July 2010 • MOP 30 • ISSN 2070-7681 Electric Dreams Macau’s cap on live table numbers could be a golden opportunity for the electronic variety Marina Bay Sands In Focus: Game Changer The Philippines: All Change? | Mentor the Dragon: Macau Policy | Junket Market View: Tough Love? Top Table: NRT Technology Corp | Fortune’s Wheel Turns for IGT CONTENTS July 2010 Electric Dreams 6 Electric Dreams 12 Game Changer 18 All Change? 20 Tough Love 22 Mentor the Dragon 26 Top Table 28 Winner Takes All 30 Singles Champion 31 The Power of Ten 32 Pinball Wizard 33 Fortune’s Wheel Turns for IGT 35 From VIZION to Reality 36 Player Power 38 Survival Island 42 Loyalty Costs 44 Regional Briefs 46 International Briefs 48 Event Calendar 18 2 3 Editorial Our Friends Electric “We believe that electricity exists, because the electric company keeps sending us bills for it,” said Dave Barry, an American humorist. We also know electronic gaming tables exist, because the equipment manufacturers keep selling them into the market and invoicing the casinos for them. But in the traditionalist table gaming destination of Macau, can electronic tables ever be more than bit part players? The answer is probably ‘yes,’ but not an unqualified ‘yes’. Just as some slot machine games are more popular than others, so some electronic table games are likely to outperform others. The deciding factor may be not how closely the electronic table mimics the play style of the traditional table, but how effective the game is at delighting most of the people most of the time. Let’s not forget that for every ‘traditional’ table game popular in the East or West today, there are hundreds if Publisher not thousands of table games played over the centuries that no one now has heard Kareem Jalal of. Baccarat, blackjack, sic bo and the like are effectively either hybrids or survivors of ‘products’ that are now lost in obscurity. Director In that context and in the long run, the issue may be not whether electronic table João Costeira Varela games can be Wal-Mart versions of live games, working simply by offering smaller Editor overheads and lower minimum bets, but can they cater to a distinct and possibly new Michael Grimes segment of the market? Suppliers tell us, for example, that young people brought up using Apple’s iPhone love Business Development Manager the experience of touch table betting. Beginner gamblers with more conservative tastes seem Domingos Abecasis to prefer taking their first steps on an automated table version of a traditional game, rather than facing the bear pit of a live game surrounded by experienced and sometimes impatient Contributors players. That may account for the trend observed in Singapore following the opening of the Desmond Lam, Steve Karoul two integrated gaming resorts, for single station electronic games. I. Nelson Rose, Richard Marcus Shenée Tuck, James J. Hodl Perhaps for a new generation of players, electronic table games are the equivalent of Andrew MacDonald electronic flight simulators—a safe place to learn before moving into the wider world. The William R. Eadington assumption behind that thought, however, is that electronic tables are not the ‘real thing’ and that self respecting gamblers will always—if not driven purely by bet price—want to go Graphic Designer mano a mano with their peers at a live dealer table. Brenda Chao We’re not so sure. With Macau’s casino revenue growing 65% year on year in June, the government’s cap on live table games could be just the opportunity the electronic table Photography segment needs to bust out of its Cinderella role and grab more of the limelight. Ike For the sceptics, here’s a closing thought: “The horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novelty; a fad.” Inside Asian Gaming is published by — The president of the Michigan Savings Bank advising Henry Ford’s lawyer, Horace Must Read Publications Ltd Rackham, not to invest in the Ford Motor Co in 1903. 8J Ed. Comercial Si Toi Michael Grimes 619 Avenida da Praia Grande We crave your feedback. Please email your comments to [email protected] Macau Tel: (853) 2832 9980 For subscription enquiries, please email [email protected] For advertising enquiries, please email [email protected] or call: (853) 6646 0795 www.asgam.com Inside Asian Gaming is an official media partner of: http://www.gamingstandards.com 4 INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | July 2010 Electric Dreams Macau’s cap on live table numbers could be a golden opportunity for the electronic variety lectronic table games have long been There’s just one problem. There is as touted by equipment manufacturers yet little consistent, strong evidence that Eas the casino equivalent of the players in Macau are willing to migrate en philosophers’ stone. In Western culture, masse from live table games to electronic the philosophers’ stone was a legendary ones, or to view them as a viable alternative alchemical substance, supposedly capable of if live tables are too full. At Chinese New turning base metals, especially lead, into gold. Year, most players would rather crowd The magical allure of automated or semi four-deep around traditional live tables automated table games—particularly in the with minimum bets pushed up as high as Macau market—is their supposed ability to HK$300 than take their chances with the deliver play on much wider margins than automated baccarat tables. traditional live table games because they don’t need expensive and scarce local dealers Against the tide to run them. In the first quarter of this year, There are some notable exceptions to the median monthly wage for a table dealer this general aversion to electronic table in Macau was MOP13,000 (US$1,620). That’s games. Aruze’s Lucky Sic Bo has proven a hit actually higher than the monthly wages paid on mass floors in Macau as compared to the to dealers in the new Singapore integrated traditional hand-shaken dice version. That’s resorts. Dealer salaries at Marina Bay Sands in part because of the clever ‘bash button’ average S$1,800 (US$1,293), according to feature that allows players the illusion of industry analysts, while at Resorts World control once the automated dice shaking Sentosa the average is reportedly S$2,000 has commenced. It could also be because in (US$1,437). China’s relatively low-trust culture, players Lucky for some—Aruze Lucky Sic Bo 6 INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | July 2010 Cover Story are more inclined to put their faith in an to adopt electronic tables overnight,” adds Macau players definitely aren’t stupid, automated shaker with its dice hermetically the source. but they do seem to be quite conservative sealed in a transparent container, rather In Macau, numerous attempts by in their tastes. They know what they like and than in loose dice shaken by a flesh and equipment suppliers to replicate in they like what they know, and so far what blood dealer on an open casino table. From electronic game form the card peeking, card they like is live baccarat with a flesh and the players’ near-paranoid perspective, who squeezing and general adrenalin-pumping blood dealer. knows what subterfuge could be going on action of live baccarat have been met not so On the face of it, an electronic gaming behind the scenes? much with rejection by players as with sheer system that yields on occasions an extra On the downside for the electronic indifference. Why bother tasting the casino 1.2% house edge to the player compared games lobby, Paradise Entertainment’s gaming equivalent of a hamburger on an to the average live dealer version, doesn’t attempt back in 2008 at creating a niche electronic table when you can dine on prime sound like a natural winner with casino Macau property with a floor entirely steak at the live table? managements. Mr Kinsman stressed, populated by hybrid tables (i.e. electronic That has led some suppliers and some however, it’s a win-win situation for player table games with live dealers) at the operators to market electronic baccarat in and house. SJM-licensed legacy casino Kam Pek on Macau on the value proposition of smaller “At the mass gaming end [of the market], the Macau peninsula, was not a roaring minimum bets because of the lower live table utilisation might only be four to six success. Electronic table evangelists point overheads involved. Unfortunately, rather hours a day, but operators still have to staff out, however, that this may have been than creating a loyal following among value- those live tables,” he pointed out. more a function of the quality of Paradise’s conscious players, the strategy seems to have “They would be better off having some equipment and its marketing strategy than placed electronic baccarat in a kind of ghetto electronic tables around.” of the soundness of the concept itself. as a poor man’s table game suitable mainly In Singapore, by contrast, there seems for the retired and for domestic workers. New day dawns much more acceptance by the players of Well, finally the prospects for electronic electronic table games. TCSJOHNHUXLEY Marketing mish mash table games in Macau could be about to reports almost constant 100% occupancy Yet, arguably, that style of marketing change for the better. There are a number of of its Novo Unity™ II TouchBet® Roulette is approaching the electronic baccarat reasons for that. The first is that the Macau terminals since they were installed at RWS. issue from the wrong end of the spectrum. government’s 5,500 cap on the number Alfastreet says the same about its SI Line Suppliers and operators should instead of live tables in the market between now Modular standalone roulette terminals be focusing on the fairness of electronic and the end of 2012 could soon mean that delivered to RWS.