Wynn Al Marjan Island is looking to open with smart gaming tables installed across all or most of its gaming areas and payment options that include cryptocurrencies, the company has revealed.
David Patent, Executive Vice President, Gaming Operations at Wynn’s lavish US$5.1 billion integrated resort development in the UAE, outlined some of the property’s planned innovations during a panel session at SBC Summit in Lisbon on Wednesday, which will also include real-time alerts for hotel rooms, restaurant bookings, valet parking and other amenities, all aimed at enhancing the customer experience.
On the gaming floor, Patent said that Wynn Al Marjan will become the first casino in the world to roll out smart gaming table technology across almost all of its gaming tables – expanding on the baccarat-centric model currently employed across other jurisdictions.
“We’re going to be the first casino I believe to roll out smart tables across virtually all of the games that we’re going to be offering – at least 80% to 85%,” he explained.
“Smart tables are great. They’re proven in Singapore and in Macau and a couple of other markets where they accurately record the customer’s bets. They have better game speed, there’s fewer dealer errors and counterfeit chips are almost impossible. We can therefore reinvest more accurately and our accounting becomes quicker. There are so many advantages.”
Patent also revealed that Wynn Al Marjan Island wants to be able to accept digital currencies, pending the application of appropriate regulations by the General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA).
“We’ll be working closely with Kevin (Mullally, GCGRA CEO) and his team to come up with the methodology for doing so that serves the customer. We believe it will also help protect the integrity of the game by working more broadly to make sure that knowing the financial source of funds is what it’s supposed to be.”
According to Patent, embracing technology will be central to Wynn’s UAE offering, already expected to be among the most luxurious – if not the most luxurious – IR projects anywhere in the world.
“We’ll be doing a lot of real-time marketing offers at the slot machine and at table games that will be rapidly responding to what we believe the customers’ needs are and we’ll be taking that to a much more granular level than anybody’s done previously,” he said.
“That’s because we get to start from scratch. We do not have a legacy database or data model around our necks so our data model will allow us to understand our customers from a 360-degree view. We’ll have a window into all of their interactions with us and that will help us understand them better and be able to deliver a better experience to every customer.”
Mullally, who also appeared on Wednesday’s panel, said he backed Wynn’s technology goals, with the regulator actively encouraging industry operators and suppliers to push the boundaries when developing products for the greenfield UAE market.
While Wynn remains the only casino operator to have been granted a Land-based Gaming Facilities License, the number of Gaming-Related Vendor Licenses issued has now reached 14 spanning a range of slot, lottery and payments suppliers.
“Our message to the industry and the technology providers is don’t design your game around the regulations,” said Mullally.
“Technology should lead, not the regulations, so if you can design a game that uses new concepts, uses reflexive math, combines elements of skill with elements of chance, integrates social media and figures out how to entertain your customers – the operators’ customers – in the best way you can, we will figure out a way to regulate it.
“Whatever you bring us, we will design a way, we will make sure it’s safe, we will make sure that we have data to ensure that the customer experience is protected. We want the technology providers to focus on entertainment, not look at the regulations and say, ‘I have to design my games within this box’. We want innovation to lead and regulation to adapt, not the other way around.”
Mullally also outlined his expectation that the UAE’s burgeoning regulated gambling market would transform the way the industry is viewed globally.
“I’ve been a resident of the UAE for two years now and the quality of life here is unlike any place I’ve ever been in the world – and I’ve been to most of the world,” he explained.
“They play the long game here better than anybody I’ve ever seen. They had a Vision 2021 plan that they achieved, they have a Vision 2031 plan that they will achieve, they have a Centennial 2071 plan that I have full confidence they will achieve.
“You go to social events here and you meet people in the arts and architecture and energy and aviation and tourism, and you find out they have this remarkable journey to get here.
“So, gaming isn’t going to be drawing people to the UAE – the UAE is going to redefine what gaming is for the rest of the world.”
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