Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | April 2012 26 are dropping significant sums per session relative to their peers in the main mass slot segment. “We live today in the experience economy. It’s not about providing products any more, it’s about providing a great experience for every guest at every tier that they would like to enjoy.” In many markets around the world, slot play is chiefly associated with the grind market and time on machine. But Macau reflects the fact that Chinese slots players and table players alike love volatility. As expected, Aristocrat’s best-performing games such as 5 Dragons and its more interactive cousin 5 Dragons Deluxe are popular with Pavilion players. “The new generation of players are very much computer-savvy,” states Raymond Yap. “You can see that from the way the slot machine is evolving into some sort of very interesting interactive game with a lot of entertainment elements inside. It’s like playing a computer game at home. So we think the computer-savvy generation is going to pick up slots as a form of entertainment.” In the Macau table gaming context, “premium mass” normally indicates three things—higher betting stakes; slightly higher player reinvestment; and thus lower margins compared to main mass-market table gaming.That slight reduction inmargin is compensated for by the betting volumes involved—just as with “true” VIP table gaming. But even with the slight reduction in margin, premium mass is still a more profitable business dollar for dollar than VIP. And there are a lot more people eligible for the segment. That’s why everyone in the industry is chasing it. Until the opening of Galaxy Macau’s Pavilion slot offer, it can be argued that Macau’s casino operators have in essence managed their high-end slot players as premium mass customers when it comes to denominations and drop, but glorified main mass customers when it comes to player comforts and rewards. The best that most high-stakes slot players have been able to hope for in terms of playing experience is a screened-off area, a slightly more comfortable chair and a better staff- to-player ratio than on the noisy mass floor. Given that some of them are dropping tens of thousands of Hong Kong dollars per trip—a few even more—it’s not surprising some players would like a little more love and attention. It seems GEG has listened and is treating the top segment of premiummass slot players as the VIPs they undoubtedly are—by judging them in the context of the slot market rather than in the context of the live table market. “We believe we have themost innovative affinity programme in the casino resort industry,” explains Michael Mecca. “There are more benefits, more varied High-limit slot attraction—5 Dragons Legends benefits, more lifestyle benefits in our Privilege Club than any other club in the industry.” The most obvious area of casino competition on slots visible to the public is the size and frequency of jackpots in the mass and VIP segments. When you have a relatively small number of VIP players in the first place—as compared to the mass market—those big players have a strong need to see big jackpots go off on a reasonably regular basis in order to keep coming back. This is another area where Galaxy Macau thinks it has an advantage over some of its rivals—both in the mass market and its new premium mass Pavilion offer. Peter Johns, Vice President of Electronic Gaming at Galaxy Macau, told IAG at The Pavilion High Limit Slots launch: “As we speak, the Pavilion jackpot is HK$7 million. Other operators here in Macau might have a base jackpot of tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars open to all segments of players, but it might only go off once a decade. That’s fine if youwant to churn through players. But if you want them to keep coming back then you need to offer them regular, good-size wins. The VIP players like to celebrate their wins. It’s quite a competitive thing among them. They also told us they wanted to have somewhere away from the main floor where they could relax. We’re responding to their needs and they seem to like it.” VIP launch—from left to right: Paul Ng,VP Gaming Marketing, GEG; Janette Kendall, SVP Marketing Communications, GEG; Raymond Yap, Senior VP International PremiumMarketing Development, GEG; actor Michael Tse; Michael Mecca, President & COO, GEG; Eileen Lui, Director, Human Resources and Administration, GEG;Tim Lowe,VP Table Games, GEG; Andy Duggan, SVP Finance, GEG; and Peter Johns,VP Electronic Gaming, GEG Feature