Japan’s tradition for high quality manufacturing is being maintained in the casino sector by Angel Playing Cards
Angel Playing Cards doesn’t yet claim 100% accuracy for its industry-leading products, but it does claim 100% commitment to attaining that goal.
An example of total focus on quality is that if a casino customer raises an issue about an Angel product—whether it relates to Casino Angel pre-shuffled cards, the Angel Eye baccarat shoe or one of the company’s other casino-quality playing card ranges—the company will call what is in effect a management meeting to discuss the issue.
“Our company director, the general sales manager and myself, we review the report, check it, and we have a special meeting within a few days,” explains Yasushi Shigeta, President and Chief Executive Officer of the company, based in Kyoto, Japan.
“We check every aspect of the situation to understand what has happened. Once we start business with a customer, we aim always to keep that customer,” adds Mr Shigeta.
Angel Playing Cards are acknowledged in the Asian gaming industry for having the lowest failure rate of any product in that category. And that shows in the sales performance. Angel has a good majority share of the Macau market for casino playing cards, and 100% of the Singapore casino market.
Consistent quality helped Casino Angel pre-shuffled cards win the most nominations in the category of ‘Best Table Gaming Essential’ in Inside Asian Gaming’s Supplier Awards 2010 in March. The judges praised the quality and virtually error-free record of Angel’s pre-shuffled product.
Angel also claims a remarkable share of the global market for electronic baccarat shoes, because of the accuracy of its card reading capability. A big portion of the baccarat tables in Macau and Australia use the Angel Eye system. That gives the economies of scale that allow intensive research and development of the product and in turn improves the security and efficiency of the product for casino operators.
Mr Shigeta’s professional background in management consultancy—he entered the sector after graduating with a degree in Information Science from Kyoto University in 1990—probably helped him keep an overview on quality-related issues when he joined Angel three years later. He worked his way up from middle management to become a director of Angel Group in 1995, finally being appointed to the top job in 2005.
Mr Shigeta and his team spoke to IAG at the recent Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas and explained how Angel has built its reputation for quality, and how it plans to develop that reputation further.
Inside Asian Gaming: Please explain the role of the Angel Eye shoe in maintaining and building your market share among casino operators.
Yasushi Shigeta: In contrast to American and European operators who may put heavier relative importance on efficiency and convenience, what Asian operators require first is security. Use of the Angel Eye baccarat shoe means cheating at the table is dramatically decreased. That’s the information we get from the casinos. I think the key is that we have a wide range of customers, so we have been able to take their views and comments into account when developing our product.
Please explain your approach to product development for the Angel Eye shoe.
In the three years from the first release, we improved the hardware platform as well as software for it. We have continued the software development after that. Almost every year we release a new version of the software. The upgrade is then delivered to the equipment by our technicians visiting the casino.
If one shoe is misreading it’s no good. So we test, test; test the platform and the software, and every individual unit that leaves our factory.
Why does the Angel Eye shoe have such a good reputation for accuracy?
That we believe is because of accuracy. There are two kinds of accuracy: accuracy of the cards themselves and accuracy of the matching between the cards and the Angel Eye shoe.
As to card accuracy, we developed ourselves a system for 100% checking of the product. There is a code on each card that minimises the possibility of foreign cards being introduced to the system. That’s very, very important. And the cutting accuracy used in the production of the cards is at the most strict level in the market. That reduces the risk of misfeeds or misreads of the cards by the shoe.
As to matching accuracy, because we manufacture both cards and shoes in the same factory, we are constantly testing to ensure they perform correctly together.
Card dealing techniques can vary from casino to casino and from dealer to dealer. That’s why shoe technology that delivers accurate reading in these different environments is very important.
Shoe maintenance is also important. We have a dedicated maintenance team in Macau for the Macau market, for example. If there’s an issue, our engineer can go to the casino and check and, if necessary, adjust the shoe very easily. Moreover, prevention is better than cure, so we check the equipment regularly even when no problems have been reported.
Do you have plans for the next generation of your baccarat shoe?
We have a range of requirements from our casino customers. We are now considering how to satisfy those requirements as the industry moves forward. The most important thing is accuracy—100% no mistakes reading. We need to develop that point first.
Please explain your approach to quality control of your playing cards.
Our focus is on satisfying the customer. Our aim is for 100% accuracy. Even though our product is 99.99% accurate, we aim always to achieve 100%. Our purpose is not market share. Our purpose is customer satisfaction.
Can you explain what role your factory plays in ensuring quality?
Angel entered the casino card business in 1997. In 2004, we built a new factory. We took our experience from those seven years and built a purpose-built factory.
In Asia, a large casino uses approximately 10,000 decks per day. If our product were even 0.1% inaccurate, that would mean 10 decks per day would be inaccurate. So we developed original inspection equipment to perform total checking, and installed it to each production process.
That accuracy means Angel cards don’t have to be checked by the casino at back-of-house operations before play. Angel does that for the operator in advance.
In addition, each carton of pre-shuffled cards has a unique barcode. When you scan that barcode, you have information on everything about that batch of product.
What is your current market share for playing cards used in the Asian casino gaming market?
Angel has most of the Macau market for casino playing cards, and 100% of the Singapore casino market. The casino in Malaysia [Resorts World Genting] uses our products, and major Asian cruise ship casino also. The trend on market share is moving upwards. Also, Australia is very strong. We started in 1997 with two of the first tier casinos in the country. And they continue using our products. All but two or three casinos in Australia have been using our playing cards for more than 10 years. Once we start business with a customer, we aim always to keep that customer.
How does your customer care system work?
We have managers dedicated to each market. If a customer raises an issue regarding our playing card products, the manager goes to the customer, checks the playing cards, and then reports to our company. Our company director, the general sales manager and myself, we review the report, check it, and we have a special meeting within a few days. We check every aspect of the situation to understand what the issue is. Sometimes we may find a new fact relating to the manufacturing operation. Sometimes it may be a misunderstanding between our customer and ourselves. The point is that our focus is always in providing excellence for the customer, not in chasing market share.
