 Online Gambling
Market in Asia:
Cultural Barriers
In our series "Online Gambling Market in Asia" we examine Cultural Barriers. The realization being that a lack of understanding of the Asian culture is one of the main obstacles standing in the way of enterprising online gambling operators. "Asian players demand more customer attention and more efficient gaming process," explains Chan, the CEO of EntertAsia. "Most of the existing online gaming players were traditional land based casino players. They are not very sophisticated and not familiar with either working or playing on computers." This seems to go against common stereotypes in the US where the Asian population is seen as among the most "computer literate". Chan elaborated: "They need lots of support to get familiar with online playing environment. What I mean by 'efficient gaming process' is that most of the Asian players take gaming more as gambling. They want quick and direct result from every game which makes “Baccarat” always the most popular casino game in Asia." This equates more to the Asian player's comfort level perhaps. The problem most online gambling operators have can be traced back home to their original or current working environment. Few of the existing online gambling enterprises truly know how to offer that "quick and direct result from every game" even when catering to more familiar markets such as North America or Europe. "It's often a hodgepodge of information - or sometimes misinformation - all jumbled into one and tossed about throughout the website in such a way that makes finding the said info difficult," explains Gambling911.com Senior Editor, Payton O'Brien. "If they can't get it right in their native origin, how can anyone be expected to seamlessly enter an 'unfamiliar' territory like Asia." Chan's company does off the know how, but for years egos got in the way of using a "true Asian provider". "These guys all want to do it themselves," O'Brien said. Even the self-professed "King of Online Gambling" - Calvin Ayre - is in the process of seeking assistance from a top Asian online gambling software provider. Maybe EntertAsia.? That is not too far-fetched a thought considering how successful online gambling powerhouse 888.com has been utilizing EntertAsia's platform over the first quarter of this year. ---- Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher CCostigan@CostiganMedia.com Originally published March 11, 2008 4:01 pm EST
|