Matsui is celebrating its 40th anniversary by debuting its latest range of high security casino chips at G2E Asia.
THE MATSUI GROUP is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. Established in August 1980 in Tokyo, Japan, the company was started by founder Takashi Matsui as a billiard table cloth supplier serving clients in Japan.
In the middle of the 1990s, Matsui became the authorized distributor in Japan and Korea for US Playing Card Company, renowned for their “Bee” and “Bicycle” brands of playing cards for casinos, poker and the retail market.
In the year 2000, Matsui built a factory for gaming chips under its own brand “Matsui Chips”. Now the company has offices and subsidiaries located worldwide, including Korea, Manchester, Las Vegas, Moscow and Macau, with the Head Office still located in Tokyo.
“We are very excited to have this commemorative 40th anniversary year as a group company,” said Managing Director of Matsui’s Macau subsidiary, Shigeki Machida.
“After we started representing USPCC in the 1990s, we also started handling a few major slot brands and casino equipment suppliers’ products including gaming chips for our casino customers in Korea.
“The big turning point for our company was that our owner made a decision to supply his own brand of gaming chips and built our factory in 2000.”
At that time, there were still many chip manufacturers in the market place. Competition was tough and as a newcomer, Matsui was focused on high quality products with a fair price and excellent service.
“When we started chip manufacturing, we found there were a lot of customers who were not satisfied with their current suppliers’ services. For instance, when they requested artwork, they needed to wait for one week or even longer,” said Machida.
“When they received their chips, the packing was not in good condition or sometimes had a few chips missing. They could also find many defective products upon inspection. We knew about all these previous situations from the experience of being a distributor.
“Once we started our own brand, we simply strived to avoid those bad practices of our competitors with better service, quick turnaround and excellent quality products.”
Operators welcomed the option of a new chip supplier, among the first credible options in Asia. Matsui Chips’ presence increased gradually while competitors went through mergers and acquisitions or withdrew from the business completely.
These days Matsui is one of the top names in gaming chips and table equipment supply worldwide.
To respond to very high demand for its chips, Matsui has been expanding the production capacity at its factory, including a recent major renovation of its facility to further strengthen the company’s competitive advantage. New machines and equipment have been installed to further speed up production while the facility has also strengthened manufacturing security with state of the art technology.
“We are very glad we can now offer even shorter delivery time with the best production facility. Our delivery time was originally shorter than our competitors but now it is even faster,” said Machida.
At G2E Asia 2019, Matsui Asia will be showcasing the latest additions to its gaming chip product line. Its new casino chip series, Oval Premier Decal Chips, and a unique new design of chips will be launched.
The Demo of PJM RFID chips, which is licensed by Matsui’s partner Walker Digital Table System (WDTS), will also be on display.
“We are thrilled to introduce these new gaming chips as well as our other core products such as highly durable layouts to our customers,” Machida explained.
“At G2E Asia 2019, by way of the collaboration with WDTS, we will provide the demo of our PJM RFID Chips with their Perfect Pay Baccarat table and their Perfect Counter.
“Operators are increasingly aware of the importance of casino chip security and we believe that the new development and our partnership with WDTS will surely provide even more choice and better security options to our customers. Our team members are looking forward to meeting our friends and new clients at G2E Asia.”
