In addition to this I am very closely involved with the following:


Gaming system products. My responsibility here is to ensure that we have the right system for the job of today as well as our needs of tomorrow. I am continuously looking at new innovations and trying to implement new concepts into our current systems where possible. To also look at enhancements for the future to ensure we stay ahead of our competitors;


New properties. Here my responsibility lies with putting the budget together for new casinos from a fit out and equipment perspective that includes, slots, tables, cashiering, gaming systems etc., the design of the floor layout of the casino and the relevant back of house facilities, the purchasing of all the equipment, the implementation and installation of the casino equipment. Lastly, but not least, I ensure that the facility is ready to open on time and in budget.


Casino refurbishments, expansions. As with “new build casinos” I am responsible for putting equipment budgets together, new layouts, installations and commissioning of new areas ensuring all is done on time and within the set budgets.


Over the 13 years I have been with Peermont I have also put together and participated in several successful casino bids for the company, one which included us being selected as a preferred finalist for the Singapore casino licence.


How did you get into the industry?


Having travelled around Europe, Asia and the United States for about 2 years I returned to South Africa and was not 100% sure what industry I wanted to be in, but I knew I wanted to be in one that had some relation to tourism and travel. Sun International was in the process of designing and building the largest casino in South Africa, The Carousel, so I applied for a job at the property and fortunately was given the opportunity to be part of the opening team where I was exposed to and assisted with the development of the first online gaming system in South Africa.


This opportunity opened many doors for me, inter alia, being part of the gaming system installation team in the Bahamas when Sol Kerzner bought Paradise Island - and a member of the first Gambling Board in South Africa before eventually joining my present company Peermont Global.


With responsibility for over 3,000 slots and in a variety of properties how do you judge whether


the right machine is in the right location at the right time? How do you gauge the types of players you have and make sure you are offering them the right gaming experience?


This is a very complex issue and I would not say we always get this right but I do believe we do a good job at this and have been very successful in achieving our goals. But to answer your question more specifically about these various aspects I would say that some the key factors in achieving these goals can be listed as follows:


• Firstly our ability to understand our customers in every aspect and what drives


them. For this we do research, we speak to our customers and we look at their demographics.


• We then look at how our customer base is segmented;


• We look at actual machine performances from our various properties and try and


understand what makes the different product more popular or less popular from property to property;


• We review information received from suppliers and we scrutinise our competitors product,


• We compare revenues and performance based on casino location, competitive forces


and then within the casino: area, type (Reel, Multi-line Video, Poker) denomination, number of lines, entry bet value, average bet, max bet, progressive or non-progressive, smoking vs. non-smoking, game volatility, etc.


Are all of your slot machines linked and what systems software do you use?


Yes all of our machines are linked to gaming systems as this is legislated in South Africa. In our flagship property we make use of a combined gaming system in the sense that the floor network is provided by Atronic and the back-end reporting system is that of the Aristocrat Dacom 7000 system.


In our smaller properties we make use of a locally developed gaming system known as GameSmart.


With both of these systems we make use of smartcard-based technology that allow us to offer our customers a coinless gaming experience similar to that of TITO except that there are no pieces of paper or printers involved is cleaner, more secure and efficiency of overheads.


7


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52