One of the best compliments an original equipment maker can receive is to have market rivals make multiple visits to its trade show stand to view a new product, Albert Yu (pictured), assistant general manager for Aruze Gaming Macau Ltd, told GGRAsia.
He said that is what happened with Aruze’s new Virtual Roulette electronic table game for casinos, which had its launch at the recent Global Gaming Expo (G2E) Asia in Macau.
“We’ve even had salespeople from rival firms come with their customers to view it,” Mr Yu stated.
Virtual Roulette does not have a moving wheel. Instead, graphics are projected onto a static one, creating the illusion of a spinning wheel and ball, while the winning numbers are created by a random number generator.
“There is also a display system showing bet history, ‘hot’ numbers and ‘cold’ numbers, and the time bets were placed,” said Mr Yu.
“I think there’s a good chance this product will go well, because Macau is getting an ever greater amount of ETG [electronic table game] players, and such products are very well accepted,” he added.
Live multi game – a specific category of electronic table game using a live dealer – saw a 6.3 percent increase in gross gaming revenue in Macau in the first quarter of this year. It was the only major category of casino gaming product in the city to witness an increase in revenue during that period.
Aruze’s Virtual Roulette also has a jackpot side game where every player participating can win an equal jackpot amount, rather than having to split a single jackpot between the participants. Aruze says the latter typically happens with other roulette jackpot side games.
“We can also customise functions and options and the graphics on this product, to optimise user-friendliness for your casino customers,” said Mr Yu.
“G2E Asia is the first time we have shown this machine, but we have received a lot of positive feedback from the casino operators. Based on the customers’ comments we are confident that this product will perform well,” he added.
Aruze Gaming is held by Japanese entrepreneur Kazuo Okada, who first made his fortune from pachinko machine manufacturing via his Universal Entertainment Corp business. Mr Okada is also developing a casino resort in the Philippines called Manila Bay Resorts. It is likely to open in 2016.
