Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | November 2011 24 INSIGHTS INSIGHTS – Inside Asian Gaming Mocha Clubs President Constance Hsu shows us around her company’s latest venue and explains how Mocha got table-loving Chinese gamblers to give slots a go. It is the latest instalment of IAG ’s video interview series with leading members of the Asian gaming industry. The interviews, produced in collaboration with Aomen TV, a member of the Ignite Media Group, can be viewed online at the IAG website, www.asgam.com C slot club operator Mocha Clubs, took Inside Asian Gaming Publisher Kareem Jalalonatourofhercompany’srecently opened ninth local venue, Mocha Macau Tower. The new club offers 260 electronic gaming machines in Mocha’s characteristic cosy coffee-shop style surroundings. Mocha Clubs was the first company to push electronic gaming seriously in Macau. Before the opening of its first venue in 2003, slot machines in Macau were viewed as merely decorations at the table-dominated casinos. Worst still, they were seen as a bad deal, leading to slots being referred to as “hungry tigers” in Cantonese. Mocha worked hard to shake off that perception, showing Chinese players that slots were not only fair, but also offered strong entertainment value. Mocha’s keen attention to service and local game preferences has allowed it to compete in the face of fierce competition from the slots areas at Macau’s glitzy new casino resorts. As president of Mocha since 2008, Ms Hsu has overseen the company’s strategic expansion to control 1,800 electronic gaming machines across the city. Mocha also boasts a slick player rewards scheme and one of the best returns to player on its machines in the whole of Macau. Kareem Jalal: For those not familiar with the history, can you tell us the history of Mocha? Constance Hsu : Yes, sure. In 2003, slot revenue accounted for less than 1% of Macau’s total gaming revenue compared to over half of the casino revenue on the Las Vegas Strip. There are several cultural explanations for the aversion to the slots in Macau, such as the supposed preference of Chinese to engage in intense face-to-face battles against the house and their belief that they can influence the outcomes at tables by spotting the patterns and picking the lucky cards or numbers, whereas when they play slots they leave their destinies to cold computers. However, from our point of view, the main reason for the non- performance of slots in Macau was a lack of quality product offerings, service, and comfortable ambience. Was it also trust, because they [the players] didn’t believe that they [slots] were fair? Maybe, so when we opened the very first Mocha Club at Hotel Royal in 2003, we blended a coffee shop-style with the gaming area for the patrons. About one third of the area was used as a mini-bar area with high- rise coffee tables and stools. And music, coffee smell, and the sound of the machines surrounded the whole venue. As for product offerings, we were the first in Macau to bring the electronic table games, such as sic bo, electronic baccarat and electronic roulette. These electronic Constance Hsu