Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | July 2009 14 “Links weren’t really working for us when we first opened, but we have certainly learnt a lot about links. We have changed the limits of the links we have on our floor. We have seen a growth in popularity [of links] because of the way we have changed the contribution to each level. It’s different, for example, from Australian standards or those found in other parts of the world. It’s about learning your market and knowing what to cater for.” Mr Hurst: “I would build on Tammy’s point. You have to treat Macau as its own market. Don’t come here with Australian, European or American machines expecting that they will work. I think there’s a massive opportunity for game designers and machine manufacturers to really build on the growth of gaming machines in Macau. I would start by looking at the gaming machine experience as being fundamentally different for an Asian player or specifically a Chinese player than for a Western player. “I use an analogy that in some of the [Chinese] movies that you will see, such as ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,’ where the hero and the martial arts people come floating from rooftop to rooftop—that’s believable and entertaining for Chinese people, whereas many Westerners may laugh it off and say ‘That’s a load of rubbish.’ Fundamentally, what people look at as entertaining is different here. I think game designers and manufacturers should take that on board and stop trying to flog us the Model-T Ford—i.e., ‘You can have any colour you like as long as it’s black.’ We have had these [gaming] machines pushed on us and pushed on us. “I think people need to start getting creative and to look at different parts of Chinese culture. Look at movies, look at the Jackie Chan movies and stuff like that. There are real opportunities here. And I would start at the fundamental level, not just at changing the graphics or the name of the game, or the colours to gold and red, but really the second screen features, the way things appear on the screens. It’s a little wacky for Westerners, but for Chinese people that’s really what’s entertaining.” Why not have multilingual touch screen machines? Mr Johns: “I have brought that up with several vendors and I have been working with four of the main vendors this year to do a lot of market research on the floor and a lot of focus groups getting them to understand the players from different regions—what they want, what they say is important. The technology is certainly available. Why there aren’t multi-managers at the flick of a button on each screen is beyond me. I know that certain jurisdictions take a long time to approve games, but it should be something that’s looked at. It requires a simple effort.” Mr Hurst: “Our machines are a little newer than these guys so we have the advantage of having the latest product. WMS and IGT do have that functionality now in their new machines. In answer to the question ‘What can manufacturers do to break into the Macau market?’ I would say ‘Listen to us’. We’ve been crying out for this stuff. “People that are prepared to work with us will get an opportunity on the floor, and those that don’t will get pushed off the floor.” Mr Ng: “I think we were the first ones to work with the manufacturers to bring in Chinese [language] machines. We have always been looking to work closely with manufacturers and suppliers to get them to translate the screens. We found the fastest way to do it was for us to take the screen, translate it and give it back [to the manufacturer] so they couldput the graphics on it. We have done that countless times on many games. As long as the manufacturers are willing to listen, we’re happy to give them as much information as we can.” What are you doing to get more people to try slot machines? Mr Ng: “It’s quite a touchy subject.We are actually limited by certain regulatory bodies regarding expansion of the slot business. We are very limited in marketing capacity. We’re not allowed to advertise [return to player] percentages or advertise in the newspapers any major gaming promotions. We’re not allowed [as an operator] even to mention the word gambling in a newspaper. We can’t have slot machines facing the street. If a slot machine was placed in such a position in the venue that it could be viewed from the street we could be closed down straight away. It’s not that we don’t want to do more, but until the slots market is once again seen as a vital business, then we are limited—especially on the local side.” Mr Johns: “What we’ve been doing in the last couple of years is growing the slots sector by bringing in a bit of Western thought and mixing it with the experience on the ground here and catering for what the customer wants. We’ve seen massive growth this year. There have been some staggering numbers in the last couple of months, in a financial climate where the world is suffering pretty badly. I think slots will grow because they’re aimed at the mass market. It’s a cheap product to run, it’s got bigger margins [than VIP table games] for the venue. I think we will definitely see slots grow in numbers and as a percentage of the slot floor over the next five years.” Cover Story