Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | March 2012 26 Bally one called Jeepney Joyride. These are in- house mystery links with themes targeted for the region that can go over Bally games and have been created specifically for Bally Macau. So that’s been exciting for us and it’s been a huge shift for us on the games side. One of the highlights of the G2E expo held last October in Vegas was your Michael Jackson game and people were wondering when and if that might be rolled out here [in Macau]. Yes, I intend to showcaseMichael Jackson at this year’s G2E Asia [held 22-24 May at Venetian Macao]. Unfortunately, it won’t be an approved product in time for the show, but we definitely expect it to be approved and rolled out this year. What do you see as the big growth opportunities for Bally and other gaming suppliers across the region over the next few years? Well, Macau is and will continue to be a major market for Bally. Although a lot of people have mentioned that after Cotai parcels five and six open [scheduled for April] there’ll be a little bit of a slow-down in Macau in terms of new, large-scale property openings; that may be true, but technology never stands still. On the systems and the games sides, we’re constantly working with the operators and our partners on enhancements of the systems to increase their business and operational efficiency. We’ve got a lot of add-on products. Our systems are very modular. We have a lot of products like BI, which is our Business Intelligence™ unit; EBS, which I mentioned before; and iVIEW DM. Another product that we’re launching is Service Tracking Manager™, STM. A lot of these add-on products, we’re constantly working with the casino operators to add on or upgrade. So that never stops and Macau will remain a large market there. Another opportunity is the Philippines, which has been a big part of Bally’s business on the games side for the last five years. Obviously, with the recently approved four casino licenses, in the next 12 to 48 months, the Philippines will be a huge business opportunity for us on both games and systems. So that’s a very exciting market for us. We’re already talking to a number of the concessionaires over there, which is exciting. Vietnam is another market that’s on the move at the moment. There’s one licence that hopefully should go live towards the end of this year or next year. And that’s a market that Bally hasn’t been in before, so we’re focused very heavily on Vietnam at the moment as well. Singapore continues to do great and it amazes me that a country with two casinos outstripped Las Vegas last year in terms of gaming revenue. Singapore has also been a success for us on both the games and the systems sides. And that will hopefully mean more opportunities in the replacement market down the road. We’ve started seeing Macau finally hit a bit of a replacement market. Typically, you look at slot machines with a product life cycle of say five to seven years, in terms of cabinets. Until recently, games sales in Macau have been primarily driven by new property openings—new property, new machines. Now, some of the earlier properties that opened in the 2005-2006 era are starting to replace some of their existing machines. What challenges do you foresee for your business over the next few years and how will you address them? One of the big challenges, obviously, is competition. We’ve got the two largest gamingmarkets in theworldonour doorstep and I believe, very soon, the Philippines will be in the top three with the introduction of integrated resorts over there. And it’s a heavily competitive market. We’ve got some very strong, healthy competitors here which is good, because it keeps all of us on our toes in terms of technology development and innovation and always striving for that next step. As for Macau, I’m a huge believer in building local teams and localisation and that’s something Cath did tremendously here and that’s something I intend to continue to do. We have a very strong local team, but it’s tough, with the Macau labour market being so buoyant—I think the official rate of unemployment at the moment is 2.1%, which is effectively zero unemployment. That makes retention of key great staff a big challenge, not just for suppliers, but also for the operators. Every time a new casino property opens, they always see a lot of transfer of staff. So that’s a huge challenge, especially when we’re a technology company. To find, hire and retain high-level technical people is an ongoing challenge. What are the major insights you’ve gained during your time working in Macau? The great thing about being in this part of the world is we’re on the doorstep of CashWizard