Inside Asian Gaming

JAN 2019 INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 29 AWS: Japan is renowned as a very modern, technically advanced society. Can you see Japanese IRs implementing any specific types of technology that will likely one day be adopted by IRs around the world? TD: Yes, one thought is skill-based gaming. In this market in Japan you obviously have pachinko and pachislot. We’re going to be very differentiated from that but there is this element of skill-based gaming here – maybe there is new game technology here that blends the software of a traditional slot machine with a skill-based gaming machine. That’s one idea we’ve had. Another completely separate idea that we’ve heard here in Japan is player tracking – particularly as it relates to problem gaming. This market is very focused on being very protective in that area. We’ve heard talk of the My Number facial recognition software to track players and their problem gaming spend. Your question also reminded me that I paid for my hotel in a kiosk last night which I don’t think I’ve ever done before. Payment transaction technology – as you know everything in the US is cash-based in casinos. Eventually that is going to change across the whole industry and I can see Japan being at the forefront of that. AWS: What are you most proud of when it comes to Rush Street’s achievements in the US gaming industry? And how might that apply to Japan? NB: We do exclusively regional casinos and I must say that if someone here wants a Las Vegas or Macau type IR, we wouldn’t be doing that. We don’t think it fits into the culture or the environment of Hokkaido or Tomakomai. In terms of what we’re most proud of, we have a casino that we built in Chicago near O’Hare Airport. The government unfortunately limits the size and the number of gaming positions we are allowed to have but we built a very upscale casino and we generate the highest revenue per gaming position of any casino in North America. We’re very proud of the fact that each one of the regional casinos that we have developed is either the first or in one case the second most successful in terms of revenue per gaming position of any of the competition. Obviously the one I described in Chicago is number one – we compete against, for example, other major players like Caesars. We do more business but we’re one-third the size. It’s because of the quality of what we’ve built and Rivers Fallsview at Niagara Falls in Ontario, Canada was Rush Street’s first casino. “Everything in the US is cash-based in casinos. Eventually that is going to change across the whole industry and I can see Japan being at the forefront of that.” – Tim Drehkoff