Inside Asian Gaming

June 2016 inside asian gaming 9 Cover Story But today you have this new generation of operators and license holders that are throwing big money at it and you’ve got the divide between the locals and the newcomers. But the young generation are changing things. IAG: The Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai Bridge should make travel from Hong Kong to Macau easier but Macau already has a number of infrastructure issues with the roads and the light rail. That raises questions about the entry point into Macau. It’s all very good to drive here in 20 minutes from Hong Kong airport but it would defeat the purpose if the boundary crossing facility is a carpark. What are your thoughts? AZ: It is really, really important that the government makes it user- friendly and easy. They’ve spent all this money on the bridge but if you take the car, drive across the bridge and then face a line-up and hassles, you won’t do it. At the end of the day it will defeat the whole purpose. We have to move with the IT industry now. You should be able to just wave your phone. In China today we don’t use cash anymore, you use the wallet off the phone or QR codes. Everything is changing. The government needs to upgrade the system, think ahead and make it easy. It should be easy to get in and it should be easy to leave. Also, through technology and big data you should be able to see how many people are coming, how many slow down – these are things you have to control or Macau will become a parking lot. You can’t do that. With data today, things are different but the government needs to realize that. The young people are further ahead today than the old people because they grew up with it while government people are still doing everything by hand. These are the problems Macau will face. IAG: And the airport here in Macau? AZ: The airport in Macau … I sit on the board of the Airport Authority in Hong Kong so I know about that. Hong Kong airport is maxed out right now which is why we’re building a third runway and a new terminal. The airport in Macau could become or should become a domestic airport where you have China and other cities around south-east Asia flying in. We should look at the options. You look at every city right now, most of them are short on space and an airport is very important to a city. It’s the heart of a city. Obviously you’re not going to have US flights landing in Macau but there are certain kinds of flights from fourth tier, third tier and second tier cities that can come to Macau. With the bridge it can work both ways, they can integrate together. I don’t really see it as a problem because the airport in Macau is not too big and can’t handle that many flights so I don’t worry about it. I think that between Hong Kong and Macau, once the bridge gets built, they can work that out. It is vital that the boundary crossing facility on the Hong Kong-Macau bridge is efficient It is really, really important that the government makes it user-friendly and easy. They’ve spent all this money on the bridge but if you take the car, drive across the bridge and then face a line-up and hassles, you won’t do it. At the end of the day it will defeat the whole purpose.