Aristocrat is a premium supplier of technologies and services in the gaming industry, and one of the leading slot providers in Macau. Vincent Kelly, based in Macau for the past two years, is the managing director for the Asia-Pacific region and says the company is adjusting well to the changes of the market.
The company operates in more than 90 countries and 200 jurisdictions around the world, according to its official web page, across four regions, including Australia-New Zealand, the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
“From this office in Macau, we run the Asia-Pacific region — Macau, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Cambodia, South Korea,” he explains. Market wise, Mr Kelly says the company he represents, “as a slot pioneer, has a leading position in most of the markets and across the region”. Not mentioning specific figures, Mr Kelly says business is “good” in Macau, highlighting that there is “a lot of development going around Macau, but also around the region [Asia-Pacific] as well”.
With Macau turning towards the mass market, Mr Kelly believes the territory “is well set up” for the changes ahead, as there has been “incredible investment in the last 10 years in the infrastructure in Macau, and that investment continues with new properties”. Overall, he believes that will “increase the capacity in Macau to service the more volume-based market”.
Aristocrat is already prepared for the changes ahead, as it has been increasing its portfolio with more styles of games to suit “a wider range of players”. Mr Kelly says Aristocrat has “always been very strong with VIP players,” but over the past years it has been “developing to increase its strength over to mass players”.
Coincidental or not, since the slowdown in growth of gaming revenue, Mr Kelly says Aristocrat has “been broadening its strategy,” bringing “more products to the mass”. And he highlights that Macau continues to be an attractive market to the company, despite the revenue slowdown. “I’m optimistic about Macau for the long term, because what has been built here isn’t for the short term, it’s for the long term — it’s high quality, quality of physical infrastructure and the quality of the people offering the service. I don’t see any of that changing,” he says.
EASY TO LIVE
After two years, Mr Kelly says he and his wife have adjusted quite well to living in Macau, as this is an “easy place” to live, and also due to the people. “Macau people have a lovely combination of being friendly and hard-working, you get the best of both worlds,” he says. All in all, Vincent Kelly, who was previously living in Australia but is originally from the UK, says Macau is “quite a magical place”, considering “it’s very easy to make friends and enjoy all the things Macau has to offer”.
One “big advantage” in Macau is “the commute time”. “Everything is very close together, so you can do an enormous amount per day, because you’re not wasting time commuting.”
As their two grown up daughters live in London and Sydney, he says even the geographic location is convenient for them. “It’s nicely located between both of them [daughters], it’s an ideal location for us”.
Apart from work, he manages to find time to do some exercise, namely walking, tennis and golf. “Since we’ve been in Macau, we’ve decided for various reasons to start playing golf, having resisted for years, we really enjoyed it here,” he says, mentioning they still have a long way to go until they’re “serious competition” for anyone.
His preferred sites in the territory? “That is a very difficult question to answer, it depends on the occasion,” he says. It can be at “the [golf] driving range,” when it’s a “beautiful sunny day,” at a “Portuguese restaurant enjoying some great classical food,” or even at one of the casinos, having a cocktail “beautifully served, surrounded by nice people”.
“But we don’t spend enough time in the peninsula city centre. Every time we do, we find hidden treasures we need to spend more time uncovering,” he says. In fact, if he were to be granted one wish, Mr Kelly would ask for “nice walking access between here [Macau] and Taipa, or a pedestrian area expanded on one of the bridges.”
IN BRIEF
More Crime
Macau recorded 814 cases of suspected gaming-related crime in the first half of 2016, which corresponds to a jump of 13.5 percent in year-on-year terms, according to police data. Gaming-related crimes mean they took place inside a casino or nearby.
Higher Salaries
Despite the slowdown in gaming revenue since 2014, the average monthly earnings of gaming workers in Macau, as measured until June, were the highest since records began, with full-time gaming workers earning MOP22,060 on average. The data was released last month by the Statistics and Census Service.
Default City
The $3.2 billion Studio City Casino Macau is said to be about to default on its loans, according to news reports. The resort, controlled by Melco Crown Entertainment Limited, opened in 2015 without VIP tables, in an attempt to attract families and China’s middle class.
