Gaming | Study shows improvements in some services

The Macau Gaming Research Association’s (MGRA) recent survey, conducted by a Hong Kong research company, showed a three percent year-on-year decline on the region’s customer service level, TDM reported.
“Mystery clients” visited 13 gaming venues, including nine frontline departments to conduct the study during the first half of the year. The survey, which aimed to evaluate employee’s friendliness, proactiveness and tolerance of customers, has garnered some 1,800 respondents.
As cited in the report, the study showed that the index of proactiveness has dropped to 109 points during this year’s second quarter, accounting for a three percent drop compared to the same period last year.
The checkpoints for each casino include customer services in cloakrooms, bus and washrooms, staff at slot machine areas, security staff, cashiers, dealers, and staff at the free food and beverage areas.
The region’s overall gaming service index from April to June 2016 went up by 12.8 percent compared to the first quarter of the year.
According to the study, the friendliness index of casino frontline workers was up by 6.3 percent quarter-to-quarter during the three months, which the association described as the second highest in the report’s history.
The report also showed a 14 percent quarter-to-quarter increase in the gaming workers’ tolerance index.
Since 2013, the Gaming Service Index has been compiled periodically to facilitate the trend analysis in a bid to monitor the service level of the gaming industry.

Pagcor retracts 124 online gaming licenses

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor) has revoked 124 online gaming licenses as it imposes President Duterte’s order to curb online gambling, The Inquirer reported. Andrea Domingo, Pagcor’s president and chief executive officer said Pagcor could lose up to P10 billion in revenue as a result, but this measure is not expected to deviate from meeting the agency’s revenue target of P50 billion next year. Domingo added that the projected losses would be felt once Pagcor does not renew the license of 302 e-Games stations and 324 e-Bingo outlets that cater to local bettors. Meanwhile, Bernstein analysts said in a note that the news is likely to be positive for Macau’s gaming industry as online gaming in the Philippines often targets Chinese gamblers at a small scale. “Any impediments to existing VIP practices in the Philippines could lead to some VIP business migrating back to Macau (although we do not see this happening in the near term),” said Pagcor.