Inside Asian Gaming

November 2014 inside asian gaming 13 LT Game has about 60% of Macau’s roughly 5,500 ETG seats. The company’s lock on the prized multi-player, multi-game version that features live dealers, the version everyone wants to play, is even greater, in fact, it’s total, and accounts for upwards of 3,250 of those seats. But if you’re thinking there’s nowhere to go from 100% but down you’d be wrong. LT’s Live Multi Game System, as it’s called, is protected by a patent from the Macau government, which fosters LT’s enviable position, indirectly, in other ways: with the table cap, for one, which has driven average minimum baccarat bets into four figures and makes Live Multi Game System invaluable as a low-cost alternative; and by prohibiting anyone not holding permanent residency in the city from working as a croupier, which has rendered Multi Game, by virtue of its ability to link dozens of betting terminals to a single dealer, a go-to solution for the labor shortage. The fact that LT’s e-table share has doubled over the last two years says it all. The number of total LT seats in the market is up more than 30% this year, and with ETG positions in Macau expected to grow by 3,500 with the new resort openings on Cotai, the company’s lion’s share will only get … well, more leonine. As an operator of three casinos and part of a fourth, Jay Chun, chairman and managing director of LT’s Hong Kong- listed parent Paradise Entertainment, has kept a close eye on the labor and table cap issues as they’ve unfolded. And being a man with a tirelessly inventive mind he’s leveraged the success of Live Multi Game to devise a “Total Casino Solution,” as LT calls it— an all-electronic “chipless” gaming floor that requires minimal staff to run but retains just enough of the human touch—via platforms like Live Multi Game and a new e-baccarat hybrid—to represent something genuinely groundbreaking. “If you want to set up a small-scale casino you can have everything there,” explains Chief Operating Officer Betty Zhao,” live tables, electronic table games, cash access, CMS, and also slot games.” LT unveiled a prototype earlier this year with the return of full-scale gaming to the Macau Jockey Club, and the experience gleaned from that will be on display at this month’s Macao Gaming Show in an intriguing mix of live and automated tables and live-dealer hybrids, along with a unique multi-game link called Power Dragon, jackpot and tournment solutions and an array of supporting technologies covering self-service kiosks, ticket redemption and tableside currency validation and full floor-wide networking. MGS is now in its second year as a competitor to G2E Asia, and it was founded, not surprisingly perhaps, by the indefatigable Mr Chun, who will have IGT co-exhibiting with him as part of a distribution deal that is likely to see a lot of LT’s games turning heads in the States. “We are focusing on the US market,” says Ms Zhao. “Vegas is the gaming center of the world.” The company already has 48 Live Multi Game terminals on the Strip (at The Venetian) and on Fremont Street (at the Plaza), and both properties plan to deploy more. Australia’s Crown Melbourne is also on board with 100, and more are slated to be installed there next year. Cover Story Total Solution LT GAME The LTMG5: backbone of LT’s market-leading Live Dealer Multi Game platform. The eDrop tableside bill validator is a key ingredient in LT’s ‘Total Casino Solution’.