Inside Asian Gaming

IAG FEB 2022年2月 亞博匯 104 TECH TALK Ben Blaschke: It’s been a long two years for suppliers around the world, but particularly in Asia. How are you feeling about where IGT is placed heading into 2022? Michael Cheers: I agree, the last couple of years have been challenging for the industry for many reasons. This is particularly true in APAC. That said, we have the right people and products in place to make progress in 2022. It may be a slower start than we’re used to in Asia, but we remain optimistic for the future. Like so many technology companies, we’re navigating a global chip shortage which has added a little bit to our lead times and is going to be an ongoing challenge, but we hope that is rectified by the latter part of 2022. I see our customers in Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines as likely to be the most active in the first six months of the year. Then I see Macau, Korea and Vietnam starting to pick up in the second half of this year as polices and freedom of movement become more balanced in what players can do. BB: How was 2021 in terms of product placement and performance? Was there improvement from 2020? MC: For IGT, 2021 presented different obstacles than 2020, some of which significantly impacted the buying decisions for operators throughout Asia. Factors included capex freeze and a general freeze on replacement units from some