Inside Asian Gaming

AUGUST 2018 INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 47 INDUSTRY PROFILE “For adults, it’s all about that entertainment side of gambling and I thought it would be great if you could make a career out of doing something like this.” OG: Is that competitive spirit still inside of you? MR: Yes, playing all kinds of sports like cricket and football definitely instilled a competitive instinct in me and I guess that’s why in the business world I am motivated to beat the competition. It’s important to do so in a respectful, friendly manner, but you still want to beat your competition. That’s very much something that drives me. OG: Do you miss playing sport? MR: I missed it when I watched the World Cup this year. I was like, “It would be fantastic to get back into” but unfortunately, I can’t commit to doing something and when I do something I want to commit 100%. With my travel regime and the amount of time I am on the road with work, I find it quite hard to be able to commit to the training so it would be tough to do. OG: What made you want to join the gaming industry? MR: There were two family trips that did it. I was quite fortunate that my father’s work allowed us to visit many places around the world and the year before I visited Macau for the first time, we went to Las Vegas. We’d been to Hong Kong a few times and my parents said, “Hey let’s go to Macau!” I didn’t really know what Macau was or was becoming at that time, but when we came over I drew an alignment with Las Vegas. Getting older you start looking forward to going out to pubs and clubs and all this kind of thing, so when I saw Las Vegas and Macau I realized, “Wow, you can get this entertainment side too.” For adults it’s all about that entertainment side of gambling and I thought it would be great if you could make a career out of doing something like this. So that’s really when I started to focus on getting into gaming. OG: How did the dream become a reality? MR: When I was finishing high school I wanted to get into business so for my last years of study I focused on doing business courses in order to get into university to do a business degree. At university, during my first year, I contacted some people from the industry. I started working in an RSL, which had