Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | August 2011 42 I ncreasing product sales in any market that’s dominated by one or two suppliers is always a challenge. One possible strategy for success is to focus sales effort on a select number of new, high-end customers looking for premium products and a very personalised client-customer relationship, and then build your market reputation from there. Another is to build on your existing client relationships in other markets. If those companies then open operations in your target market you are well-positioned to pitch for their business. Those are elements in the multi-track approach being taken in Asia by the United States Playing Card Company (USPC), one of the world’s leading suppliers of pre- shuffled casino-standard playing cards and card shoes. At G2E Asia, Inside Asian Gaming caught up with Michael W. Slaughter, recently appointed as USPC’s President of Global Casino, tofindoutmore about the company’s view on Asia and the opportunities available as the number of casino venues increases in the region. IAG : What are your key target markets in Asia? Michael Slaughter : Obviously Macau. It’s significant to just about everybody in the gaming business at this point. All of the new venues such as the Philippines and that we have secondary suppliers for inks, for adhesives, for transportation and so on. That’s just a good business measure, no matter what business you’re in. “While it’s always wonderful to have 100% of anyone’s business, there’s nothing more important than secondary supply for virtually every industry in the world” We’re very fortunate as a company that we manufacture on two distant continents. We have a sister company in Spain called Fournier. In terms of something like disaster USPC High End The US Playing Card Company is going after upmarket casinos as customers in Asia US Playing Card Company—precision marketing for a premium product in Asia USPC’s Michael Slaughter Singapore are also very important. It takes a significant amount of increased resources to capitalise on those opportunities. How do you build share in a market such as Macau that is dominated by a rival supplier? What we ask is ‘What keeps a CEO up at night?’That applies to any business, whether it be the hotel business, the gaming business or virtually any industry in the world. It’s the question of the problem with the supply chain. We’re big proponents of secondary supply. While it’s always wonderful to have 100% of anyone’s business, there’s nothing more important than secondary supply for virtually every industry in the world. We do it throughout our businesses. We make sure