Clean Sheet
New casino gaming markets have some inherent advantages when choosing equipment—and some familiar challenges
Emerging gaming markets in Asia have some potential practical advantages in the drive for shared technical standards, as compared to more mature markets such as the United States and Europe. In Macau, for example, building a new casino on a green field or brown field site allows operators the rare opportunity of designing their information communication systems from scratch.
“Normally, in a mature business, up to 80% of any IT manager’s budget—it doesn’t matter what sector you’re working in—is spent on maintaining current infrastructure; maintaining the compatibility (or incompatibility) of various systems,” says Peter DeRaedt of the Gaming Standards Association.
“That leaves 20% to invest in new technologies.”
Demand change
Even in an emerging market such as post-monopoly Macau, however, the casino operators are in the hands of their suppliers when it comes to ensuring systems can communicate with each other. This is especially the case where operators adopt an equipment purchase policy based on ‘best of breed’ criteria, rather than using one supplier. The way to move the debate on is for well-informed operators to lead opinion and markets by asking their suppliers to change.
For the foreign-based casino operators working in Macau, however, the desire to transfer older but proven technologies from home markets is often strong. This is essentially a defensive management strategy designed to avoid the perceived risk of expensive down time on the floor while bedding in a brand new system.
“In some cases, ancient technologies are being used to build multi-billion dollar businesses. Some of them are essentially from the 1980s,” states Mr DeRaedt.
“In a market such as Macau that’s opening new properties, it’s important to understand the benefit of the new technologies and immediately implement them, because it allows you [as an operator] to be more in control; to drive innovation [among the vendors] and ensure you get the products you actually want, versus the products that are being offered to you. There’s a big difference.”
