Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | August 2009 26 L as Vegas-style integrated resorts were going to transform Macau’s gaming industry. But the non-gaming facilities of the most spectacular proponent of this business model—The Venetian Macao—have arguably underperformed so far relative to the capital invested in them. A conference session at G2E Asia 2009 titled: ‘The Integrated Resort: Scaled Down?’ heard how the industry in Asia and further afield is responding to the lessons learned. Paul Heretakis, Vice President of Westar Architects, has some insight about what works in the United States. His company has reportedly been involved in a number of high profile casino design and remodelling projects there, including The Venetian, The Bellagio and Beau Rivage in Las Vegas, and Harrah’s and Trump Plaza in Atlantic City. “In America, a bar on the casino floor creates a ton of energy. Here [in Macau] a bar sucks the energy right out of a place—there’s nobody drinking and nobody wants any part of it,” suggested Mr Heretakis. Trend follower or setter? While thismakes for agoodsoundbite, it isn’t necessarilyaccurate. The Lion’s Bar at the MGM Grand Macau for example is packed most nights, but the people in there aren’t necessarily gamblers. The issue may be, rather, was the money and effort used in building the bar in the first place really worth it in a heavy gamblers’market like Macau? Would MGM MIRAGE and Pansy Ho have been better off using the space for more gaming tables? It depends. It depends in particular whether you think a service industry (for that after all is what the casino business is) should merely reflect consumers’ existing tastes, or whether it should strive not only to anticipate but also actually to create new tastes. How for example did we know that people would like modern theme parks until Walt and Roy Disney actually built one? While some developing trends prove to have universal appeal, understanding cultural differences in the globalised market as it exists today is critical for designers and architects to create new IRs and evolve existing ones, said Mr Heretakis. Growing pains For example, it is well documented that non-gaming amenities in LasVegasmake up amuch larger portion of market revenue than they do in Macau. That doesn’t necessarily invalidate the transplanting of the IR concept to Asia, asserted Mr Heretakis. Transact Integrated Resort 2.0 The next generation of casinos may be leaner, meaner—and taller T t r ti f si s l r, r t ll r The Crown Entertainment Complex in Melbourne, Australia