Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | August 2010 46 About the Associate Sponsors Aruze Gaming America, Inc. , a global gaming corporation since 1983, designs, develops and manufactures slot machines and gaming devices for the global casino market. The corporate office is located in Las Vegas with subsidiaries and branches in Australia, South Africa, Macau, Japan and the Philippines. Aruze Gaming produces highly innovative gaming products, including high-resolution video and stepper slot machines; communal gaming products; and multi-terminal devices. Latvia’s DLV is a supplier of casino class equipment to international markets as well as a gaming hall operator in its home country. Since DLV was founded in 1994, the company has built up a domestic network of 38 gaming halls. In 2004, the company embarked upon creating its own software, launched successfully in its own gaming halls. It then sold that proprietary technology into outside markets including the European Union, non-EU countries in Eastern Europe, Central America and South America. TransAct Technologies Inc is a leader in developing and manufacturing market-specific printers for transaction-based industries. These industries include casino, gaming, lottery, banking, kiosk and point-of-sale. TransAct has over two million printers installed around the world and is committed to world-class printer service, spare parts and accessories required by a growing worldwide installed base of printers. Beyond printers, TransAct is a leader in providing printing supplies to the full transaction printer market. Winning Asia specialises in R&D, participation, and sales of EGM and systems, focusing on the Asian casino markets. We seek to provide casinos with the most complete line of diverse gaming products and solutions, including multi-terminal games, video-slots, casino management systems, patented-games, online gaming platform and wireless solutions for iGaming, combining in-depth market excellence with innovative product development. Gaming Partners International manufactures and supplies casino table games and equipment to licensed casinos worldwide. Under the brand names of Paulson®, Bourgogne et Grasset® and Bud Jones®, GPI provides casino currency such as chips, plaques and jetons; gaming furniture and accessories; table layouts; playing cards; dice; and roulette wheels. GPI pioneered the use of security features such as radio frequency identification (RFID) technology in casino chips, and provides RFID solutions including chips, readers and displays. The company’s head office is in Las Vegas, Nevada. It also has offices in Beaune, France; San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico; Atlantic City, New Jersey, and Gulfport Mississippi. Asian Gaming 50 – 2010 Core Ranking Methodology By their very nature, lists such as Inside Asian Gaming ’s ranking of the 50 most influential people in Asian gaming are bound to incorporate elements of subjectivity. We have done our best, however, to apply a rigorous analytical methodology to arrive at the results. We enlisted a panel of independent gaming industry executives and analysts from around the region to compile the rankings. We also sought nominations from readers and visitors to our website, www.asgam.com . The results are likely to result in lively debate and even controversy. A number of Asia’s biggest gaming companies remain in private hands, making it difficult—if not impossible—to obtain accurate financial records. Therefore, market share and other key performance indicators were estimated after extensive discussions with peers, competitors, suppliers and customers. We selected panellists from not only high profile casino jurisdictions such as Macau, but also emerging gaming markets around the region. We also included online operators. Not only is online gaming creating new customers and markets in Asia—online technology applications such as multi-screen display and play are also influencing the way land-based equipment such as slot machines are being designed. Even though government agencies ultimately control and influence all regulated gaming in Asia, after much discussion, we decided to exclude politicians and regulators and focus on the commercial sector. The initial short list of 80 individuals was put through a scoring process to arrive at the final rankings. The panellists gave each of the nominated individuals a score of between 1 and 10 on the following criteria: 1. How well known is the individual within the gaming sector in Asia? 2. How successful has the individual been historically in the gaming sector? 3. How fast has their business grown over the last 5 years? 4. What is their potential for future growth in their current gaming sub-sector and other gaming sub-sectors in Asia? 5. How successful are they financially (individually and/or company, or individual together with company, where relevant)? 6. How influential are they with the government and regulators within their jurisdictions of operations? 7. How influential are they internationally within the gaming industry (individually and/or company, or individual together with company, where relevant)? 8. How much of an innovator are they within the gaming industry? 9. How well are their products and/or services marketed and promoted? 10. How much do they own of their principal business and/or how much control do they have over their company? 11. How well positioned are they to cope with competition within their existing jurisdictions of operation and from overseas competition? 12. How do you perceive their dominance in their current major markets of operation? Feedback from the panellists led to each question being given a specific weighting—between 90% and 115%. Further weightings were applied relating to the company the nominated individual either works for or controls. These include the company’s status (public or private), financial performance and size (in terms of both operations and market capitalisation/value), as well as the size/importance of the markets it operates in. Finally, panellists applied a further weighting for each nominated individual with respect to his or her perceived personal integrity, effectiveness in management, overall track record and foresight.