Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | September 2012 40 Asian Gaming 50 – 2012 37 Gregory S. Gronau President and CEO Gaming Partners International Since 1925, Gaming Partners International has provided the first line of defense for casinos in ensuring that cheaters never prosper at their tables. The company has earned its position as the leading supplier of gaming chips, plaques and jetons throughout the world, including Asia’s biggest gaming markets, by tirelessly innovating to stay ahead of ever-resourceful counterfeiters. Under Greg Gronau’s leadership, GPI has been securing increasingly large orders in Asia on the back of the explosive growth of the last decade in the continent’s table game volume. In addition to offering market-leading security, GPI also strives to enhance the aesthetic appeal and value of its products as marketing tools. The company’s recently introduced B&G Premium Chips, for example, give casinos the ability to create unique chip designs that combine up to six colors with logos and other brand elements. B&G’s products are widely considered the industry’s most prestigious casino currency and are staples at VIP gaming rooms in Asia andworldwide. GPI also supplies chips under the well-known Paulson and Bud Jones brands.The company operates high-security, high-capacity manufacturing facilities in Mexico and France and supplies other table game equipment as well, including furniture and accessories, layouts, playing cards, dice and roulette wheels. Mr Gronau has been GPI’s chief executive since September 2009, having served as the company’s COO and executive vice president for almost a year prior to that. He has more than 20 years of senior management experience leading gaming and manufacturing companies to profitable growth and expansion. In2010,MrGronauoversawanagreement with International Game Technology to license radio frequency identification (RFID) tracking technology for casino currency which theUS-based slot giant hadpurchased from now-defunct Progressive Gaming International. These new RFID solutions include chips, readers and displays, which help operators improve both security and efficiency. GPI’s latest product offering, RFID Total Money Management, combines the efficiencies of RFID with a high-speed bill validator for table games designed by JCM, streamlining table game cash and chip transactions to enable sizable increases in hands per hour while providing increased security through instant authentication and validation. The deal with IGT gives GPI the ability to develop, manufacture and distribute RFID products and systems worldwide and could play a major role in defining Mr Gronau’s legacy. 36 Kingson Sian President Travellers International Hotel Group With Resorts World Manila, Travellers International—a joint venture between Alliance Global and Genting—has created something of a sensation. Despite the Filipino love of gambling, major casinos run independently of the government operator-cum-regulator, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, had never succeeded in the Southeast Asian archipelago. But Travellers, led by Kingson Sian, proved the naysayers wrong with a world-class venue, and is now planning to expand with an even larger one. “Their success was completely unexpected,” says a Manila-based head of equity research. “There had been many attempts by private-sector groups to run casinos in the Philippines as far back as the early ’90s, and they all failed miserably. When these guys started operating in 2009, there was absolutely no history for anyone to suggest they would succeed this time, and yet they did, and they completely blew a themed development which, apart from gaming, will include 2,500 hotel rooms and employ tens of thousands of Filipinos directly and indirectly. The company has played an important role in bringing the largely informal gaming culture of the Philippines out into the open. But the country continues topresent problems for gaming developers with global ambitions. “The big challenge for ResortsWorld and big casino operators, if they’re truly going to go for the junket market, is just simple infrastructure,” says the research head. “At the moment, [Ninoy Aquino International Airport] is already overloaded, and they’re trying to push as many non-big commercial flights off, just because one small plane and one large plane take the same amount of time and the same slot on the runway.” Rumors of private solutions abound— such as a dedicated terminal for high rollers—but nothing officially sanctioned has been announced as of yet. Mr Sian’s challenge will be to use his influence with the government and other private-sector players to help resolve the infrastructure situation and enable the Philippines to realize its potential as a hub for domestic and international gaming. my expectations out of the water.” Resorts World Manila opened at the height of the global financial crisis and has sustained an enviable performance since then. In 2011, RWM generated US$659 million in net revenue (accounting for more than 40% of total gaming revenue in the Philippines) and $214 million in EBITDA, which works out to a nearly 40% return on investment. Travellers is planning to build on that success with Resorts World Bayshore City—