Electronic gaming machines (EGM) are already a popular product in the Philippines, but as technology progresses, suppliers of them can still help the market evolve. Joe Pisano, CEO and founder of Jade Entertainment and Gaming spoke with our Stephanie Tower recently about the Philippine and Asian market, and what companies like his are working on.

EGMs are a big part of the Philippine market, and Tower asked Pisano why it’s so much more popular there than in other markets like Macau. “It’s probably a matter of history. If we look at the Philippine market, it’s probably one of the most mature EGM markets in Asia,” he explained. “Its 30, 35 year old market in the Philippines, whereas early as 2004, there was only 400 EGMs in Macau. So the players have grown up with EGMs in the Philippines, and there’s quite a diverse EGM offering in the Philippines, more diverse than Macau, because if you look at regulation, the regulation in Macau has stifled the growth of EGMs.”

Suppliers like Jade Entertainment and Gaming play a huge role in developing new properties, as the EGMs they provide need to be carefully planned out during construction. “It’s very crucial because when a property starts developing, we start working with the operator at the planning stage,” Pisano said. “So you’re looking at floor layouts, you’re looking at cabling, you’re looking at CCTV, because we have a broad range of experience throughout Asia, they’ll come to us or like companies to get our experience from other regions.”

Ultimately though, Pisano is focused on what matters to the customer at the end of the day. “We need to remember we’re in the entertainment industry, and what we provide operators is to help them entertain people,” he said. “There’s a lot of growth in Asia, and companies like mine and like companies, that’s what we try to deliver.”

Tower asked Pisano what’s made him so successful in the past. “Patience,” he quipped. She then wondered where the market is going next. “We start to see a machine distributor systems were now involved in sports betting,” he said. “We’ve gone live in Okada in Manila, we’re going to expand the sports betting offering. Now we have offices in Malaysia, we do support there as well. We’re in Vietnam, Macau, Saipan. Hopefully, very soon, also in Australia. We’ve applied for licensing in Australia. And, you know, the world is changing, and we’re going through a time of rapid change, so it’s important to look at things, you know, where are we going to be with 5G, where are we going to be with intelligent sensors. The future is about technology. We’re looking at machine learning, we’re working with systems for machine learning. And we look at the next 10 years as really technology driving the industry.”