Over the past twenty years, the Asian gambling industry has moved from traditional betting tables and agents to a digital wave, with online live entertainment and social gaming rising rapidly. However, Shaun McCamley, a veteran who has managed the VIP markets in Macau, Vietnam, and Australia, points out that many casino executives have yet to truly awaken.
"They are good at management and building hotels, but they know almost nothing about the internet." McCamley notes that online operations are often treated as "technical projects" by IT departments, lacking a real product perspective, leading to slow digital transformation and confused strategies.
For example, in the Philippines, after the rectification of the POGO platform, the focus shifted to the local PIGO project, which further exposed the casino executives' helplessness in facing new technologies and gameplay.
Meanwhile, social gaming is quietly becoming a new darling of the industry. Companies like Light & Wonder and Aristocrat, relying on virtual coin games, are making a fortune, not only with high user stickiness but also boasting profit margins of 70%-80%. "This is not gambling gross income, but pre-tax actual revenue," McCamley emphasizes, "without gambling taxes, there's no need to worry about regulatory restrictions."
More importantly, social games attract 80% of "non-gamblers" from traditional casinos, establishing strong user retention and repurchase mechanisms through points, leaderboards, and "free coins." In contrast, the loss of offline VIP customers is severe, and the profit model driven by "high-stakes gambling" is gradually becoming ineffective.
"Real VIPs are not here to gamble, but to feel respected and pampered." McCamley believes that casinos should shift their focus to the "experience economy," centering on customized services, live entertainment, and deep engagement to create new attractions.
In summary: The future belongs not to the player who bets the most, but to the platform that designs the strongest sense of participation. For casino executives who still cling to tradition, if they do not understand user behavior and data product logic, they might indeed be eliminated by the times.
