It's Asia's number one trade show for the casino industry and G2E Asia 2007 showed exactly why Reed bought the exhibition. It was a vibrant, fun and busy show that lived up to expectation…

G2E Asia was most certainly a success. Many of the casino industry's stalwarts exhibited, and those that didn't had partner companies in the Macau Tower. Complaints were uniform, but everyone attending knew that next year, things will change. Most exhibitors were unhappy with the exhibition's multiple floors, and some cited the simultaneous conference programme as a problem, as it made traffic less steady and more sporadic.

These are fairly minor criticisms and Reed has the experience to deal with these gripes in plenty of time for next year's show at the Venetian. The exhibitors were many and varied, and most had corrected the past oversights. Certainly, most of the slot exhibitors had arrived with product tailor-made for the Asian market, with Chinese characters and buttons, along with Asian-influenced designs. These touches should help open up Macau and other countries more as slot-playing markets; time will tell.

Interblock's stand was dominated by an 24-station Queen Theatre electro-mechanical Roulette, which impressed with its simplicity of design, its clean lines and understated elegance. The company has apparently had the same spot in the show for three consecutive years, and they regard it as an important part of their international plans.

Interblock's penetration into Asia is extremely impressive, and is partly the result, according to CEO Tomaz Zvipelj, of labour issues. He explained: "We see the Asian market has huge potential, and we are very happy with the way the market is going, which is in the direction of automated products. This is partly because of problems some casinos have had with labour. Even today, without the big projects even starting there is a significant labour shortage in Macau, which makes our automated products even more attractive."

Indeed it does, with Interblock enjoying an installed base of over 170 machines in Macau alone, accounting for 80 per cent of the market for multi-terminal products. Sixty per cent of that is the company's excellent Sic Bo game, proof that western know-how married with respect for Chinese gaming traditions can really reap rewards.

The company's Regional Sales Manager – Asia, Michael Hu, knows why they have enjoyed such success in Vietnam, Cambodia, Macau, Malaysia and growth in the Philippiines: quality. He said: "The main reason for our success in Asia is the quality of the product; that's the main thing. The last four years, while we have been present in Asia, we have only had two technicians to do the maintenance on the ground, which clearly proves the products’ superior technical reliability. Most of the issues that do arise, we can take care of by phone or email, we've found.

"Stability is important to our customers; if the machine is down for two minutes, our customers are losing money. We bring that 24/7 operation in reality. Also, the machines have the ability to make money. We can make their cash boxes full all the time! Eighteen hours out of 24, our machines will be full of customers, which equals money for the casino." Interblock's success continues to grow; in the new Venetian Casino, they have 33 machines installed already; that number is set to grow and could rise to 100 in the next 12 months.

Atronic's stand was dominated by multi-level progressives and linked gaming solutions. The result was undoubtedly impressive, with strong licenses like King Kong Cash and Deal Or No Deal alongside the sumptuous The Game Of Life. Perhaps most interesting was their attention to detail for the Asian market. Most of the games on the stand featured not only Chinese language characters and buttons, they also had Chinese audio featured.

As Atronic's Sylvia Dietz explains: "We've now introduced spoken Chinese language features for many of our games. It complements the Chinese language on screen and on the buttons and all the player messages are now audible during the game. In the Macau market, not that many players speak English, so we want to make it as easy as possible for them to understand our games. We've introduced that for our linked gaming concepts as well as for stand-alone games."

One of the stand-outs was the multi-level Mystery Link Roaring Tiger, one of their products designed specifically for Asia. With a traditional Chinese theme, the four progressive levels are represented by wood, water, metal and fire while the fifth element, earth, is shown in the background of the link. It was introduced at G2E Asia for the first time, and should be a resounding success for Atronic. It looks great, sounds superb and players should respond to the Chinese theme and artwork.

Roaring Tiger is available for all games from the extensive library of Harmony titles including X-Tension games. X-Tension games feature 50 lines of play with a screen layout of 5 x 4 symbols (5 reels, 4 symbols per reel, providing more fun, more excitement and more chances to win. Also new for the company in Macau was their Harmony slant-top model, a handsome and compact slot cabinet which has seen success in other markets. (E-07.03.07)

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