Asia, particularly South East Asia, is one of the fastest growing online gambling markets. There are legal issues in some countries but then there are such problems everywhere. Online gaming operators and software providers are aware of this and are vying with each other to get as large a share of the Asian market as possible. In some cases gambling operators act alone in other cases the software providers offer the push. Some moves are direct whereas other moves are subtle. This article discusses some of the approaches made by the online gaming service providers in the context of the Asian market.

The most direct approach to capturing the Asian market is to launch an online casino catering exclusively to that market. The Bodog brand has done this very successfully. It has first located an Asian player, namely Haydock Sports located in Manila, and partnered with it to launch Bodog88.com. Haydock has been in the Asian market since 2006 and is well versed with its characteristics. Ian Dunning, Managing Director of Haydock had said, “In the Asian market Live Dealer is a key difference, RNG casino games are viewed with distrust here.” Therefore there would be a focus on providing live dealer games at Asian online casinos.

Not everyone can go the route of providing a distinct online casino for the Asian Market. There is considerable advantage to be obtained in keeping the basic software platform and games the same across countries and cultures. How online gaming software providers handle the issue of catering to local requirements is by offering multi lingual and multi currency online casinos. Therefore the online casinos that cater to the Asian market offer the software in Asian languages like Japanese and Chinese and also accept deposits and make payouts in the currencies of those countries. Customer support is also provided in the local language.

Despite the Asian customers’ liking for live dealer games, such games have a limitation. There are less than half a dozen games amenable to the live dealer format. The bulk of the online casino games have to be in the RNG format. Initially even in the west the RNG games were looked upon with suspicion but were gradually accepted over time and the same process is likely to repeat in Asia. But to cater to Asian customers software providers include gambling games of Asian origin. Almost all software providers offer games like Pai Gow Poker, which is a poker based game, and Sic Bo, which is a dice based games like craps. In addition Playtech offers a dedicated Asian Games category in which it offers games like Pachinko and Mahjong. Recently Microgaming has announced inclusion of Pachinko and Pachislo games to its portfolio. These are based on Japanese arcade games.

The subtlest way of attracting Asian customers is to develop online slot games based on Asian themes. These include the Geisha and Samurai culture from Japan, Chinese cuisine, the ancient royalty from India and the magic of Arabian Nights. Focusing on the South East Asian segment the following slot games are immensely popular: Cherry Blossoms from Vegas Technology, Eastern Dragon from Cryptologic and Lady of the Orient from Microgaming. Realtime Gaming has introduced a unique way to further enhance the Chinese theme in some of its slots. ’8′ is a lucky number for the Chinese and some of its slots like Happy Golden Ox of Happiness have the payouts ending in 8s.