Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | August 2011 30 in developing it as a tourism destination.” Those are lofty ambitions. The people who run Goldenway are certainly young, ambitious—and iconoclastic. If their business model works it will also give more value back to the players in terms of rebates on rolling chip volume—notwithstanding the fact the players will have to pay up front to gamble in the first place. Goldenway says it will be able to offer better rebates to its customers than traditional junkets by sharing the commission it receives from the casinos solely with the players rather than with agents. “We are bringing the guest to the casino, the casinos pay us commission, and we then pay commission directly to the players. I can’t say this is a revolution for the industry, but we are certainly bringing something new to Macau and that’s why the Grand Lisboa is backing us,” says Jerry Tse. “Other junkets use the traditional agent model with agents and sub-agents to bring the players in. We don’t. We use the latest media—such as the Internet—to recruit players. People can visit us online and sign up.Then, once they come to us, our customer service team will meet them and look after them. I think we’re the first junket operator to do online recruitment.” Goldenway launched its operations in Macau a year ago. Initially, it operated a VIP room at Sands Macao. It is now consolidating its operations at the Grand Lisboa with two rooms and a total inventory of 20-plus tables. It is targeting in particular the younger demographic of Greater China’s newly-rich. It includes those that have made money via Internet-related services such as e-commerce and software design and development. As an indication of the rapid growth of e-commerce in China, a survey from Analysys International, a consultancy, estimated that in the second quarter of this year the Chinese Internet advertising market generated revenues of RMB11.4 billion (US$1.8 billion). For the Internet generation, it’s possible that arriving at Macau VIP gaming via a random Internet search or via recommendation from a peer through social networking, will seem perfectly natural and not at all irregular or odd. “We’re certainly targeting not just the older players who in the past made up a large part of Macau’s VIP market. We’re also trying to attract some of the younger business people,” says Kenneth Cheng, MarketingManager forGoldenway’swebsite, www.00853.com —a reference to Macau’s international telephone dialling code. “Some of them have made a lot of money in a short amount of time. For example, there are people with Internet- based businesses in Hong Kong and Shanghai. We are not catering to the usual Macau standard—we are catering to Las Vegas standards,” he adds. Visitors logging on to the website are immediately greeted with a pop up window inviting them to chat with a customer service representative in an instant messaging format—an approach that may appeal to under 40s brought up on social media. There’s further evidence on the website that Goldenwaymay be aiming its services at a younger demographic—and one possibly less experienced at casino gambling than the entrepreneurs aged in their 40s and 50s who have typically accounted for most of the VIP players in Macau. The website devotes a whole page to explaining the rules and protocols of baccarat—the game of choice for Macau high rollers because of its low house edge and near evens chance of a win. Goldenway is also offering high stakes poker in its VIP rooms. Poker has not been popular with all Macau VIP operators. It’s seen often as a niche product that doesn’t provide the same yield from precious table capacity as baccarat, because its business model is based on rake rather than the number of hands per hour. “We have a poker table because we want to be a one-stop solution—offering entertainment and a gambling experience for our customers. Poker is a value-added service,” explains Jerry Tse. The term ‘gambling experience’ is an interesting choice of words. It chimes much more with Las Vegas-style marketing methods than traditional Macau ones. It implies that gambling is just one of a range of experiences that Goldenway’s target market VIPs are likely to enjoy on their visit. Goldenway’s website reflects that approach. It mentions non-gambling activities such as shows—The House of Dancing Water at City of Dreams and Zaia at The Venetian Macao; nightclubs such as the Playboy Club Macau; Cover Story SJM’s Grand Lisboa—supportive of cash VIPs idea Goldenway’s website explains the baccarat basics