Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming July 2016 34 Blast from the Past June 2011 Centrepiece – the high limit slots and tables on the main floor The Venetian Macao Still to be first stop on Cotai? Peter Johns, Vice President of Electronic Gaming at Galaxy Macau, and his team seem to have succeeded in producing both a portfolio of ‘hot’ games appropriate to the market and one that is visually appealing across the floor in terms of top boxes and other electronic promotional media. The return to player percentage at Galaxy Macau (how much the machines give back to the playing public as a percentage of total money wagered) is – for the time being at least – a well-kept secret and could stay that way given that there is currently no legal minimum RTP for slots in Macau (unlike Singapore). But it seems likely that at Galaxy Macau, a combination of competitive RTP and word of mouth among players is providing at least some of the enthusiastic slot traffic. As one industry executive told IAG: “From his days opening and running slots at MGM Macau, I would expect his RTP at Galaxy Macau to be among the most competitive in the market.” Window shopping Another important factor in the apparent success of Galaxy Macau’s slots and mass market tables could be the property’s unambiguous player rewards scheme. Examples of the gifts players can get for their points are actually on display in glass cases at the Galaxy Privilege Club desk, which takes up a significant portion of the eastern side of the main gaming floor. Most of the mass market membership desks and schemes IAG has seen in rival operators’ venues focus on abstract concepts suchaspreciousmetals todenotemembership levels in the manner of credit cards. Galaxy Macau gets right to the heart of the matter. Divided but united The main floor at Galaxy Macau is vast but not nearly as intimidating as The Venetian. Like Wynn Macau, it is broken up into zones, but unlike Wynn Macau you still get a sense of the whole and you have a horizon to work with. This allows guests to navigate their way around easily. If you want to find Elektroncek’s new 34-station three-game Organic Island installation (sic bo, roulette and fish ‘shrimp’ crab), for example, that’s no problem. The sightlines are such that you can see the overhead display of the installation from almost any point when you’re in that half of the floor. Let there be light Some Western observers have commented that the illumination of the main floor looks too bright. They might like to consider the fact that in many working class and lower middle class Chinese homes in Hong Kong and Macau as well as in the PRC, living rooms are powered by bright strip lights, not by tiny lamps dotted around the place as in many Western homes. And for Chinese people – who value baccarat as ‘the fair game’ because of its low house advantage – a well-lit gaming table can only be a good thing. “There’s less chance of someone at the table cheating and getting away with it,” is the likely outlook of the average mass market player. As one executive of a rival operator said to us on the opening day: “I really think – probably for the first time in the mass- market in Macau – an operator got the lighting just right.