Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | December 2009 18 Aristocrat the review and what the market can expect from Aristocrat in 2010. IAG : In June at G2E Asia in Macau, we spoke to Jamie Odell, Aristocrat’s Chief Executive Officer. At that time, the company was about to issue its strategic review. Can you tell uswhat has happened since then? Nick Khin : “In August, we released our strategy, which we call ‘Play to Win’. It encompasses a number of initiatives. There are over 20 of them and it’s a global strategic approach. “Many of the initiatives are focussed on the jurisdiction we’re in right now—the United States—which makes up over 50% of Aristocrat’s global revenues. We have a number of game studios based here in Las Vegas already, and we are looking to invest more and essentially double the number of studios here in Las Vegas. “We have a big gaming operations business here. It’s a participation business where we own the machines—Aristocrat machines—we put the product out on the floor and we either get a fee per day or a percentage of the coin that goes into those products. Currently we have more than 6,000 machines here in the US that are on ‘participation’. How much of your revenue comes from participation? NK: “It’s about 25%of our US revenues. As at June 2009, they [participation products] were earning on average US$43 dollars each [per machine] a day. There’s still a lot of room for growth in this area. It sounds impressive in terms of the number [of machines]. However if you actually look at the share that we have of the overall participation market in North America, it’s smaller than American Pie Despite the headline-grabbing rise of Asian casino markets, the US slots sector still has plenty of potential for growth, says Aristocrat Nick Khin, President of Aristocrat Gaming Technologies Inc. A ristocrat Technologies has been taking a fresh look at its slots and systems business in the light of recent gaming industry developments and changes in the wider world economy. Inside Asian Gaming met Nick Khin, President of Aristocrat Gaming Technologies Inc., the US arm of the operation, and David Punter, Marketing Director, Asia Pacific, for Aristocrat Technologies Australia, at this year’s Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas. We asked them what they had learned from