Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming JUly 2015 30 CASINO MARKETING Marketing Time I t was the philosopher Francis Bacon who famously equated knowledge to power. At the time he said it he was most likely referring to the scientific method, but this observation can also be applied to any form of business endeavor, including casino marketing. Indeed, for a marketing executive to guide a gaming property to the next level and make informed marketing decisions, it often helps to have a macroeconomic view of the legalized gaming industry as a whole—where the market currently stands, the forces impacting it both short- and medium-term and how it all may shake out five or 10 years down the road. A roundtable of casino operators at the recently held Southern Gaming Summit in Biloxi, Miss., touched on a number of macro- level issues relevant to casino marketing. The speakers at the session included R. Scott Barber, regional president mid-south, Caesars Entertainment; Jim Hoskins, COO, Golden Nugget Casinos; Jon Lucas, executive vice president hotel and casino operations, Hard Rock International; Austin Miller, senior vice president gaming operations, Churchill Downs Incorporated; and Susan Varnes, president and COO, Treasure Bay Casino Resort in Biloxi. The following are excerpts from the roundtable, organized by topic. CURRENT GUEST/VISITATION TRENDS: Mr Miller: The biggest thing that we are starting to see impact our visitation business is social gaming, particularly on the lower end. If you listen to a lot of the earnings calls, most people say the middle- and higher-end business is pretty healthy, but they are seeing some erosion in the lower-tier of the database. I suspect some of that has to do with social gaming and its growth across the entire world. The last I read, social gaming was about a $50 billion industry, accounting for about 18% of global gaming revenues. It is here to stay and it is only going to get bigger. If you haven’t tried some of the product that is out there such as Candy Crush… they are pretty innovative. The social gaming companies can generate new content literally overnight, so they are ever changing and always offering new opportunities to entertain people. Mr Lucas: I think a hot topic in our industry is how do you appeal to the Millennials. Internally, we are discussing how we can appeal to them… how do we potentially reconfigure the floor in certain areas? What is a good game for them? This ties into the whole social gaming impact question, since they are one and the same for Millennials. Mr Hoskins: Demographics are changing. I think a lot of the ways we approach our facilities and our amenities are changing; like trying to have things that attract people from a non-gaming standpoint. Free play and visitation trends were among the topics broached by a panel of gaming operators that may help casino marketers formulate future plans By Paul Doocey “The biggest thing that we are starting to see impact our visitation business is social gaming, particularly on the lower end. If you listen to a lot of the earnings calls, most people say the middle- and higher-end business is pretty healthy, but they are seeing some erosion in the lower-tier of the database. I suspect some of that has to do with social gaming and its growth across the entire world.” Austin Miller | Churchill Downs Incorporated