Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | April 2012 22 Matsui M atsui Asia Ltd, based in Macau, is one of Matsui group’s five global sales offices, which also include branches in Manchester, Moscow, Las Vegas and Seoul. The group is a leading supplier of gaming chips and other casino equipment and operates two purpose-built manufacturing plants dedicated to delivering quality products and speedy service. Matsui claims to now supply the majority of casino operators in Asia with its value chips, wheelchecks, plaques and RFID products. Its product range also includes highly durable synthetic layouts, traditional wool layouts and innovative table accessories such as Carmanah LCD Table Signs. Shigeki Machida, MD of Matsui Asia Ltd, spoke to Inside Asian Gaming about his company’s progress in the region and what he sees as the big potential opportunities in the near future IAG : What are the advantages for Asian casinos of using Matsui chips and layouts, rather than products supplied by your international competitors? Shigeki Machid a: We believe there are three big advantages we can offer to our customers: quality, speed and accuracy. We are committed to ensuring the quality of our products surpasses customers’expectations. This is not only achieved by using the highest-class materials and a state-of-the art production facility, but also with the experience of our craftsmen and our strong will to supply only the best products to end users. We are committed to doing our utmost to respond quickly to on- going daily service requirements and to cut the time between the receipt of artwork and completion of production in order to save our customers’ valued time and money. And, needless to say, accuracy is required for all the work we do, and we attach a great deal of importance to it as this is directly related to customers’ satisfaction. What are some of the other things you supply beyond chips and layouts? In addition to gaming chips, layouts and related items, which are our core products, we also handle table accessories such as playing cards, roulette wheels, winning result displays, etc. One of the very unique items we supply is the Card Shredder Machine, which is used to destroy playing cards in the back of house. It shreds approximately 30 decks of playing cards in one minute. We developed this machine especially for playing cards and we have sold hundreds of units worldwide so far. Apart from those products, recently we started distributing electronic table games from PokerTek, U.S.A. PokerPro—the electronic Texas Hold ‘em poker table—is very popular in the Americas and Blackjack Pro, its BJ version, was just released. We believe these products will fulfil the increasing demand for electronic gaming tables in this area. Can you please tell us about some of your recent product innovations? We will launch a new security feature for gaming chips at G2E Asia 2012. This new security feature is simple but very innovative and reliable, while the additional cost for the end-user is very low. We are also planning to launch several new chip designs at the show. They will be in our standard chip range, but with some special effects and appearance. Our team is very excited about being able to introduce those new products to our customers at G2E Asia. Probably the most important feature of gaming chips is security. In what ways do you ensure your gaming chip production process is secure, and how do you fight the counterfeiters? Yes, it has always been the most important task for chip manufacturers to offer reliable security options. And this is one of the reasons many operators choose Matsui Chips as their casino currency. We have several different security options such as RFID, security printing, magnetic chips which work with security gates, UV marking, holograms with special effects, and so on. Another crucial point is our entire manufacturing process is carried out under tight control at our factory. We have invited many casino people to our production facility and they were all very impressed by the level of security at our factory itself. Do you work with customers on customizing your chips and layouts? Yes, we do. Not many customers come to us with their design concept already finalised for chips and layouts. Our sales and design teams help them come up with the best designs which satisfy their requirements. Since we are in the same time zone as our Asian customers, we can offer them very speedy service throughout the process. Any requests for small amendments or changes to the artwork are completed very quickly. Growing Grasp Matsui has developed a strong following for its chips and other casino equipment across the region. Shigeki Machida, MD of Matsui Asia Ltd, explains why