Joe Pisano, a CEO at JADE Entertainment and Gaming, has told our readers about the most popular gambling products, recent changes in the iGaming market, and the future of land-based casinos in the post-COVID-19 world.
Mr. Pisano, you have impressive experience in the gambling and casino industry – over 10 years! Could you, please, make a short overview of how it has been changing during these years? What are the main changes the industry has faced?
When I came to Asia for the first time in the ’80s, only three main players were in the casino Industry: SJM in Macau, Genting in Malaysia, and PAGCOR in the Philippines. Horseracing was the largest sector there. Since that time, we have seen the growth of integrated resorts across Asia and 48 states of the USA.
Technology has had a great impact on almost all sectors throughout the world, and the casino industry isn’t an exception. However, the adoption of technology among land-based casino operators was slow, if to compare it with other industries.
We have seen advancement in slot machines, from spinning-reel to video; we have removed tokens and replaced them with bill validators. Tables can read chips with RFID tags now. Casino management systems are no longer available only for collecting meter data, but also drive marketing.
The largest transformation in the gambling industry is online casinos. Although online and Internet gaming has been around for several years, the wave of online casinos has risen during the last few years for several reasons. The main one is the fact that players can easily access online casino titles from the comfort of their home, or at any place, or anytime, as long as they have a connection to the Internet.
The rise of the Internet has dramatically changed the landscape of gambling, but it has served only as a way to enhance their success for many gambling operators.
Even though some major technological changes have taken place in the casino industry, one thing has always remained the same. Whether it’s an online or land-based casino, every operator wants their patrons to have fun.
As far as your company is one of the leading casino solutions suppliers in the Asian market, you are most likely to know what products are in the biggest demand nowadays. So, what are they?
The slot machine market continues to grow. Large manufactures, like SG, Aristocrat, IGT, Novomatic, have big budgets for research and development and produce the most popular content. We also see that products from emerging manufacturers such as Sega Sammy, Jumbo, Synergy Blue, GameCode, are gaining interest.
What is your opinion on the future of the land-based casino sector? Does it have chances to regain its previous figures in revenue?
We will soon be entering post-COVID-19 reopening of the gaming industry in Asia. To get back to 2019’s revenues in the land-based casino industry, regulations need to be changed, and brick-and-mortar casinos need to embrace Internet gaming. Manufacturers need to start considering the convergence of land-based and Internet casinos.
Almost all gambling industry experts emphasize that artificial intelligence is the future of the iGaming market. Do you agree with this statement?
The past decade has shown that iGaming is leveraging technological improvements to increase their data-mining and collection capabilities. Nowadays, iGaming operators collect more information on their customers than almost any other industry. However, iGaming operators are fully leveraging their systems’ capabilities to improve operational and marketing efficiencies. As the industry has relied exclusively on costly promotions to draw and retain customer loyalty, the effects of competition can easily degrade the return on investment if operators don’t adequately use the information in their databases.
Those operators that embrace artificial intelligence will emerge as the most successful operators over the next 5 years.
What can you say about technological trends in the casino industry in 2020-2021? Could you make any predictions about upcoming innovations?
In a post-pandemic environment, visual artificial intelligence will be a must-have for all casino sectors. Visual AI will assist the property by implementing new regulations, including masks, machine cleaning, client count, temperature detection, enrollment for visits.
Many casinos got the permit to operate at 50% capacity. Operators can use the data collected from the cameras, in addition to the data from machine meters and tables, for modeling and recommendation engines to optimize the casino operation.
The implementation of online services in online gambling will help land-based casinos to develop safe zones that operators can locate in no longer used lounge or dining areas.
As for the online gambling industry, we can expect greater use of crypto and digital currencies. An online platform will be based on blockchain technology. Artificial intelligence will help to better understand player demographics and serve for the retention of players. The most important innovation will be the decision to converge online and land-based gambling into one gaming industry.
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