Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | September 2011 56 47 (49) Leonard H. Ainsworth, Executive Chairman Ainsworth Game Technology Mr Ainsworth gave up control of Aristocrat in the mid-1990s after helping to turn it intoan international premiumsupplier of gaming technologies and services. By then, he was in his 70s, but his appetite for business-building was undimmed. He set up Ainsworth Game Technology in 1995 as an independent competitor. The company listed on Australia’s ASX in December 2001. It now employs more than 300 people and exports worldwide. Following the recent launch of its new A560™ family of cabinets, Ainsworth Game Technology increased its ship share across the massive Australia slot market to around 20%. In November 2009, Ainsworth was granted licensing permission to produce gaming equipment for the Nevada market—recognition the company had arrived among the ‘big boys’ of the gaming supply industry. The company is in the process of seeking approval for the A560 platform in Nevada. Mr Ainsworth, now in his 88th year, has received numerous awards in his native Australia and overseas for his many contributions to the industry—including at G2E Asia 2010 in Macau where he was presented with a G2E Asia Visionary Award by Frank Fahrenkopf, the President and CEO of the American Gaming Association. 48 (-) David Chow CEO NewMacau Landmark Development Western standards. It was only opened in 2003. But things change quickly in Macau. By autumn 2006, with the first phase opening of Wynn Macau, The Landmark Macau Hotel began to be somewhat overshadowed and ‘out marketed’ by new product from Wynn and the other out of town investors following the casino resort building boom of the mid-2000s. But after The Landmark Macau Hotel renovation, which is scheduled to take a year, the property will boast Macau’s biggest sauna, at 60,000 square feet. That should boost the hotel’s appeal not only to room guests but to a certain segment of Chinese walk in customers, given that it is within strolling distance of a whole cluster of downtown casinos that don’t have such a facility. They include Galaxy’s StarWorld, Wynn Macau and MGM Macau. If he follows his instincts about what Macau’s Chinese visitors really want, Mr Chow should bounce back in style. Asian Gaming 50 – 2011 peninsula. Lows include his Fisherman’s Wharf joint venture with Stanley Ho. In 2009, several hedge funds that had invested in the latter project, including Och Ziff and TPG-Axon, accepted a heavily discounted buy out of HK$400 million- worth of debt securities. The good news is that the Fisherman’s Wharf site, on the southwest side of Macau peninsula’s Outer Harbour, is one of the best pieces of real estate in the territory. A revamp of the site is expected soon, including extra hotel accommodation to help the area become the tourist hub it was always meant to be. Mr Chow, a Hong Kong-born former Macau lawmaker, recently raised a HK$1.8 billion (US$232 million) syndicated bank loan for investments in Macau. Some of it is expected to go on changes to Fisherman’s Wharf. A total of HK$400 million has already been allocated for refurbishment of his Landmark Macau Hotel. That hotel is not an old property by David Chow has known highs and lows in his career as a Macau gaming and tourism entrepreneur. Highs include his construction of the Landmark Macau Hotel and Pharaoh’s Palace Casino on Macau In a world where success is increasingly measured in financial quarters, Len Ainsworth’s longevity stands out. He has been involved in the gaming industry for 59 years, starting out in 1953 by taking over from his father a company that he would eventually transform into the fledgling Aristocrat Leisure. At the time, Dwight D. Eisenhower was president of the United States and Mao Zedong had been leading the new communist government in China for only four years. Mr Ainsworth has long been acknowledged as one of the fathers of slot and electronic gaming in Australia. He is widely credited with helping to create a sustainablebusinessmodel for that country’s clubs industry through his development of poker machines.