CONFERENCE PROGRAMME


Rise of the machines Singapore shakes Asia’s machine mix,


with Macau trying to catch up BY ANDREW GELLATLY*


W


hile Macau is still dominated by its baccarat tables, electronic


table games, fresh from their successes in Singapore, are gaining ground. A combination of sophisticated slot fl oor analytics, and a changing visitor mix, is reshaping the gaming fl oors of the world’s biggest casino market. One of the most remarkable diff erences


between Macau and Singapore has been the willingness of the City State’s players to gamble not just at the ubiquitous baccarat tables but also at their electronic facsimiles, rapid play roulette and at slot machines. Singapore’s two booming casino resorts, Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World


Sentosa, have both seen healthy levels of business from their slot machines and electronic table games, but it is a style of play that has taken time to catch on in the world’s biggest gambling market - Macau. Addressing the industry’s annual G2E


Asia 2011, Ben Lee, managing partner at Macau-based IGamiX Consulting, told delegates, “Macau is skewed by the history of the VIP baccarat game - you look at other jurisdictions like Malaysia and Cambodia where the junket business is not as dominant as it is in Macau and you fi nd a more balanced mix of machines with only some semblance of junket VIPs.” But Mr Lee pointed to Singapore’s


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elaborate stadium-like displays around roulette and baccarat tables with hundreds of terminals and multiple simultaneous games – which are now making their way into Macau – and the almost 50/50 mix of machines and tables in the Philippines, as historical examples of a cultural preference that is becoming more widely accepted as mass market play spreads across Asia. “Prior to Singapore becoming


deregulated, Genting Malaysia already had rapid roulette, rapid baccarat. When Resorts World Sentosa opened they were fi lling 150 buses a day from the Malaysian peninsula to get the momentum going and


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