Inside Asian Gaming

January 2010 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 15 USPCC the embossing gives a little bit of separation between each card in the pack—it effectively creates an air cushion. A very smooth card on the other hand, tends to cause problems for shuffler machines. Sometimes more than one card can come out,” adds Scott Madding. Traditional or jumbo indices USPCC supplies the full range of its respected card brands to the Asian market, including KEM® brand plastic cards in Macau. The cards for the Macau market use a standard index on the playing side, while those supplied to casinos in Europe and the US commonly use a jumbo-size index. “When they do the flop at a large table, people at the other end of the table can see the cards,” states Mr Madding. “We changed to large pips for ease of surveillance,” he adds. “It’s easier for the ‘eye in the sky’ [casino overhead cameras] to see. We found the players liked it, and the pit bosses liked it. I would say we used to supply the majority of our cards in standard index format, but now jumbo index is the majority. If you walk up and down the Strip in Las Vegas and walk into a property and look at any table, you’ll find they’re all using the larger index on most of their games except baccarat.” USPCC baccarat shoe USPCC’s baccarat shoe, designed to work specifically with USPCC cards, was introduced to the Macau market more than a year ago at the Galaxy City Clubs and most recently at Galaxy StarWorld Hotel & Casino as well as the New Century Casino. It has been well received, says Mr Madding. “We had the quality of the card they needed, and the performance of the shoe was there. They are a long-standing customer of ours. We also have our card shoes in the Korean market and the Southeast Asia region. We have more than 750 units placed throughout the world, including North America. “The baccarat shoe has been in the market now for about a year. It’s got proven reliability, and it’s starting to gainwider acceptance in Macau as well as other markets. As contracts come up, everybody’s looking to maximise their operational efficiency and save money where they can, so we find new sales opportunities present themselves,” adds Dwight Watson. Operator friendly One of the attractive aspects of USPCC’s baccarat shoe is the ease with which the firmware can be updated, says the company. “The nice thing about our shoe is it’s all software driven,” says Mr Watson. “Competing products are driven by software too, but with our shoe it’s very easy to go in and make the enhancements. The casino operator can also select different performance parameters depending on the nature of the casino market. All these changes can be done right at the table. The unit doesn’t have to go into a back room and be opened up.” The favourite dice game in Macau is sic bo. There are signs, however, that other dice games are gaining a foothold in the market, including North American casino favourite craps. USPCC has started supplying its high-quality dice to several venues in Macau. Scott Madding Automated manufacturing–USPCC playing cards