MGS | Gaming suppliers foresee further growth in product distributions

Ken Jolly

Leading gaming suppliers in the SAR are assertive about continuously producing innovative systems in their slot machines and table games into the future, despite a much-lowered forecast for the city’s gaming revenue in 2019.

The gaming suppliers believe that a slowdown in the VIP market is occurring, yet the mass market remains competitive, thus not hurting their purchase orders.

“I don’t see the overall market [seeing] any negative impact to it. Obviously [aside from] the geopolitical things that are going on, but I think it’s a strong market,” Ken Jolly, vice president & managing director of SG Gaming Asia commented.

SG Gaming provides a series of casino products and services to all six gaming operators in the city.

Speaking to the Times on the sidelines of the MGS Entertainment Show, Jolly stressed that as the mass market remains competitive in the city, all concessionaires and sub-concessionaires are fighting for their market share – having the need to keep the latest slot product on the floor.

“We’re continuing to develop products. We’re bringing new products in all our range. […] We do a lot of work every year on developing their [casinos] systems and doing more updates, particularly in the junket area,” the executive explained.

According to him, the firm is aware that there are some VIP rooms working with high denomination machines and seeing “great results.”

“That means one part of the market might be a bit slow but there are parts of the market that [are] typically going well,” he said.

The executive also said that the company is set to release new themed-products in the city by 2019, including James Bond-themed slot machines with which the company has a licensing deal.

Meanwhile, Aristocrat, an Australian gambling machine manufacturer, continues to invest in the local market.

According to its Sales & Business Development Director – Asia Pacific, Lloyd Robson, Macau remains one of its largest markets, amongst its 10 to 12 different markets in the Asia Pacific region.

“Without a shadow of a doubt, Macau is one of our largest ones. Maybe a little different to what it was three or four years ago […] but it’s still a massive part of our business,” said Robson.

Yesterday, the company launched one of its newest slot machine products, “Goldstack 88,” at the MGS Entertainment Show, hoping that it will be placed in the market by February 2019.

According to Robson, the company is just awaiting approval from the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau.

Commenting on whether gaming machine suppliers will be affected by the slowdown of the city’s gaming revenue, the executive said, “We haven’t had any indication from the casino that we’re looking to scale back purchasing. So I guess time will tell.”

“At this point in time, purchasing habits of casinos are very much where they were 12 to 18 months ago, which would indicate to me that they [are] still confident moving into next year,” Robson added. LV