Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming December 2014 18 Insights at North America, now about 900,000 machines, a lot of which have come in the last few years because of the amount of openings in new states. But when you look at the Asian markets, probably about 70,000 legal machines. It’s quite small in overall numbers. But because of the competitive nature of these markets, people are more inclined to update machines or replace non- performing machines faster than we’re seeing in other markets. Where we see it today, I mean, Macau, particularly, has become such an aggressive, competitive market, and it’s mainly because Macau is such a small place, 30-plus gaming venues, you can walk from one venue to the next, they’re side by side in most cases. So the operators are being very aggressive and competitive, much more than you see in North America or you see in Australia. Each square foot of gaming space is more precious. Much more critical. Electronic gaming revenue in Macau, as you mention, is continuing to rise despite the overall drop in revenue, and especially the drop in VIP. What people have often thought is that most of the slot revenue was driven by VIPs. But that isn’t the case, is it. It’s a lot more diverse? Well, it’s not only coming from the top players, who, yes, certainly have been hit, the ones being attracted by some of the bigger operators here. I think there’s been growth generally, an acceptance generally, across the marketplace. Electronic games are being accepted by the Asian and also the mainland Chinese player. Which suggests that it’s really become more of a mass-market phenomenon. Does this indicate also a market that is maturing? Since 2004, when the first non-SJM casino opened, the market’s learned a lot, and we’re all starting to understand more what the player who is coming to Macau today wants to play. And I think that’s why we’re now seeing an acceptance with electronic gaming, because we’re actually focusing and targeting to the right audience. And as infrastructure and all the other things that are happening here get better, and as the travel reaches further into China, I can only see electronic gaming continuing to grow. I think as Macau, from an economic tourism point of view, continues to grow, electronic is going to be a part of that growth. How has this changed your focus, and what you do in terms of product, from the days when the industry was trying to introduce the Chinese player to machines and trying to get the machine side tuned to where it is now? Well, if you go back, if you look at the bigger “When we built Duo Fu Duo Cai we actually built it for the Macau market. And it’s quite a step away from what have been the traditional maths packages that most companies bring here. It’s a very complex piece of maths. It shows a lot of volatility, and it works well. We’ve been rolling it out into other markets in Asia, and it’s been successful there.