Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | July 2010 4 Editorial Inside Asian Gaming is published by Must Read Publications Ltd 8J Ed. Comercial Si Toi 619 Avenida da Praia Grande Macau Tel: (853) 2832 9980 For subscription enquiries, please email subs@asgam.com For advertising enquiries, please email ads@asgam.com or call: (853) 6646 0795 www.asgam.com Inside Asian Gaming is an official media partner of: http://www.gamingstandards.com Michael Grimes We crave your feedback. Please email your comments tomichael@asgam.com Publisher Kareem Jalal Director João Costeira Varela Editor Michael Grimes Business Development Manager Domingos Abecasis Contributors Desmond Lam, Steve Karoul I. Nelson Rose, Richard Marcus Shenée Tuck, James J. Hodl Andrew MacDonald William R. Eadington Graphic Designer Brenda Chao Photography Ike Our Friends Electric “We believe that electricity exists, because the electric company keeps sending us bills for it,” said Dave Barry, an American humorist. We also know electronic gaming tables exist, because the equipment manufacturers keep selling them into the market and invoicing the casinos for them. But in the traditionalist table gaming destination of Macau, can electronic tables ever be more than bit part players? The answer is probably ‘yes,’ but not an unqualified ‘yes’. Just as some slot machine games are more popular than others, so some electronic table games are likely to outperform others. The deciding factor may be not how closely the electronic table mimics the play style of the traditional table, but how effective the game is at delighting most of the people most of the time. Let’s not forget that for every ‘traditional’ table game popular in the East or West today, there are hundreds if not thousands of table games played over the centuries that no one now has heard of. Baccarat, blackjack, sic bo and the like are effectively either hybrids or survivors of ‘products’ that are now lost in obscurity. In that context and in the long run, the issue may be not whether electronic table games can be Wal-Mart versions of live games, working simply by offering smaller overheads and lower minimum bets, but can they cater to a distinct and possibly new segment of the market? Suppliers tell us, for example, that young people brought up using Apple’s iPhone love the experience of touch table betting. Beginner gamblers withmore conservative tastes seem to prefer taking their first steps on an automated table version of a traditional game, rather than facing the bear pit of a live game surrounded by experienced and sometimes impatient players. That may account for the trend observed in Singapore following the opening of the two integrated gaming resorts, for single station electronic games. Perhaps for a new generation of players, electronic table games are the equivalent of electronic flight simulators—a safe place to learn before moving into the wider world. The assumption behind that thought, however, is that electronic tables are not the ‘real thing’ and that self respecting gamblers will always—if not driven purely by bet price—want to go mano a mano with their peers at a live dealer table. We’re not so sure. With Macau’s casino revenue growing 65% year on year in June, the government’s cap on live table games could be just the opportunity the electronic table segment needs to bust out of its Cinderella role and grab more of the limelight. For the sceptics, here’s a closing thought: “The horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novelty; a fad.” — The president of the Michigan Savings Bank advising Henry Ford’s lawyer, Horace Rackham, not to invest in the Ford Motor Co in 1903.