Inside Asian Gaming

September 2010 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 45 49 (49) Leonard H. Ainsworth Executive Chairman Ainsworth Game Technology with the pithy observation: “Still breathing”. Mr Ainsworth’s race is not yet run. Ainsworth Game Technology is very much in the game regarding the modern industry. The company unveiled its latest slot products at G2E Asia, including its GamePlus™ range. Among Ainsworth’s new releases was its latest multi-level link progressive, Players Paradise™. Players Paradise features four new Vegas themed games: Vegas Fantasy™, Vegas Fortune™, Vegas Fever™ and Vegas Frenzy™. Based on Ainsworth’s successful Double Shot™ formula, Players Paradise combines a linked progressive with dual standalone progressives, frequent bonus prizes and free games features to keep players engaged. In a July interview with The Age newspaper based in Melbourne, Mr Ainsworth explained his continuing role in the business. “We’re regulated in America and all around the world and I’m invariably asked what do you do? And my answer is that I ride shotgun. By looking and listening and watching what’s going on and by getting out and meeting and greeting the customers.” Given 87-year-old Len Ainsworth’s famous gallows humour, he may have regarded the bestowal of a G2E Asia Visionary Award at the gaming industry trade show and convention in Macau this year as a hint it was time for him to cash in his TITO voucher. It’s traditional, after all, for Hollywood acting legends to be given an honorary Oscar shortly before they leave the sound stage for the last time. In a telephone interview this July with an Australian journalist, Mr Ainsworth—who in 1954 founded the business that later became Aristocrat Technologies—responded to an inquiry about his health 50 (47) Alfonso R. Reyno Jr Chairman and CEO Manila Jockey Club expanded to 250 slot machines and six gaming tables. Manila Jockey Club Inc, (MJCI) founded in 1867 and the oldest such organisation in southeast Asia, has to a degree been protected fromthe economic effects of thenational horse racing sales downturn thanks to product diversification under Mr Reyno, who took up the post in 1997. In particular, the Club got into the real estate business. In 2003, Mr Reyno adopted the sort of business model used by many European soccer clubs for their stadia. He moved the race stadium and track from a piece of prime land in the centre of Manila to a bigger, cheaper site in the suburbs at Cavite. The old 16-hectare site was then redeveloped as a mixed-use project with 3,400 high-end condominiums and townhouses in partnership with Ayala Land Inc. At the new racetrack site, MJCI and its partner Century Properties also developed a 77-hectare estate with an up-market residential village known as Canyon Ranch, overlooking the sporting complex. MJCI also operates more than 200 off-track betting stations (OTBs) in Metro Manila and in the neighbouring provinces, with the number of OTBs still growing. The Club also has its tele-betting facilities, which it reports have been adopted enthusiastically by race fans. Alfonso R. Reyno Jr owns 11.91% of Manila Jockey Club’s stock, according to a filing made with the Philippine Stock Exchange in May last year. So even though gross sales from horse racing betting in the Philippines fell 10.6% year-on-year in 2009 (the last available published figures), Mr Reyno is a wealthy and influential man in the country’s gaming industry. Despite the 2009 slowdown, the industry as a whole still managed to book 4.9 billion pesos (US$100 million) in sales in the eight months to the end of August. The Club also operates PAGCOR Club San Lazaro (PGSL), a gaming venue at the San Lazaro Leisure and Business Park in Manila, which opened in 2006. It is a joint venture between the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) and the Club. PGSL initially started with 110 slot machines, and four gaming tables. Within a year, it had Laboratories International. The aim of Mr Pisano’s new consultancy, Jade Entertainment and Gaming Technologies, is to provide market and regulatory insights for governments, leading equipment manufacturers and operators attracted by the strong potential of Asian land-based and online gaming, but who want to understand more about the risks as well as the returns. The consultancy also offers advice on how to establish, gain and then maintain marketshareinAsia.MrBriggscomplements that work by acting as a consultant on how to both structure an Internet gaming company in Asia and market it effectively to Asian consumers. gaming floor in November and has ordered IGT’s new American Idol® video slot game for immediate install once it is released in November. Jade will also start installing machines in a second property—the Crown Regency in Cebu—within weeks. It will open with 200 units, including IGT, Novomatic, Aristocrat and Aspect Gaming machines. Jade says there is potential to double the capacity to 400 units. Jade provides machines to venues on a revenue share basis. It expects by the end of September to announce distribution agreements for the Philippines market with some of the world’s major gaming manufacturers. Jade operates globally, but with an emphasis on opportunities in the Asia Pacific region. Its main office is located in Metro Manila in the Philippines. The majority of Asia’s online gaming companies are domiciled in the Philippines, which was the first regional jurisdiction to license online operators. Jade also has a gaming operation based in the Philippines. It currently runs 200 machines at the Oxford Casino in Clark, central Luzon, about an hour’s drive from Manila. The product mix includes the only IGT Wheel of Fortune® Special Edition™ Super Spin™ in the Philippines. Games on the floor use TITO (ticket in, ticket out) technology. Jade has plans to expand the Asian Gaming 50 – 2010