Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | September 2012 44 Asian Gaming 50 – 2012 40 Mark Michalko Sales Director IGT-Asia Mark Michalko took over as sales director for IGT-Asia earlier this year with a remit to turn around the slot giant’s fortunes in a part of the world the company views as a key to its continued growth outside its home markets in the US. For Mr Michalko it’s meant creating and implementing a new strategic plan and revamping the sales team with a view to revitalizing commercial models that haven’t served IGT as well as they might have in terms of floor share in the region, particularly in Macau. The buzz word for IGT is “market-attuned,” which means a lot of things, but can be distilled down to the recognition that an appealing package, while important, doesn’t cut it if the game mechanics, the math and the cultural context aren’t all sound. It means garnering the ability to understand local tastes and preferences in some profound ways. In Macau, principally, IGT has been engaged in months of consumer research— some of the most intensive research casinos in this part of the world have been party to. Mr Michalko’s job, in essence, has been to build on the momentum by solidifying the relationships that have emerged from engaging the company’s new operator- partners at every stage of the game development process, and by positioning the new sales team to be as close as possible to their customers. Needless to say, it’s required both a seasoned, thoughtful approach to administration and a decisive hand in execution, traits Mr Michalko has cultivated in abundance. A 35-year industry veteran, he was founding executive director of the California StateLottery. Hewent on toheadcommercial ventures centered on IT services in gaming and in biotechnology and media and served at one point as president of publicly listed International Lottery & Totalizer Systems. IGT especially values his experience on the ground in Asia, where he was the first managing director of PGMC, the listed company licensed by the government of the Philippines to operate its national online lottery, and served for three years as president and director of the Hong Kong- based Asian subsidiary of lottery giant Intralot. If it would be premature to call this year’s G2E Asia a defining moment for him, for certain, it was an important first look at his effectiveness in positioning IGT to take some floor share in the months ahead. By all accounts, it’s been a promising debut. several ROK and US military installations. In November 2009, GKL floated 30% of its equity on the Seoul Stock Exchange. There was talk of more stock being sold to private investors, but the company is still majority-owned by the government, which recently announced an end, come 2015, to Kangwon Land’s monopoly on Korean players, a sizable market in its own right, worth about US$1 billion annually. Authorities say that licensing for at least one new venue catering to domestic players will take place in 2015 or soon after. In fact, official plans currently call for the licensing of up to five resort-scale casinos over the next decade or so. GKL’s gross revenue grew 8% year on year in 2011 to KRW524.9 billion (US$464 million), which was below analysts’ forecasts. Considering the company faces intensifying competition from not only Paradise at home but also from a slew of new integrated resorts in neighboring Macau, the Philippines and Vietnam, GKL will be pinning its hopes on securing one ormore of the new licenses in order to boost growth. And Mr Ryoo’s connections could be a differentiator in terms of the company’s ability to access these opportunities. The last time a new foreigners-only licensewas issued—in 2005— it went to GKL. Given that GKL and Paradise Group are probably the only home-grown operators with the experience and contacts to be able to attract foreign joint-venture partners, they have to be considered frontrunners for the new resort and/or domestic licenses when the government finally does make its move. 41 Ryoo Hwa-sun President and Chief Executive Grand Korea Leisure Grand Korea Leisure is a semi-private owner and operator of three foreigners-only casinos in South Korea. GKL actually was set up by the South Korean government in 2005, through the Korea National Tourism Organisation, to boost tourism and generate income to fund tourism infrastructure and other government projects. The company has since opened three casinos—two in Seoul and one in the port city of Busan—under the popular Seven Luck brand. Before GKL’s arrival, Paradise Group had held the lion’s share of the foreigners-only market for almost four decades, but GKL quickly snapped up share, and by 2010 held an estimated 54% of the foreigners-only business, estimated to be worth just over KRW1 trillion (US$885 million), while Paradise’s share had dwindled to around 30%. Paradise has launched a vigorous counter-offensive, however, taking its share of the market back up to 50% as of the second quarter of 2012, while GKL’s share slid to 42%. The battle rages on. Which is where Ryoo Hwa-sun comes in. Mr Ryoohas the ear ofmany lawmakers and civil servants, having served as a member of a presidential committee on regional development and later as mayor of Paju, a small but important city, strategically located just south of Panmunjeom on the 38th Parallel and home to