Fifteen years ago, in September 2005, Inside Asian Gaming was born with the launch of its very first issue. With a very different logo to the one you see today, IAG was a 40-page print magazine in English only. The cover story, “Singapore: let the games begin,” pre-dated the opening of Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa by five years.
There were, however, plenty of familiar faces featured within the pages of that inaugural issue including Dr Stanley Ho, his daughter Pansy Ho, Sheldon Adelson, Grant Bowie, Scott Winzeler and then Social Affairs and Culture Secretary Fernando Chui Sai On, who would go on to serve as Macau’s Chief Executive from 2009 to 2019.
IAG and its parent company O MEDIA held an office warming party on Friday 21 August, during which we asked some of our guests to say a few words about the upcoming 15th anniversary of IAG.
Included in this video montage are Sands China President Dr Wilfred Wong, Suncity Group’s Assistant Vice President of Marketing Communications James Wong, Paradise Entertainment Chairman and Managing Director Jay Chun, Aristocrat General Manager – Asia Pacific Lloyd Robson, Executive Director and CEO of Rich Goldman Holdings Nicholas Niglio, Scientific Games VP for Asia Clinton Long, Angel Macau Ltd’s Yusuke Urata and Kosetsu Tanaka, Asia Pioneer Entertainment Assistant General Manager of Corporate Sales and Marketing Vicky Chan, Scientific Games Consulting Director Ken Jolly, CAT Manager of Dallmeier International (Macau) Christian Audroing, VP of Casino Operations for Sands China Harold Tsakmaklis, Multi-Property Vice President, Sheraton Grand Macao & The St. Regis Macao Janet McNab, Assistant Senior VP HR Business Partner and Workforce Planning for Galaxy Entertainment Group Liviano Lacchia and Chairman of AustCham Macau Patrick Liu.
Having published its first print issue in September 2005, IAG launched its website later that same year. The very basic, single page website was located at staging.staging.asgam.com and we have remained at that same web address ever since! Below is a screenshot of that initial web page.
IAG has come a long way since its first issue 15 years ago. On 3 April 2017, we launched daily industry e-newsletter IAG Breakfast Briefing, published at 8am Macau time each business day and now well established as the clear leader in its space, with 28,000 recipients and over 4 million page views annually. We have also gone from an English only publication to tri-lingual with the addition of Traditional Chinese and Japanese, including the launch of IAG Japan in January 2019 with a team based on the ground in Japan to cover the rise of the nation’s integrated resort industry. IAG has also spread its wings into events, hosting the exclusive Asian Gaming Power 50 Gala Dinner each November, quarterly networking social Macau After Dark and co-hosting the G2E Asia Awards. In 2020 we also launched online business insights platform GAME in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.