Inside Asian Gaming

September 2009 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 47 Casino Design system, the first of its kind in Macau. Above the gambling tables air is drawn into the system to be filtered, drastically reducing smoke for a clean and clear experience.” Rocking with jazz The latestMacauproperty tobedesigned from scratch byMr Steelman’s company, Paul Steelman Design Group (PSDG), is the Hard Rock Casino at Melco Crown Entertainment’s City of Dreams mega resort, which opened 1st June. Mr Steelman comments:“I think it’s kind of unique, in that it’s the first casino in Macau that says it’s going to attract a more youthful audience. It has a lot of jazz. It has a lot of the things that will attract casino customers, and of course, I’m very interested to see how it will work on the basis of these diverse hotels built around it.” Unfortunately, owing to the slowdown and suspension of construction of several casino projects around Asia, we will have a longer wait to see whether Mr Steelman’s latest designs will revolutionise gaming in the region, in the way Sands Macao managed to do. One innovation Inside Asian Gaming is keen to witness is the transformation of the VIP baccarat rooms, where the bulk of Macau and the rest of Asia’s gaming action still takes place. Mr Steelman wants to move away from the staid “wood-panelled, windowless Louis XIV rooms” to VIP facilities that are more space-based than decor-based. “How excited can you get over the wood-panelled room?”, asks Mr Steelman, suggesting “I think high-rollers like it a little simpler, to be honest.”Although the opening schedule for the US$2 billion Macao Studio City, designed by PSDG, has been put off indefinitely in the wake of the credit crisis, it will feature a dramatic move away from the current form of VIP rooms. Says Mr Steelman: “We were going to put them all in huts out on the pool. We were putting natural light into them, placing them next to the Playboy club, putting them in quadrants with big casinos going into little casinos, etc. We do have lots of ideas on how to make them more desirable. “Architecture is energy and motion, and what we need to do in these rooms is to create a situation that has an energy-base to it. We can’t create a room that looks like a library and has some wood-panelling.” Mr Steelman believes the current form of VIP rooms is a product of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ thinking. After all, most casino architects simply respond to what their casino-operating customers ask for.“And the customers tend to like the last thing they’ve been in. So our customers actually don’t give us good read. What’s a good read is when a high roller travels from casino to casino, there’s a certain amount of architecture and decor that holds them in place. So what we’re trying to do with these rooms is we’re not trying to disguise it into something it’s not. We’re trying to say this is Macau, this is beautiful pool decks, this has great, luscious fabrics that makes you feel softer, this has lighting that makes you feel more tanned, this has music that allows you to talk over and concentrate on the cards.” Another PSDG creation that is now a little farther off on the horizon is the US$4.2 billion beachfront Ho Tram Strip destination resort, phase one of which was originally scheduled to open late this year. Though there is no way that target will be met, Mr Steelman expects the foundations to be completed in October, and the resort open before 2012. Positive side of the crunch Although the credit crisis has deprived casino developers of funds to continue their work, the prognosis is not all bad for new casino projects, points out Mr Steelman. In the wake of the last downturn in 1987, several cash-strapped state and national governments moved to legalise or expand gamingwithintheirbordersbecause“officials wanted the painless taxation associatedwith it. We thought that that might also happen with this particular depression we’re in. “You might have just seen that mayor Daley in Chicago passed legislation for a casino to be built in that city. Kansas has a new gaming law. And you have the Vietnam law [enabling the Ho Tram Strip], which will be extended to other cities. “We also see some liberalisation of European gaming laws, particular in Germany, which will allow casinos to be built more Las Vegas-style than they currently are. “And we see some of the Indians [Native American tribes] coming to an agreement with the states easier than they did in the years before. For example, the Seminoles got a compact accepted by the government. There’s an undercurrent of this. “ Above and below: Sands Macao Hard Rock Casino Macao Studio City Ho Tram Strip