The event – formerly known as the Macao Gaming Show (MGS) – featured a casino trade exhibition and conference.

“At this year’s MGS, we shook hands and made deals with operators in the Philippines and Vietnam,” said Primoz Krsevan, Spintec’s regional sales manager, as quoted in a post-show press release issued by the firm.

He added: “We already have a few installations in these two markets, operators know us and they are very satisfied with how our products perform on their casino floors so the next logical step was to expand.”

Mr Krsevan was further quoted saying: “Asia is one of the most important markets for us since it’s accountable for 40 percent of all deals we had so far in 2018 worldwide. And with every business meeting we have, we are growing and expanding our market share there.”

In comments to GGRAsia during the trade show, the regional sales manager explained some of its second-generation “Karma GEN2” products on display – including the “Karma GEN2 Roulette” (pictured) and the “Karma GEN2 Sic Bo|Craps” combination.

Mr Krsevan was speaking on a shared stand organised by Spintec’s local distributor, Asia Pioneer Entertainment Ltd.

He outlined what – in the firm’s view – made Spintec’s electronic table games outstanding.

“Before we start to develop each game, we usually make research lasting three to six months, with the players,” Mr Krsevan told us.

“We go to the different casinos, and we make a kind of survey with the players: what they like; what they don’t like; so when we study the machine [product] we really take into account all the responses,” he explained.

Development “usually starts with the ergonomics,” the sales boss added.

“We very carefully study how high it [the player interface] should be; how much space there should be for each player’s feet; the charging points for mobile phones, the drinks holders – all that kind of stuff.”

On the roulette games, “we also make sure… that you can directly see the wheel”.

Although Karma GEN2 Roulette has a camera offering a live video image of the wheel, shown overhead on the machine, “the players still like to see the ball actually spinning” in front of them, he stated.

“It’s a lot of small details like that, but when you put them all together, it turns out to be a good product,” added Mr Krsevan.

With the GEN2 products, “we left all the good things from the old generation, we just modernised the design,” he explained.

That included “new, bigger” monitors… “now the trend,” new, more comfortable arm rests, and some LED lighting, “which is also the trend now,” he explained.

Karma GEN2 Sic Bo|Craps is an innovation in terms of adding a dice game most popular in North America, to the sic bo game loved in Asian markets.

Spintec’s new product was the “first machine on the market” to offer the combination, said Mr Krsevan.

The goal at MGS was to “show all our new product,” said the sales boss.

“We wanted to catch up with all the operators, show them our products and ask them how they are satisfied with our current products,” he noted.

“We are going to submit that to the government in Macau,” said Kevin Lee, deputy general manager based at the brand’s local office, and referring to the Macau casino regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, a body also known as DICJ.

He was speaking to GGRAsia at the MGS Entertainment Show 2018, an event with a casino industry trade exhibition and conference, held at Cotai Expo at the Venetian Macao resort.

“It is a super big roulette, with plenty of sound. This is what we want to bring to the mass market,” he added.

“We want to align with the Macau strategy – and the Asian regional vision – to bring a more mass-market audience, rather than focusing on VIP,” added the Aruze Gaming representative.

The standard configuration for Lucky Roulette in-the-round, is eight player seats. A stadium version is available with up to 50 seats. The product is fully automated and does not require a live dealer.

Some ETG products for the Asia-Pacific region – that offer electronic betting and electronic bet settlement – have the capability for players to bet on multiple games simultaneously, although such features are not permitted in some regulatory markets.

Mr Lee said that – as regards roulette and even other games – Aruze Gaming’s research found players only want one game at a time.

“With roulette it is all about the anticipation of the ball dropping in the pocket,” he told GGRAsia.

“Based on our studies, players don’t actually play multiple games at the same time: they don’t play for example – on a multi-game – roulette, baccarat and sic bo at the same time,” he added.

Lucky Roulette uses a solid-state wheel and ball, but also uses digital projection mapping technology to display images on the hub of the wheel. In the sample on show at the firm’s stand at MGS, the images were constellations of stars.

“We are trying to animate the wheel, to make the wheel more interesting,” Mr Lee told us.

The manager noted that the brand’s set of after-sales guarantees to casino operators showed Aruze Gaming’s commitment to the industry. The guarantees include a pledge to maintain parts on hardware for up to five years after purchase, and a commitment on business performance of game software for two years from purchase, with the offer of a software update if performance could be proven to have fallen below the individual operator’s floor average in that time.

“We want to be there [at each casino] and continue to be there,” after the initial sales phase, said Mr Lee.

The approach was about finding “a way to make the business work,” for the casino operator, he told us.

“We will continue to bring forward more dynamic products, especially for Asia,” the manager noted.

Referring to Aruze Gaming’s founder, Japanese gaming entrepreneur Kazuo Okada, Mr Lee stated: “That’s the vision of our chairman. He wants to be involved in everything, from manufacturing to operations.”

GameSource consists of a cloud-based platform offering land-based casinos access to a library of electronic games.

Mr Lam described the product as “on trial right now”. He added: “We expect it to turn into revenue-generation mode – play for money – in January 2019.”

The trial started in October, Mr Iao said, with MGM China Holdings Ltd – the operator of MGM Macau – as a “strategic partner”. International Alliance Systems currently has four terminals and four handheld, portable devices on trial at the property. They are available in ‘play for points’ mode.

“This is a very innovative approach,” Mr Iao said, in reference to the use of handheld, portable devices. “We have a designated area within a controlled and secured land-based environment, to simulate ‘new-generation playing experience’.” The latter was a reference to a preference among younger generations of gamblers to bet using handheld devices – such as smartphones or tablet computers – instead of traditional slot machines.

GameSource runs on generic devices that have a touchscreen. This means no specific hardware is needed to play the games carried on the digital platform. Casino operators select which games from among those in the platform’s library they want to make available to their customers.

Currently, there are four gaming content developers – RTG Asia, August Gaming, EPICONE and Laxino Systems Ltd – that have signed up with International Alliance Systems to provide their games to the platform, Mr Iao told GGRAsia.

“We have a library of about 80 games already,” he said. “But from MGM Macau’s perspective, they wanted to test the waters and try it out; that is why, for now, they have only selected nine games.”

Mr Iao said the GameSource platform made it easy for independent third-party content developers to make their games available there. “The whole ecosystem created allows to open up the market, so that any developer that has a creative mindset and can develop new content, can pretty much use our [GameSource] modules to build a game and place it there,” he said.

“For a particular game to get [compliance] certification, the success rate is up to 95 percent, because we partnered with BMM to build the platform,” Mr Iao explained. The latter was a reference to gaming testing laboratory and technical consultancy BMM International LLC, known as BMM Testlabs.

Mr Iao was speaking on the sidelines of MGS Entertainment Show 2018. The trade show took place at Cotai Expo in casino resort Venetian Macao from November 13 to November 15.

‘Great feedback’

The executive said the feedback from MGM Macau’s management regarding GameSource “has been great” so far.

He added: “We have captured some very interesting data, helping the operator to successfully identify new market segments.”

The next step is to expand the presence of the platform across Macau, Mr Iao said. “If it works nicely in MGM Macau, they will bring it into MGM Cotai. We are also in discussions with two other gaming operators in Macau.”

International Alliance Systems additionally is in talks to export GameSource. “We have signed three letters of intent already: one in Europe and two in the United States,” Mr Iao told GGRAsia.

He added that, for now, the firm was not eyeing to take GameSource to other Asian jurisdictions. “We could have just rolled it out in a not-so-regulated casino market three years ago. Why didn’t we do that? Because we want to do it right, and at the highest standard.”

Mr Iao stressed the firm had invested a lot of resources in ensuring GameSource could comply with gaming regulations in Europe and in the United States.

“We spent a lot of effort to ensure our product is compliant with the Macau regulations, but we also spent almost a year and half working with different departments at MGM [China] and different advisors from the U.S. just to make sure our product is compliant with U.S. standards as well,” Mr Iao said.

“It took us a long time just to fulfil all the requirements. That was a big challenge for us.”

Mr Iao said that the product took four years to develop and a total investment of about HKD200 million (US$25.5 million). “The [Macau] government has been giving us its support since day one, when we created this project, because they understand that this is a Macau product,” he added.

Several casino sector exhibitors – that asked not to be identified – had expressed to GGRAsia concerns about a lack of foot traffic and more importantly a dearth of qualified buyers at this year’s event, which concluded on November 15.

Mr Chun told GGRAsia “no complaints” had been received by the organisers. “We did see management buyers that were from South Korea, Vietnam and Cambodia,” he told us.

The businessman is chairman of the trade show’s primary promoter, the Macau Gaming Equipment Manufacturers Association (MGEMA). He is also the chairman of Hong Kong-listed gaming equipment and casino services firm Paradise Entertainment Ltd, which makes and sells casino equipment under the LT Game brand and is a major exhibitor at the MGS event.

This year, the trade show had seen a total of 16,800 “entries and exits”, compared to approximately 15,270 “entries and exits” last year, said a reply sent by the main organiser. Its preliminary statistics did not include an estimate of unique visitors.

The 2018 edition covered 14,000 square metres (150,700 sq feet) of exhibition space, and attracted 163 exhibitors, said the hosts.  That was almost at par with the exhibitor tally for last year. A total of 40 out of the 163 exhibitors at the 2018 event were gaming equipment suppliers or providers of gaming-related technology and services; the tally of this type of exhibitors stood at 35 in last year’s edition, the trade show organiser noted to GGRAsia.

The annual MGS event, first held in 2013, was originally known as the “Macao Gaming Show” and was initially presented as a localised alternative to Global Gaming Expo Asia, a Macau trade event usually held in May by Reed Exhibitions and the American Gaming Association, a casino industry trade body.

Mr Chun told GGRAsia  he was satisfied with the overall 2018 offering, “especially the two summits” at the event. That referred to two conference tracks: one focusing on Asia’s land-based gaming industry; the other on digital entertainment and blockchain technology.

The trade show organiser told us an aggregate of 2,502 “attendees” was recorded for the two summits at this year’s MGS Entertainment Show.

A previous edition of MGS had featured online gaming companies on the trade show floor but such exhibitors were absent this year.

“For our show, we did not feature online [gaming] suppliers, but only the land-based ones… basically most of the Macau-licensed [gaming equipment] supplier firms have taken part in our show,” Mr Chun noted to us.

He said there would be a further expansion of non-gaming content in upcoming editions of MGS.

“Our new direction is that the show can become a one-stop shopping platform for integrated resorts, especially those that are looking for hotel supplies,” Mr Chun told GGRAsia.

For this year’s edition of MGS, the trade show had adopted a new name in Chinese, that translates as the “2018 Macau Leisure Technology Show”.

In 2018 – and for the first time – the event was jointly organised with several of China’s state-owned enterprises, namely Nam Kwong Culture and Creativity Industry Co Ltd, and China National Machinery Industry International Co Ltd. Mr Chun had noted in a September press briefing that the partnership with the state-owned companies would be for three years.

Mr Jolly (pictured) told GGRAsia that Scientific Games’ priority in Asia for next year was to “continue to grow” sales across the region, helped by some new casino openings planned in several markets.

“We are bringing more games to our electronic table games and putting more functionalities in our systems,” he stated. “We will be bringing another link product next year.”

He was speaking at the MGS Entertainment Show 2018, held last week at Cotai Expo at the Venetian Macao.

Mr Jolly said 2018 had “been a good year overall” for Scientific Games in Asia.

“We have had some good advances in the Cambodian market,” he said. That included supply of product to Australia-listed Asian casino operator Donaco International Ltd. The latter operates the Star Vegas Resort and Club casino property, located in Cambodia’s Poipet region.

Mr Jolly added: “There is a lot going on in Singapore at the moment and, in addition to that, you have got a couple of openings in Vietnam.”

Scientific Games also increased its footprint in the Philippines during 2018, the executive said.

“As a big company in the gaming industry globally, we have always monitored all markets,” Mr Jolly explained. “There seems to be more action particularly in Cambodia right now, and obviously in Vietnam, and in [South] Korea’s Incheon with the projects that have been going on there.”

Incheon is home to a number of gaming venues. Last year, the Paradise City casino resort opened there, and two other casino resorts – the Inspire by Mohegan Gaming and Entertainment and the US$700-million Caesars Korea – are being built there.

Scientific Games’ gaming segment – which includes gaming operations, gaming machine sales, gaming systems, and table products – recorded total revenue of U$447.9 million for the quarter ended September 30, down 1.5 percent in year-on-year terms, the firm announced earlier this month. The company shipped 7,663 new gaming machines between July and September, including 5,038 new units shipped to North America customers and 2,625 units to international customers – the latter down 10.7 percent from the prior-year period.

At its MGS stand, Scientific Games displayed some of its latest product available for Asia. That included a new standalone title under its “Super Series” called “Super Flower of Riches”, derived from the company’s popular “Duo Fu Duo Cai” link series.

“It was just approved for Macau,” Mr Jolly highlighted.

He acknowledge that diversification into digital forms of non-gambling entertainment might not be as lucrative for the casino operators.

Mr Zhu was speaking at a conference at MGS Entertainment Show 2018 in Cotai Expo at the Venetian Macao.

His topic was how operators of modern casino resorts were using new non-gaming attractions to differentiate their properties and their corporate branding.

“These can be a meaningful tryout for diversifying offerings at integrated resorts. It is at least a good option to spread risks,” said Mr Zhu. He was giving commentary on some local examples such as e-Sports and virtual reality games designed to appeal to so-called millennials – young adults born at the turn of the current century.

The Innovation Group is a U.S.-based firm that provides consulting and management services for the gaming, entertainment, hospitality, sports and leisure, food and beverage and retail industries.

“It is hard to attract [some] visitors with just the traditional amenities… we did a lot of surveys on this topic… for the millennials, they are not very interested in bricks-and-mortar gaming,” Mr Zhu remarked to us on the sidelines of the conference.

“We cannot just let this type of customer go… Even though financially, compared to gaming or other types of amenities, this [e-Sports or virtual reality games] is not as lucrative but the tryout is meaningful,” Mr Zhu added.

Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd  launched in July at its Cotai property Studio City a new e-Sports venue branded as “Macau EStadium”, which has an area of 10,000 square feet (929 sq metres) and is to host multi-player tournaments and live streaming of e-Sports events taking place elsewhere. Studio City is also to feature “Asia’s largest virtual reality zone” – a project that is to be launched around the time of Chinese New Year next year, property president Geoff Andres told us in late July.

Rival operator Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd launched in late June a virtual reality gaming arena branded as “Zero Latency Macau” at Broadway Macau, in a 200-square-metre gaming zone featuring “zombie attacks, galaxy space missions and family fun adventures” that are for up to eight players at one time.

“With mass gaming gaining more importance and a rise in the number of tourists coming here [Macau], there are many new concepts that can be tried,” Mr Zhu remarked, referring to casino management efforts.

“… I think the most important thing is to integrate the [non-gaming] offerings with local elements, and make it a unique experience that cannot be found elsewhere.”

They were speaking during a conference session at the MGS Entertainment Show 2018, a Macau-based trade event featuring casino equipment and a conference about the regional casino industry. The panel focused on innovation in the EGM segment and on strategies to expand its contribution to the aggregate gross gaming revenue (GGR) in the Macau market.

“In Macau, the electronic gaming machine market is still relatively small, relatively undeveloped and still relatively poorly understood by players that are visiting [the city],” said Walter Bugno, chief executive of international at global gaming supplier International Game Technology Plc (IGT).

The executive added that it would be up to the gaming equipment suppliers “to help develop this market” segment in Macau. Mr Bugno said manufacturers would need to work closely with regulators and casino operators in order “to speed up approvals and maximise what electronic gaming machines can do on the [casino] floor”.

Also speaking at the panel was Herman Ng, chief executive of electronic casino game distributor Asia Pioneer Entertainment Ltd (APE). He said there needed to be more promotion and education regarding EGMs, so that the segment’s revenue continues growing.

“EGMs revenue in Macau is increasing steadily. There’s big potential for this market to continue growing given the right approach,” said Mr Ng.

Combined revenue from slot machines and from live multi-game products – those featuring table-style games with live dealers but electronic betting and electronic bet settlement – was up 16.0 percent year-on-year in the first nine months this year, according to official data. Such revenue was nearly MOP13.16 billion (US$1.63 million), compared with approximately MOP11.35 billion in the prior-year period.

Still, the aggregate revenue from slot machines and live multi-game products accounted for only 5.9 percent of the overall casino GGR generated in the nine months to September 30.

Jay Chun, chairman of the Macau Gaming Equipment Manufacturers’ Association (MGEMA), recognised that more work needed to be done in order to expand the EGM segment in Macau. That, he said, included more favourable policies.

“We need to lobby more the [Macau] government, [so that there are policies] to encourage the [casino] operators to expand their EGM offering,” said Mr Chun.

Mr Chun is also chairman of Hong Kong-listed casino equipment maker Paradise Entertainment Ltd, which develops, supplies and sells electronic gaming systems under the LT Game brand.

The speakers on the panel agreed that the industry needed to do more to educate the players regarding EGMs, but also to deliver content that meets players’ expectations.

“To localise the product and to be sensitive to the local culture and language is very important,” noted Chris Rowe, managing director for Asia Pacific at slot machine maker Aristocrat Leisure Ltd.

“The experience one creates in the gaming device, the entertainment that a person experiences, may be the same,” from one market to the next;  but needs to be “treated differently” market-by-market in terms of the elements and themes the manufacturer uses, he added.

The news was given to GGRAsia by Matthew Loon (pictured), product and marketing manager for Konami Australia Pty Ltd. “We are very excited about that,” he said.

The video slot has a four-level jackpot and a game theme based on traditional arcade coin pusher machines, a format popular around the world, including Asia.

Another key slot product for the Macau market – and already approved – is the standalone progressive “Cai Lai Si Ji”. “We are starting to roll that out in Macau casinos,” Mr Loon noted.

He was speaking at the MGS Entertainment Show 2018, a trade event featuring casino equipment and a conference about the regional casino industry.

In the Macau market, Cai Lai Si Ji and Fortune Streams are being offered via the dual-screen upright version of Konami’s Concerto cabinet.

“We also have four titles which weren’t approved at the time of the last [Macau] trade show, but are now,” Mr Loon said.

They are: “Year of Best Wishes”, “Orbs of Fire”, “Dragon’s Glory”, and “Golden Power Ingots”.

Mr Loon stated: “These are standard games. With their own title and their own feature; not progressive [style of play].” Each is said to have a unique free game feature.

Golden Power Ingots is already a “top performer” for Konami, said the company representative. “We have seen it perform well in multiple markets” in Asia, including Singapore, he added.

The brand is also “promoting heavily” Fortune Cup – a horse racing game that combines the mechanics of traditional arcade horse racing games with the sophistication of digital technology for betting and game presentation.

He mentioned additionally the brand would soon be “heavily promoting” the “stack” Concerto cabinet, a tall-screen version of Concerto. The firm hopes to receive relevant regulatory approvals before long.

Gaming and amusement conglomerate Konami Holdings Corp operates outside Japan via Konami Australia and U.S.-based Konami Gaming Inc.

At this year’s MGS Entertainment Show, Konami is exhibiting at the stand of Macau-based gaming equipment distributor Asia Pioneer Entertainment Ltd, with which it has a commercial agreement.

In August, Paradise Entertainment Ltd, a Hong Kong-listed firm specialising in supplying gaming machines for the Macau market, said it had given Interblock the licence to intellectual property rights for certain multi-game gaming machines in Macau that do not involve use of a live dealer. Paradise Entertaiment’s gaming equipment brand LT Game Ltd claims privileged commercial rights in Macau on live-dealer multi-game machines.

Mr Hu said Interblock was now able to grow its market share in Macau. “Automatic, virtual, video, we can put in as many games as our customers want, as long as it is non-live,” he stated.

He added: “I expect to have by the end of the year our first multi-games installed in Macau.”

The executive said the firm was currently negotiating “with several properties in Macau,” adding that there were advanced negotiations with venues operated by Melco Resorts Entertainment Ltd. “They [Melco Resorts] are very keen in reconfiguring their games offering,” he added.

Mr Hu was speaking at the MGS Entertainment Show 2018, a Macau-based trade event featuring casino equipment and a conference about the regional casino industry.

Despite the possibility of expanding its installed based in Macau, Interblock’s Mr Hu does not expect a huge growth in the market, but “some steady progress”.

Interblock has been very active in other jurisdictions across Asia, announcing this year new installations in South Korea, the Philippines and Vietnam.

“We are growing very fast in Vietnam and have more than 2,600 machines installed in that market,” said the executive, adding that the company holds a market share “of about 95 percent” in Vietnam.

The Philippines is also an expanding market said the company. That was particularly the case since Interblock struck a lease agreement with the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor), that country’s gaming regulator-cum-operator.

Pagcor directly operates a suite of state-run casinos and oversees a number of private-sector ones. Its own brand of casinos is called “Casino Filipino”. According to Pagcor’s website, the brand operates venues in nine locations across the country, and has a further 31 so-called “satellite” sites across the Philippines.

“We are now moving to a lease agreement with Pagcor, covering 14 of their venues,” Mr Hu told GGRAsia.

“We have about 200 gaming machines under this lease agreement. We expect to expand this agreement and increase the number of machines next year,” he said, adding that Interblock also had “a great presence” in the large-scale casino resorts in Manila.

Mr Hu said the company anticipated announcing soon “something big” with Cambodia casino operator NagaCorp Ltd. “We expect that to be announced next year,” said Interblock’s vice president for Asia.

The executive said additionally that the company continued to invest heavily in research and development, “in order to incorporate more entertainment features” into the firm’s gaming products.

The company has updated its Interblock Stadium product to add ‘mood’ music for different phases of the table games that can be played on the platform. Interblock Stadium can offer up to five game types: mechanical roulette, mechanical sic bo, virtual roulette, virtual baccarat, and keno.

“Different projects will have different start dates, but the first project start date will probably be immediately after the [Chinese] New Year,” Mr Wong told reporters on Wednesday, on the sidelines of a conference panel at MGS Entertainment Show 2018, an event taking place at casino resort Venetian Macao until Thursday.

In October last year, U.S.-based Las Vegas Sands Corp – the parent firm of Sands China – said it would spend US$1.1 billion over the following three years on its Macau infrastructure, with the bulk of that figure – approximately US$700 million – to be used for rebranding the Sands Cotai Central property into the Londoner Macao. The latter will be themed around London and will feature replicas of a number of iconic tourist attractions in the European city.

Last month, Las Vegas Sands said in an investor presentation that it was almost doubling the amount it would invest in the Londoner Macao reconversion, to a total US$1.35 billion. It also said works would start in “2019” rather than the “late 2018” previously mentioned by the group, with “phased completion throughout 2020 and 2021”.

Mr Wong said on Wednesday that the increase in investment to reconvert the Sands Cotai Central property was related to “an increase in the scope of the works”.

He added: “We felt there was a need to upgrade some of these refurbishments in order for us to remain competitive. Don’t forget that when the Sands Cotai Central is turned into the Londoner, it will be two years away, so we are really looking ahead [when planning].”

Mr Wong was also asked by reporters about the refreshment of Macau’s existing gaming rights when the current contracts expire on various dates between 2020 and 2022, namely whether the current non-Chinese operators could be at a disadvantage compared with those controlled by Chinese investors.

“I am not going to speculate on what the tender requirements would be,” Mr Wong replied. “I have full confidence and faith in the Macau government to treat everyone fairly. We are confident.”

Mr Wong’s comments were made after he participated in a panel discussion at the MGS Summit, focused on how Macau’s casino operators could help local small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) develop.

“While we are very happy to place orders with the SMEs, to procure locally, it is very important in this day and age, when there is global competition, for them to stand on their feet,” he said, urging local firms to become more competitive and not only rely on the support of the casino sector.