Inside Asian Gaming

August 2010 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 11 that still holds sway. However, the group behind is clustering and is significantly closer than it has been. And I’m really pleased to see that it’s happening, because it gives operators more choice, the player more choice and enables everybody to put pressure on everybody [else] to build a fair share of the market and a fair share of the floor. Players benefit from manufacturers constantly striving to provide better games and new concepts and benefits such as bonuses and new game attributes to increase excitement. Certainly a game with the right maths model offering time [on machine], excitement and at the end of the day giving us as operators a yield, is the optimum. It’s what we all look for and what we would hope for from the manufacturer—that they continue to strive to find that balance. At the end of the day we’re in the entertainment business. If a player comes in and gets stripped of their assets, then there’s no entertainment value and they’re not going to come back. I used to liken it to going to the movies. You go into the movie, you pay your dollars and you come out two hours later with a memory of the entertainment. Sometimes our business is the same. If we don’t provide that ‘memory,’ then people are not going to go to the movies any more. different. Even some of the older vendors have gone down that way and made more entertainment-type machines. And that is starting to drive players onto machines. I still believe that what makes a good product is: a good game, good math and good return. It’s what keeps a game popular. The top five machines in Macau have been the same for the past four years and I’m guessing it’s the same for the other properties. There are some new ones that spike here and there, but the top ones are consistent. There’s a good reason that 60% to 70% of machines in Macau have some kind of link on top. That’s because [as operators] we try to be competitive. The thing that differentiates us is how we structure those [prize pool] links on top of the machines. DC: The new vendors when they come in they offer new products; they bring new, fresh ideas. Quite often with the more established vendors you’re going to get a lot of clones—the same game with a different wrapper or same math, different wrapper. The new and up and coming developers they push not only each other, but also the established suppliers to go forward. Two or three years ago, who would have thought we would see something like the Lava screens from WMS? Back then they [WMS] had maybe 5% market share. Now they’re growing. From my perspective as an operator, it [supplier diversity] is a wonderful thing because it gives more choice, more competition, better pricing models. LS: There’s one manufacturer [Aristocrat] City of Dreams launched what it describes as ‘Macau’s Biggest Floorwide Jackpot’, with the top prize starting at HK$3 million. Cover Story Mocha Clubs, established in 2003, was the first operation to seriously promote slots in Macau