INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | August 2012 2 Editorial Inside Asian Gaming is published by Must Read Publications Ltd 8J Ed. Comercial Si Toi 619 Avenida da Praia Grande Macau Tel: (853) 2832 9980 For subscription enquiries, please email
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[email protected] AWin-Win for Everybody In another sign that Macau’s casino industry is growing in maturity as well as in size, some 200 employees from the various properties have banded together to form the Macau Gaming Management Association. Their stated aim, to “professionalize” gaming management through communication and collaboration, skills enhancement and the promotion of international service standards, is certainly a laudable one. An educated, motivated workforce is vital to running these complex operations more efficiently and more profitably, and that has to translate over time into a better experience for the millions who come to Macau to visit and play. Mid- and low-level management are the business world’s unsung heroes, the people who make the trains run on time, performing critical jobs that tend to go unnoticed until something goes wrong, jobs that remain thankless for the most part, as anyone who’s done them knows, and never especially remunerative jobs either. So it was encouraging to see the support accorded the association at its formal inauguration at the MGM Grand Ballroom last month. The six concessionaires all sent high- ranking representatives to the ceremony. Macau’s Secretary for Economy and Finance Francis Tam Pak Yuen gave the keynote address. Joining him were Executive Council member Leong Vai Tac, who will serve as an honorary president of the association; Chen Xiang, vice director-general of the Economic Affairs Department of the PRC’s Macau Liaison Office; DICJ Director Manuel Joaquim das Neves, also an honorary president; and DICJ Deputy Director Leong Man Ion, who will serve as a member of a board of advisors together with Sharon Cheong, director of Community Relations & Projects for Melco Crown Entertainment; Melina Leong, vice president of Public Relations and Community Affairs for The Venetian; andWynn Macau’s Director of Communications Katherine Liu. As for the 100 or so who were in the audience, they were the fresh, eager faces one tends to encounter in Macau’s casinos wearing the telltale uniforms or business dress that mark them as employees. China, for all its storied history, is a young country. As for Macau, turn any corner and you’re likely to confront some relic of the past, but all around you the streets and sidewalks teem with young people. The city’s principal industry, as we know it today, is a young industry, less than a decade old. For its rank and file, workers mostly in their 20s and early 30s, these big, flashy resorts that have sprung up in their midst seemingly overnight are providing them with their first taste of the world, their first experience of life away from the bosom of family and classroom. Which is where theMGMA comes in. It can stimulate these youngminds, inculcate in thema worldliness that will inspire them to think in career terms and provide themwith tools to enable them to advance in their careers, not only in Macau but in a leisure and hospitality sector that is bursting at the seams across East Asia. If nothing else, it has the potential to engage its members more personally in what they do for a living, helping to instill in them an esprit de corps that will make the experience of coming to work every day more meaningful for them, and for that reason alone, more rewarding. As the group’s new president, Davis Fong Ka Chio, put it, “To cope with the challenges and rapid developments of the gaming and tourism industries in the region, it is vital to develop and cultivate a large group of gaming management professionals with an international vision.” Mr Fong, associate professor of Hospitality & Gaming Management at the University of Macau, knowswhereof he speaks. He is director of the university’s Institute for the Study of Commercial Gaming and a leader in articulating academia’s response to the industry’s transformative impact on the city and theChinese nation. Joininghimas academic advisors to the group areUMAC’s RicardoC.S. Siu, associate professor of Business Economics, andDesmondLam, associateprofessor ofMarketing, Koo LeungChee, assistant director of the Macau Gaming Research Association, and Associate Professor Samuel Huang Gui Hai of Macao Polytechnic Institute’s GamingTeaching and Research Centre. Most important, the MGMA is structured so that members will benefit from mentoring by peers who are setting world-class standards in service, administration and marketing. Joining Mr Fong on the group’s General Assembly are Wendy Yu, vice president-Human Resources at MGM Macau; Buddy Lam, vice president-Public Relations for Galaxy Entertainment Group; Hannah Koo, head of the Research & Statistics Department at SJM; and Oscar Lam, senior manager-Internal Audit at Wynn Macau. Josephine Un, senior manager for Strategic Marketing at Melco Crown and chairwoman of the association’s 29-member Executive Committee, outlined a“working plan”that includes educational workshops, field study in jurisdictions outside Macau, collaborative research projects, “sharing sessions” with members of the industry and academia, and a “Service Excellence Campaign” in which casino operators will be invited to organize a competition among members tasked with developing “innovative yet feasible” proposals for improving the quality of service industry-wide. It’s an ambitious program. But then it’s quite a mission the MGMA have set for themselves. We wish them success.