A whirlwind trek it was...if tales of exotic Hong Kong markets, Macauan "Karaoke" bars, and Manila street traffic are your cup of tea...scroll on down.
Travel wearyingly yours,
Bryan
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Casinomeister's Asia Trek 2007
No SARS masks here.
A couple of weeks ago, I was making plans for my visit to Asia. The Pacific Congress of I-Gaming was being held at Macau, and I had an invite to check out the Playtech offices in Manila as well. So - it was a trip from Germany to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to Macau, and then Macau to Manila and then home again. I've never been in Asia before, and I kept envisioning Bill Murray in "Lost in Translation" as a possible portrayal of what might be in store.
My wife and I flew Cathay Airlines, which was pretty decent, but the seats were way too small. The head rest in coach was positioned at my shoulder blades - I had to slide down in my seat in order to rest my head, and then my knees were up against my chin. At least we had a number of films to choose from: "Dear Departed" good, and "Marie Antoinette" - not so good. Besides the scrunched seat, it was a pleasant flight.
When the captain announced that we were descending to Hong Kong, one of the stewardesses donned a SARS mask and disappeared behind the galley-way curtain. My wife and I looked at each other in a dumbfounded manner; we had joked earlier if we should have packed SARS masks in our hand carry-ons. We were relieved to see the stewardess reappear with cleaning supplies. She was merely prepping to clean the rest room.
Traveler notes: Hong Kong airport. The strangest thing for me was that the airport utilized "scenting". They seemed to be pumping in some sort of aroma to appease the public aesthetics. What was odd was that it had the same scent as a Vegas casino - they utilize this as well.
Hong Kong: we had one full day to spend there before moving on to Macau. It was absolutely incredible. There were swarms of people wherever we went - not many tall white guys like me. It didn't dawn on me how different it really was until we took a ride on the subway. Standing, I could look down through several cars and I was the tallest person for at least the length of two of them. There was another guy my height way up front. I almost waved to him in recognition, but I thought that would have been silly.
One way to immerse oneself in another's culture is to take a local bus. My wife and I wanted to check out some of the shopping areas and it was recommended to check out Stanley Harbour which was on the south side of the island. So we jumped on a bus - without the proper change. "No change! No change!" shouted the driver pointing at the fare machine. Impatient, he closed the door behind us and took off. We staggered down the aisle and I sheepishly held a 20 dollar note to the other passengers who eyed these touristy looking folk. One nice young lady exchanged my bill so I could pay the fare. The driver came up to the next stop. "You pay now!" he shouted. We paid and scampered up the spiral staircase to the upper level and plopped down in the last row. Here we were able to get a real view of the Hong Kong island.
Hong Kong is intense if you are not used to seeing looming skyscrapers. Many parts of the city seem to be in perpetual shade from the cityscape. These were not just business offices, but where people lived. Rising into the sky, each floor seemed to be a clone of itself sometimes with laundry hanging out to dry or other nuances that would identify and differentiate each floor. Some buildings seemed better kept than others, and I'm sure there is a certain status given to which build one resides in. It must be odd to live in one of these apartments, and to visit another family in the same building - their apartment layout being the same as yours.
That evening we met up with Ted Loh aka Spearmaster - who had grown up in Hong Kong. He escorted us to Hong Kong at night where the lights and swarms of people were surreal.
And we ate, and ate and ate. Chinese food in China can't be matched. It is one of the primary reasons to visit. I even ate a frog.
The next day was to prove to be eventful. One of my main missions was to attend the Pacific Congress on I-Gaming. This is the Asian version of the GIGSE which is held annually in Montreal. The European version is held in Barcelona; the Asian version is in Macau.
Macau is absolutely mind boggling. People call it the Las Vegas of the East, and this is no joke - it's growing hand over fist. There are already a number of large casinos, but there are construction sites that are birthing a number of others. But don't get me wrong here, even though it may seem a bit like Vegas, Chinese gambling and casinos are way different from their western counterparts.
We checked into the Wynn Hotel. That's right - the Wynn. The hotel is a near carbon copy of the Vegas version, at least entering the lobby it seemed to be so. And our room was exactly like my room in Vegas from last year. Huge room, huge flat TV screen, huge bathroom, but downstairs was a different story altogether.
Those of you who have been in the Wynn in Vegas should be familiar with the layout. You walk into the hotel and the casino is situated somewhat in the middle. It's encircled by restaurants, bars and hallways that lead off into malls, exhibition halls, restaurants and shows. It's immense. The Wynn in Macau is a horse of a different color though. There are few restaurants, and there is one bar (the Tryst). The casino is nowhere in sight. One must walk down a hallway and enter through a doorway guarded by security personnel waiving metal detectors. Purses and bags are searched.
Entering the casino is a wake-up call that screams "this ain't Vegas, baby!" No grannies churning out the slots. No whooping and hollerin' cowboys at the crap tables. No cocktail waitresses taking orders for your "free" drinks. This was a totally completely different environment.
The place was dominated by table games and Chinese men. These were serious games with serious faces where the men were intending to beat the house. The casino layout was different than in Vegas. There were huge pillars that lined the walkway, and these pillars rose up to a low ceiling. The room seemed brighter than the one in Vegas. I didn't notice any peculiar scent that Vegas casinos use - and the tables seemed intimidating. I had no intention on joining one.
Thirsty? There were bottles of water available, or one could choose tea. Yeah, let's party!
Ted and I mosied to the Slot Machines, and there were just a handful - none that I recognized. I watched Ted feed a machine 20 dollars which it sucked like a Hoover Vaacuum cleaning. This in full few of my wife who promptly laid down the law for me: no slots. And in retrospect, that was probably a good thing.
The Food Court in the casino consisted of a Starbucks - that was it. We were hungry. That was one of the primary reasons that I was visiting Macau, Hong Kong, and the Philippines - to eat.
We went out that night with several Playtech executives and other interesting folk, and sat down for a meal that was a combination of Portuguese and Chinese food. Macau belonged to Portugal until the 1960s. The food was brilliant, but the service a bit lazy. You almost had to beg for a beer or for more Sangria.
The Chinese aren't too much into partying - at least not on the surface. It doesn't seem to be integrated into their culture as a common trait - partiness. But maybe this is a good thing as well.
After dinner, Ted, my wife and I decided to check out some of the other casinos. We ventured to the StarWorld Casino which is huge. Again, the main casino floor was dominated by table games. This casino actually had entertainment, and man - what a difference from Vegas. There was a group of six women on stage, each wearing (what could be considered by a westerner) a traditional Chinese dress. In the center was the singer who had a "big hair" hair-do straight out of the early seventies. They danced a very conservative choreographed dance with turns and dips while the big haired singer (the main center of attraction) lip synched to some Chinese pop song. This was light years away from the girlie dancers/cocktail waitresses at the Rio in Vegas.
We meandered past the trays of bottled water and headed upstairs to the slots. Lo and behold, we found Gems, a game developed by LED Gaming and distributed by IGT (which you can play for free here). This is a Vegas favorite which we were really stunned to find. Unfortunately it was dominated by two women who were spinning one coin at a penny a spin. It took forever for them to vacate the machine - which proved its "Hooverness" within minutes.
We finally left to get rested up for the next day - which was to prove itself to be amazing. For more, scroll on down...
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Day One of the Pacific Congress for I-Gaming
Attendance at the PGIC was small, but it was quality not quantity that made this conference a success. Since the departure of the US market, many operators have turned towards Asia as a new place to venture into.
The opening remarks began with a nice (and much needed) overview of the I-gaming environment by Sue Schneider and Mark Balestra. They discussed a number of things to include how there are about 90 jurisdictions that host or regulate online gaming. These vary from jurisdictions like Costa Rica which has basically no regulatory authority whatsoever to jurisdictions that are very strict like in the UK or various states in Australia. Sometimes these regulation structures are extensions of the land based casinos and these organizations are run by the government. Up until October 2006, the US was 35-45% of the I-Gaming market. The attitude and approach to online gambling by the US and Canada is prohibition. Canada's Federal law considers that all gambling is illegal except for what is explicitly exempted. Each province varies; some have Internet lotteries, some have Horse Racing, some ban dot.com advertising, and then there is the Kahnawake reservation. So Canada is a real mixed bag. It'll be interesting in the next several months to see if they'll go into a prohibition mode like the States.
Shailesh Naik from Cryptologic gave an excellent overview of the Asian markets. He shared with us a survey he had made with each major Asian jurisdiction with questions like "What is gaming? What is permitted/prohibited? Is Internet gambling likely to be regulated anytime soon?" Each country had differing answers. If you like to read more about this, you can download Shailesh's presentation here.
He had also surveyed players in Japan, Taiwan, and Korea on their gaming habits. One interesting point is that 45% of the Taiwan players sampled agreed with the statement "I play so I can dream about what I could do if I won big" compared to 10% of the Japanese and 13% of the Korean players. Just to show you that there are significant differences in player activity. For anyone who is interested, I would suggest downloading his presentation and have a look-see.
Traveler notes: Food is an extremely important factor when it comes to traveling, and the River City Group usually pays close attention to this because they know I'm coming and that I'll write bad things about them if the food sucks. This trip, the lunch layout was exceptional with local dishes and additions to include Sushi and even fried chicken feet. Great stuff and kudos to anyone who had anything to do with the food layout.
That afternoon I met with Mor Wiesner, Playtech's CEO of marketing, who is the main point of contact for any casino/player related issue. I only need to get a hold of Mor when there has been a breakdown of communication between me and a Playtech casino operator. So far recently, Playtech casinos have generated far less complaints than they were a year ago. A lot of this has to do with pulling out of the US market. The US market is extremely problematic, especially with payment processing. It seems the most complaints are stemming from American players at the moment who have taken their business to RTG and Microgaming. Currently, there are a couple of outstanding issues with Brandy casino, and that's about it.
Late that afternoon the cocktail party commenced in the exhibition hall. The exhibition Hall was small with only about ten exhibitors. I was surprised at the small amount, but some of the main players were there - MGS, Playtech, LVFH, etc. One thing I should mention, Playtech has some mind blowing slots that haven't been released yet, and unfortunately I'm not at liberty to discuss them (yet) since it hasn't been announced. So I guess my dear reader, you'll just have to wait.
The cocktail party blurred in to the reception party held at the Tryst at the Wynn. Now for those of you who have been to the Tryst at the Wynn in Vegas, this one is about the 10th of the size. No underground dance floor. No waterfall. Not much, but it was modest and nice. I spoke with Calvin Ayre for a bit - I asked him how the battle of the bands was going, and it's going great. He also told us the story of when his place was raided by the Costa Rican police which was covered by Gambling911 some time back. It's worth a read since it's quite funny.
As the evening grew late, I had an invite to a special "Karaoke" bar. I was warned that it might be a little risque, and that if I were to choose to come along with my wife, she might feel a little uncomfortable since there were a lot of girls who make themselves more or less available. Hey, no problem, my wife's German and she can handle this stuff. So we teamed up into a couple of taxis and headed across the bridge to some casino hotel.
This was strange. A couple of the guys knew where this "bar" was, but it seemed to be hidden somewhere in the hotel. We took several twists and turns, asking for directions and finally were instructed to go to some hidden elevator. Up we went.
This was cool. We entered the nightclub - and yes, it was a Karaoke bar with some guy and a couple girls dancing on a stage and singing. Nothing risque about this. The eight of us were lead to a private room which had a huge couch, several coffee tables, throw pillows, and a couple of huge flatscreen televisions imbedded on the facing wall. It was brightly lit and quite nice. I was introduced to a young Chinese gent who was sitting next to me, and he was the owner of one of the top casinos in Macau. I don't even want to think about how much he was worth, but I gave him one of my cards and told him to check my site out. I never miss an opportunity.
So we sat there, they brought in a tray of booze asking what we'd like to drink. Hell, I'll just have a beer. A girl placed a glass on the table in from of me, got on her knees and poured the beer with both hands. What submission to the dominating sex! This was cool! Then one of the managers brought in the girls - this what I was forewarned about. He lined them up and said "Pick one!" I didn't know what to think. My wife was sitting next to me and talking to the guy next to her. "Pick one!" I was told again. I didn't want to be rude or ungracious, so I picked the one on the left; a cute Chinese girl who nodded her head - smiled - and sat down next to me between me and my wife. I tried to be polite, I introduced myself and her to my wife. I don't think she understood any English whatsoever because she kept nodding her head and smiling. My wife wanted me to ask the manager if these women were kidnapped when they were younger, but I declined to ask.
The night wore on, and the Karaoke was pretty goofy - Elton John, U2. I got up to find the rest room - leaving the private room and going out into the main bar. My China girl followed me out there, and I tried to explain to her that I was looking for the latrine. I did not resort to sign language, but still no comprendo. I finally found it without her help.
And the night continued into a blur. My China girl ended up joining her friends, and I with my wife and we made it safely back to the Wynn.
Day Two of the Pacific Congress for I-Gaming
Day two opened my eyes to MahJong. I need to learn this game. Sam Woelm, from ESL, gave an excellent presentation outlining the game, and discussing the challenges of bringing this online. It has somewhat of a poker "culture" off line with clubs, personalities, and traditions. And it has some of the same challenges that poker has online - software, collusion, localization. It's truly an amazing game, and this is something both webmasters and players alike should get involved with.
Unfortunately I missed Tom Hall's presentation since we had to go back to the Hotel to pack and check out.
The final panel discussion was good with Jason Chan from Macom, Ted Loh and a rep from Philippine eGaming Jurisdiction INC, and a rep from First Cagayan. Discussed were the grey areas of online gaming in Asia, the social awareness on differences between online and offline gaming, and the announcement that Macau might regulate online gaming. One thing became rather obvious - that in order to penetrate the Asian market, it is highly recommended to pursue a joint venture to do so. It's far more complex than many people realize.
Onward to Manila. The trip's not over, to find out what's up there, scroll on down.
Manila International Airport = Saigon 1904. At least this is what we were warned about, that the airport is one of the worst. We stood by the rotating baggage claim belt watching the bags rise from the bowels of the airport. Some were wet, and it wasn't even raining. One out of four bags were card board boxes wrapped in brown packaging paper and duct tape as if someone was moving their household goods here. I expected to see chickens running free. It reminded me a little of Tijuana.
We had a hotel car waiting for us at the airport. It was past midnight when we arrived at our hotel - the Shangri-La Makati in Manila. As we pulled up, security checked for bombs under the car with mirrors, checked the trunk and then waved us on. We passed through security at the front entrance as well. Dogs sniffed our bags - they checked my wife's purse.
Hotel registration messed up somehow. The hotel rooms were never fully confirmed (hotel's fault), and they didn't have a non-smoking room for us which was what we had ordered. Ted got irate with the manager when she accused his staff of not following up on the rooms. My wife and I remained cool and we got upgraded to the executive suite with apologies.
One thing we learned in Manila, they have 'round the clock masseuses - and we needed one - each. They charge 250 Pesos which is about 5 Euro for one hour.
And these women are strictly for massages. On their brochure it reads: "Strictly massage - God is watching." Well, that would immediately dampen any randiness a traveling businessman might entertain in his thoughts. We had our massages, and it was absolutle marvelous.
Traveler notes: Traffic in Manila. I thought the chaotic traffic in Florence, Italy was bad - but this was pretty wild. Everyone used their horns, honking at everything that moved. Lanes were only guidelines for which direction to travel in, people made U-turns from the far right lane, traffic lights seemed to be optional. Stop signs served their only purpose as roosting spots for birds. Amazingly enough, we witnessed no fender benders. The vehicles seemed to be able to dodge each other pretty well. It was like walking down a crowded city sidewalk without bumping into anyone.
The following day I was given a tour of the Playtech "live games" office in Manila. A number of you readers may have played these games - playing Blackjack, Roulette, or Baccarat with a young attractive female dealer. These girls are positioned at each table with a camera recording their card action and wheel spinning. It's one thing to see them in action online, but to actually be there behind the scenes was impressive. It's very interactive with the girls being able to "chat" with their players (when traffic isn't so heavy) and there is constant monitoring and supervision going on. I could see how this could be stressful for the girls; they have to smile all the time and look perky, so they are afforded frequent breaks. It must be a nice job though, since players are able to tip the dealers if and when they win. I'm sure this is most appreciated.
One nice touch that the company does to ensure that the players realize that the casino play is in real time, they have TV screens in several spots behind the girls facing the camera. These televisions are displaying CNN which gives the players further assurance that the casino play is happening in real time. Players could turn on their own TVs and watch the same show.
Ted and I also had lunch with one of the Philippine regulators from the First Cagayan Leisure and Resort Corporation. We had a good discussion on the climate of the industry, Cagayan's regulated casinos, and how to deal with player issues. One interesting thing that was brought up: how is it that buildings in Manila can house companies that are regulated by a jurisdiction in another part of the country? The answer: there are a number of properties that are considered economic zones and can actually fall under their own specific jurisdiction. This enables other jurisdictions to take advantage of advanced communications, technologies, employment, and other business friendly opportunities that are found in Manila.
Finally, it was time to go back home. This was truly an experience to remember and I learned a hell of a lot. Lasting impression: people were very friendly and polite (besides impatient busdrivers), and the food was incredible.
I also was made aware that Asia needs a Casinomeister. In the near future, Casinomeister Chinese will be launched, bringing most of the good pertinent information found at Casinomeister to the Chinese speaking audience. Casinomeister Japan and Korea are also on the horizon.
Casinomeister Asia Trek - Special Edition
