In this interview with CalvinAyre.com, Scientific Games CEO Gavin Isaacs and Rebecca Liggero discuss the changes and challenges that Asia’s table games market will face over the next year.
Scientific Games is back in Asia, ready to face any challenge thrown its way.
Just like in the United States, the table market sector in Asia also faces regulatory challenges, with the laws changing depending on the location. Scientific Games CEO Gavin Isaacs said the key is not to overcome such challenges, but to adhere to it.
“You don’t overcome. You adapt to it and you adhere to it. You build for the different jurisdictions, the different regulations,” Isaacs told CalvinAyre.com. “Sometimes you can’t predict what’s going to happen, but other times, you just know what’s going to happen and you build accordingly.”
In Macau, for instance, there are issues with gaming table allocations. The government recently allotted 250 new tables for Melco Crown Entertainment’s soon-to-open Studio City in Cotai, while Wynn Resorts received only 150 tables, much to the ire of casino boss Steve Wynn.
Isaacs noted the Asian market could be seeing more mass market and electronic games on the floor in the future.
“You know in the past, we really haven’t had a need for anything other than baccarat and things like that, but now [there are] three-card poker, the Caribbean studs, [and] all of those I think will have another great opportunity in the market,” he explained.
In the case of Scientific Games, Isaacs said the company turns to social media to test ideas for new games.
“We’ve been doing it with our slots. We use some old content… so we find out different player preferences and things like that, and that goes back into the development cycle,” he said. “We take the older content to try and see what’s out there and what players are liking and what kind of features they like, what their preferences are, then building that back into the front end of the development process.”
Despite the challenges, Isaacs feels good about Scientific Games’ prospects in Asia.
“It’s a great market. It’s one of those phenomenal opportunities when you come here and you see the excitement. [It’s] still the largest market by revenues in the world. We have a great team here. We have some great games here. We’ve got some good table games… so it’s great being back,” Isaacs said.
