sit there all day—you’ll get the turnover in the end, and you’ll hold your percentage of that. “We have seen a better effect from not blanking off [buttons] than blanking. I’mnot saying I would never blank off buttons—it’s never say never in this business—but I think it depends on the product. If you can drive people to sit on machines it teaches people how to play and they get used to the machines. It’s a matter of strategically placing the lower denoms, and to show that if you move onto a slightly higher denom, you might get a better return. It’s about educating the player and using the two-cent [play] as an entry mark. I don’t particularly see it as being a profitable denomination to chase.” Mr Ng: “We don’t have any one- or two- cent slots. Our lowest denomination is five cents. I do believe that there is a market maybe in the next 12 months—depending on local economic conditions—for one- and two-cent slots, to add a more value- for-money option for players. My players come back every day with a certain amount of money. I would rather keep them coming back than view them as a one-off customer. Five cents has though been very popular at our sites—but not stand alone—always on a link.” What do machine manufacturers need to do to help develop the Macau market in future? Mr Hurst: “Besides lowering the price?” Mr Johns: “Some of the manufacturers have done some great stuff and been innovative. They are trying some new products that have been working [well]. One thing with vendors is that they are very good at setting up showrooms and very good at selling machines, but that doesn’t necessarily transpose to how an operation works on a client’s floor. So vendors dictating how you set your links and how they set their program because they think it’s right and it’s worked in other jurisdictions, doesn’t necessarily transpose to Macau. I think it’s better to let the operator set the parameters and set it to how he thinks it works best for his particular site.” Mr Ng: “As Peter said, manufacturers should treatMacauas itsown jurisdictionand stop pretending that American machines or Australianmachines, etc., will [automatically] work in Macau. They’ve started to make progress in this directionwithMacau themes and Macau jurisdiction [specific] machines. That’s only been in the last 18 months. Most of the manufacturers are still bringing in other jurisdiction machines and getting them approved for the Macau market. I don’t think [the latter] is the right approach. They should really set up their R&D [research and development] team inside Macau and start taking data from Macau, to get the Macau jurisdiction framework happening. You can’t place foreign machines in Macau and say to a Chinese person ‘You play this machine.’ It doesn’t work.” What do Asian players want in a gaming machine? Mr Ng: “Bigger payouts.” Mr Johns: “Players need to feel they’re getting value for money and see value in the machines—not just that it’s taking HK$500 or HK$5,000 from them. Players here love free game features. No matter how big the gambler or player is, he or she still likes to get a good run for their money—[they like] to feel that they have a few feeder jackpots or just money for credits so that they can play for longer. I think large jackpots and links have come back. Cover Story