Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | April 2010 18 “American Idol is huge in the Philippines. That’s why our licensed product has centre stage at Asia’s GEM. It’s one of the stars of the whole show,” says Kurt Quartier , Vice President, International Casino Markets for IGT . “Because it’s such a visible package based on such a popular television format, it means you can get it into every casino and it will be noticed by everyone that comes in to the casino. It helps in establishing our brand and in showing we can do more than just the standard game that everybody else tries to do. “Here at Asia’s GEM we’ve got what we call the 70-inch display for American Idol. We showed the 103-inch at IGE in London. In the Philippines there are five or six casinos that can take the biggest display,” explains Mr Quartier. “We’re seeing in the Philippines an increasing adoption of systems,” he adds. “We’ve just installed a system in Clark [Freeport Zone] in a new casino there and are installing one at the Hyatt [Hotel & Casino Manila] in early April. It’s all with our Asia’s GEM Manila A round up of news from Pagcor’s annual show for the Philippines industry Kurt Quartier with IGT’s licensed product American Idol Asia’s GEM T he Philippines is one of the most liberal casino gaming markets in the world. That’s in terms of market access for anyone over 21 years of age and in the willingness of country’s regulator-cum- operator, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor), to embrace new technology without requiring long lead times on equipment approvals. Asia’s GEM in Manila, Pagcor’s annual industry congress and trade exhibition, is increasingly an opportunity for suppliers to make deals with the growing number of private operators in the market. Here Inside Asian Gaming gives a round up of some of the news from 2010’s event.