You are in:
G2E Asia
As in Vegas, visitor numbers were down at G2E Asia – but was the quality there? Casino International asks the question…
Yes, the numbers were clearly down for G2E Asia, but one of the complaints about last year’s show was that while there were plenty of visitors, many of them were casino floor staff out for the day thanks to their employers. The success of an exhibition depends on the attendance of decision makers from the operator side, and G2E Asia appeared to have many key personnel attending.
The idea was mooted by some exhibitors that perhaps G2E Asia should be hosted in Macau every other year, with perhaps AGE in Australia effectively hosting it alternate years; it’s not a bad idea, but G2E Asia suggests there’s some life left in this event yet.
The global economic downturn is hitting everyone, everywhere, and the casino industry is no exception. Macau operators are certainly hoping benefits will be felt across the board with the opening of City of Dreams recently. The event certainly created a lot of buzz at G2E Asia, and with no little pride as many exhibitors at the show had product placed in the brilliant new development.
Exhibitors at G2E Asia included top European-based companies like Abbiati and TCSJOHNHUXLEY alongside fast-growing US names like Cadillac Jack and more established slot companies IGT, Bally Technologies, WMS and Aristocrat.
Atronic International presented its top-performing products at the show, with the multi-bonus progressive link STARGATE SG-1 impressing. Based on the blockbuster movie and popular TV series, STARGATE SG-1 offers five bonuses and four progressive levels, and is available on the new double screen e≤ SLANT cabinet as well as on the upright e≤ cabinet.
Visitors also experienced FISHING FOR JACKPOTS, featuring Asian-themed sounds and animation, attractive graphics, and five progressive jackpot levels.
On the systems side, ATRONIC presented their systems solutions including CRYSTAL.net, the new evolution for casino management floor network, maximising revenues and streamlining casino operations. Suited well for the Asian gaming market, ATRONIC’s Systems Division also offers a range of modular and scalable Table Management Solutions supporting all types of table games.
Roulette specialists Cammegh appear to be on a constant roll, winning awards and installations across the gaming world. They’r eone of the companies enjoying installation in City of Dreams, as Andrew Cammegh explained: “We’ve just celebrated the opening of City of Dreams which we’ve populated with our Mercury Special wheels on the main floor, and our Starlight wheels upstairs in the Hard Rock area.” But their wheels are elsewhere in the locality too, Andrew continued: “We’re pleased to see our wheels in the Altira, and we’re in the Grand Lisboa as well.
“In the region as a whole, we’ve got a lot of activity in some of the major projects that are going ahead. Our product speaks for itself.
“It’s fantastic to see the expanse of live gaming going on here. Obviously that’s mostly Baccarat, Roulette only plays a fringe role here. But the roulette market over the last four years has grown. I expect its growth to continue to claim its rightful share of the market.”
Alfastreet reinforced their commitment to the Asian market with a strong line-up of product, with a larger booth boasting a new Keno/Bingo multiplayer product with enhanced speed of play for greater profits. This new machine stood alongside their well known R8 Roulette, Sic Bo and Video Baccarat games.
One of the big stoires that came out of the show was AGI’s acquisition of a majority shareholding in systems specialists Octavian. Jens Halle, Managing Director of AGI, commented: ěWith AGI and Novomatic’s expertise in cabinets and games and Octavian’s focus on systems and games, we are very excited about the further opportunities that will open up for both companies.î According to Halle, the initial focus of their collaborative efforts will be strengthening each company’s position in existing markets. It is likely, too, that AGI and Octavian will attend several major gaming shows together and launch other shared marketing initiatives.
The companies will apparently still be managed independently, with no anticipated job losses or ‘streamlining’ anticipated.
On Novomatic’s stand, the company was focussed very much on the new Super V+ Gaminator cabinet and a new multigame mix; alongside this was the Novo SuperVision cabinet, a dual-screen machine which is cost-effective and performs well; Novomatic have great faith in the machine after strong performances in South America, and they believe it’s a cabinet that will help them move forward in Asia.
The NovoVision Slant Top I cabinet has a cute flip-screen feature, so players can choose whether to play the main game on either the bottom or top screen.
The company also exhibited the Super V+ Gaminator A1, specially designed for the Asian market and is completely translated into Chinese.
Octavian’s product, on their distinctive and attractive stand, included a multiplayer Sic-Bo system, which allows 15 machines to link up into a great gaming experience. Elsewhere, they also had the Fantastic League Spot The Ball game, which really does look superb; graphically, it’s very attractive indeed, and is available on Octavian’s Symphony DE (Downloadable Games Edition) and Symphony LE (Lottery Edition) platforms.
MEI had a vibrant presence, with a strong line-up of product including the CASHFLOW SC83 validator which has done so well globally. But they were in Asia to point out they’re more than just a validator company, as Andy Reichlin explained to us: “We’ve been involved in Asia enough, and done well enough in Macau, that people know the CASHFLOW bill validator. We’re introducing other products like EASITRAX for the soft-count room, it’s been such a success elsewhere that we think the Asian market will embrace it too. We’re explaining to people how MEI can work across the whole gaming floor, not just in the slot machine itself.”
Astro Corp experienced a busy show, and the company very much sees Asia as part of their future growth. As Simon Herbert, CEO International, commented: ěAlthough Astro Corp’s reach and reputation is global, its home market here in Asia is incredibly important to us. Asia’s casinos enjoy combined annual earnings of over US$20 billion and, significantly, the contribution from slots and electronic gaming is increasing. This, combined with the prospect of additional new markets in Taiwan, Singapore and several other countries, represents a huge opportunity for Astro Corp.
“Our philosophy has always been to develop specific products for each market and our stand showcases a number of new games developed specifically for Macau.î
Shuffle Master were showing their outstanding i-Table product, with i-Table Baccarat stealing the show with its incorporated Pay Me Now table-calculated insurance offering. Another highlight was East West Fortune, a table game where players don’t get their own hands, but bet on two hands on the table ń†East and West, with a Pair Plus side bet for extra volatility and excitement for the Asian market.
East West Fortune is a result of a new attitude from Shuffle Master, Kirsten Clark told CI: “Casino War is the first proprietary game we installed in this market. The gaming preferences of this market lean toward a simple type of table game like Baccarat. Casino War is an incredibly simple game, and it was installed first at Sands in Macau.
“Casino War has given us some good insight into what our future game strategy should be here. After we saw how well it was received it made us step back and look at what the player behaviour here is. We asked, ‘Do we really have the games that are suitable for this market?’ So we started a little slower here, with some of the more simple games, where players can follow trends, for example.
“We’re trying to understand the market better and work more closely with the casinos to satisfy that need for both ease of play and volatility.”
Crane Payment Solutions had its exciting One concept at the show under its CashCode banner. One is the company’s universal bill acceptor which is being enthusiastically received by the industry.
FutureLogic, best known for their GEN2 thermal printers, brought TableXchange with them, the product we enthused about after IGE in London. THe potential for this product in Asia is huge, and Rob Denham explained some of the benefits to us: “TableXchange’s biggest benefit is helping with operational costs. You lose fewer chips from a table when you’re using this, so you have to replenish the table less often. When casinos replenish, they usually close the table, replenish then re-open. You have to do that less often, and the cash box on the table has less cash in it; there are less security worries, less visits to the cage… There are real benefits on the operational side.”
IGT had a large presence, as we have come to expect from the company at exhibitions. Plenty of staff were on hand for customers, and they had the usual high-quality products on display. The company is really pushing its Advanced Video Platform, and looking at the early game developments on it, it’s easy to see why. As Kurt Quartier explained, “The show for us is about our AVP [Advanced Video Platform] launch, our new platform which is allowing us to do things on the slots side that have not been possible before. The other message is sb, our systems side. We had a very successful go-live at City of Dreams with our Advantage system.”
Kurt’s view of Asia is a positive one, despite the slowdown on building projects in Macau itself. He added: “Apart from the City of Dreams opening there are not many new projects on the way in Macau; however there are existing floors that need to be refreshed and Asia is far more than just Macau. We’re seeing good visitation from the rest of the region.”
TransAct and JCM shared exhibition space, with JCM’s ICB [Intelligent Cash Box] leading the line with its Universal Bill Acceptor alongside, and the wonderful Trident bill acceptor for table games. Great products, and as TransAct’s Tracey Chernay explained to Casino International, there are benefits to both companies to work together this way: “We believe the operators like the synergy of a bill acceptor company and a printer company working together.”
After enjoying a great success with installation of their printer products at City of Dreams, TransAct were showing their Epic 950 printer with ServerPort, as Tracey enthused: “The Epic 950 and ServerPort are the main things on show here. The Epic 950 is our premier ticket printing product, and ServerPort allows connectivity to network systems. It allows downloading of firmware automatically, remote printer configuration, plus printing coupons and promotions to players.”
WMS had a wide range of games on show, comprising their completely brilliant Transmissive Reel technology (including Goldfish 2, the first in their Bluebird 2 Bonus Banks Series, and the new John Wayne mechanical reel), the well-known Community Gaming titles (including the phenomenally popular Monopoly series), the Innovation series and Local Area Progressives like the new Money To Burn. They shared their stand with Orion Gaming, the company they acquired just a few years ago, and they exhibited their new cabinet, Helios, which was created to bring standalone game content to markets not suitable for the Twinstar II cabinet.
TCSJOHNHUXLEY took their NX2 Macau table game concept to G2E Asia and it wowed visitors. It’s a Punto Banco and Baccarat table game, which lets the player bet on the winning outcome of a single coup of Punto Banco; its pay table is very attractive to players who are able to place multiple bets with high odds. A second version, NX2 Macau ëEach-Way’, allows players to bet on the result of each hand in a single coup, regardless of whether it wins or loses. NX2 Macau will generate higher table wagers due to more bets being made available to customers. All bets will be at higher hold percentages than the traditional game, resulting in more revenue for the operator. The table looks good, and certainly appears to give operators a great opportunity for increased revenue. And with the table game market in Asia being so very large, this could prove exceptionally popular.
Last but certainly not least, Gaming Partners International came armed with a broad range of RFID-based solutions, which included a new version of the Electronic Survelliance System being shown for the first time. According to Christophe Leparoux, this device now has a first-time detection rate of over 95 per cent, and can even give the ID number of the chips it detects. This is a great weapon against dishonest staff pilfering gaming chips.
GPI also displayed the eReady table, a gaming table on which everything is prepared to accept the electronic equipment we use in table gaming ń†shufflers, RFID readers, electronic shoes and more, for easy adoption.
The progressive version of their RFID Poker was also on show, as was a new chip bank reader for large volumes of chips at the cage or vault.
In short, there was plenty to be excited about at G2E Asia. Even if visitor numbers were down, the quality of visitor was high, as was the standard of product on show. As ever, we say roll on next year…
|
