Inside Asian Gaming

September 2009 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 41 ship share. That’s what we were aiming for, and that’s what we were getting, so we’re pleased with that. How do you make sure you give customers the right product, given that Asia has many different markets and the players in them have different tastes? CB: We currently have a portfolio of 170 games for the region, but we don’t have 170 games actually out in the market. We have 60. What that enables us to do is work with our customers to look at what we think would be successful in their market. We then put that product out and manage it with them to make sure it’s performing. If it’s not performing we have a plan to take it out and swap it for other product to ensure constant high performance. You will see us continue to do that. I don’t see any reason to change that strategy. It will be on a customer-by-customer basis. Because even in Macau some games work say at the Grand Lisboa but don’t work say at Wynn, or some that work at The Venetian [Macao] don’t work at Sands [Macao]. It just depends on the demographics. Each customer in each market, we view specifically. Somewhere like the Philippines, for example, they like upright cabinets, so we don’t put too much of the CineVision™ [wide screen cabinets] in. Macau on the other hand, is completely mixed. Some markets have contracted this year. I’m thinking of the slot club market in Cambodia. What about other markets in Indochina? CB: We have a distributor that looks after that region for us. They sold a few machines into Savan Vegas [casino] in Laos. That’s a smaller, slower market, but we’re starting to build there. The slowdown in Cambodia affected us in the slot clubs like it affected everybody. But we continue through our distributor to supply to NagaWorld [casino in Phnom Penh]. The main places where we’re seeing growth in this fiscal year is Singapore, the Philippines, the two casinos opening in Macau—L’Arc and later Oceanus. We’re fortunate enough to have nice orders there. Then there will be some replacement [orders] in Macau. What other projects are you working on? CB:We’re working on our re-entry into the Australiamarket. That’s probably the single most important new plan for us to execute over the next 12 to 18 months. Australia, being the largest [slot] gaming market in Asia Pacific, is an entry that we will get right. It’s not a question of going in and putting a toe in the water. We’ll be diving in and entering the market and making a good job of it. We also of course want to continue the success we’ve had in Macau. We’ve got a structure in place there. Kurt Gissane: Australia is a very heavily regulated market as I’m sure you and your readers are aware. The three major states each have different protocols. There’s considerable development work that needs to be done to get into those markets. In [East] Asia we’ve been fortunate enough to be able to bring over SAS-standard global protocol [equipment] and filter out into other [Asian] markets. We know we’ll get economies of scale by going that route. In Australia you really have to tailor the product on a state-by-state basis. CB: When we look at Australia, we look at the market as if we were an Australian company trying to get into the Nevada market. You wouldn’t for example say: ‘Okay, next week we’re going in to Nevada.’ You’d be foolish. Every company that’s done an approach Bally