Slot companies better serve global industries

Petitsioon on adresseeritud: sges

The slot tech industry (mostly from the U.S.) is becoming increasingly adept at serving multiple markets around the world, says Patty Hart, chief executive of International Game Technology (IGT), pictured, center right. 홀짜게임

Hart was speaking at the Global Game Expo (G2E) 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

"Whether you're in Mexico, South America, Macau, the Philippines, Australia or Europe, people want to have experiences that they think are relevant to their daily lives. The 'one-to-one' model doesn't really work, so the industry has to take that into account," says Hart.

On September 25, IGT announced an agreement to supply several casino system products to the Philippine Casino Resort City of Dreams Manila, which is run by Nasdaq-listed Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd.

But Mr Hart said on Wednesday that localisation of consumer-facing products should be done efficiently.

"We think about how to work in an efficient way without putting too much money on the process and not slowing everything down.

"If you look at products outside of the U.S. right now ... I can say that all manufacturers have made significant progress in the last three to four years. We're taking some products from the U.S., but not finished products," she added.

Jamie O'Dell, CEO of Australian manufacturer Aristocrat Leisure (pictured, centre left), told the same panel that local regulations and the needs of local consumers could affect product development.

"It's misleading to take the game from Las Vegas, Venice, from this floor to the Macau floor and think it can be successful," he explained.

Odell said, "In Macau, [slot] regulation is now shifting to requirements that it's a responsible game, and it's changing very constantly. And there are different kinds of changes happening on the casino floor due to regulation. We have to adapt more and more games to individual markets."

"Language is one of the problems. Now in Macau, all languages have to be bilingual (Chinese and English), and the first is Chinese," he said.

Odell continued: "It was true that when we first started to carve out the [Asian] market, we said, "Australian and Asian players are one [consumer group]. Now we make games for Macau and other markets. In Asia, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, and [future] Japan, all of these markets have different forms of gaming requirements. So I don't think the games for Macau and the Philippines are the same these days."