In the first eight months of 2024, over 23 million visitors arrived in Macao – an increase of more than a third compared to the same period from a year ago, according to data from the Macao Government Tourism Office. While some visitors crowd the city streets to try egg tarts or photograph historical landmarks, others head to the casinos, filling gaming tables with hopes of winning it big.
As the cards are dealt, punters quickly shift their focus to the rank and suits printed on each one, with little regard for the other players or the chips in front of them. Others are watching, however. There are ceiling cameras installed above. Croupiers and floor managers are scrutinising each player, ensuring fair gameplay. And, unknown to most, another set of eyes – hidden in plain sight – is monitoring even the smallest movement.
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Equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) recognition systems and radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, the gaming tables and the chips themselves are capturing valuable data, tracking everything from a player’s initial bet to the final payout, feeding that information to the casino in real time. For Japanese gaming equipment manufacturer Angel Group, smart tables and smart chips are poised to revolutionise the industry, benefiting casino operators by combating fraud while simultaneously elevating the gaming experience.
The hybrid AI-RFID technology has been around for at least a decade. MGM China first installed smart tables on its Macao properties back in 2014. Sands China followed, introducing them in 2019. Other operators – Galaxy Entertainment, Melco Resorts, SJM Holdings, and Wynn Macau – have all signalled their intention to have smart tables this year. Soon, the technology will be industry standard, and Angel Group is poised to capture its share.
Angel Group’s journey from hobby cards to smart tables
When Angel Group was founded in 1949, its business was primarily focused on playing cards. By the end of the century, the company had pioneered the world’s first pre-shuffled card decks and, in 2002, introduced Angel Eye, an electronic card shoe that can read the cards as they are dealt to determine the winner of a hand. The device represented a watershed moment, enabling live game results to be electronically displayed while also safeguarding against a range of deceptive activities. In 2003, the product debuted in Macao, with Angel Group opening a local office in 2006 dedicated to maintenance, support and sales.
“I can still remember when I first came out here [in 2005] and walked on the Cotai strip with barely anything on it. I still can’t believe what the city and the industry has become over the time, it is remarkable,” Keijiro Kan, chairman of Angel Macao Ltd, tells Macao News.
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Trading and recreational cards – such as those for the traditional game of karuta, inspired by classical Japanese poetry – remain an integral part of Angel Group’s business. Though its hobby cards exhibit more modest growth compared to its gaming division, this spiked during the pandemic when casinos were closed and families spent more time at home. Playing cards still account for the largest proportion of Angel Group’s gaming business, with Macao making up more than half of the company’s playing card sales, followed by the Philippines and Singapore.
Yet smart tables will spearhead the company’s future, says Kan, who says that the group is “not just selling cards and chips that go on tables, we’re selling security that eliminates cheating and technology that mitigates human errors.”
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Alongside RFID tables, Angel Group offers AI Capture, an image processing AI technology that harvests real-time data, including the optical images of the chips in play, and transforms it into digital information that effectively identifies the denomination, quantity, and chip type in use, as well as the precise location of each chip stack. The technology marries Angel Group’s expertise with image processing and chip technology pioneered by Gaming Partners International, which Angel Group acquired in 2019.
With the introduction of RFID enabled chips and smart tables collecting player data, concerns have emerged whether such equipment would potentially instigate any discomfort for punters. But thus far, the impact appears minimal, says Andrew Pearson, managing director of Macao-based fintech and AI consultancy Intelligencia Limited and the author, no less, of a Macao casino novel, The Dead Chip Syndicate. Pearson compares the RFID enabled casino chips with hotel key cards, which are assigned to specific individuals at a given time.
[See more: MGM’s CEO is ‘pretty excited’ about Macao in spite of China’s troubled economy]
“RFID tables accelerate the gaming pace and enable more exotic wagers in games like baccarat, representing a major draw for its use. This is more difficult to achieve with old fashioned chips, which are prone to mishandling,” Pearson says.
Those developments are welcome news to both the regulator and gaming operators. Macao’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (known by its Portuguese initials DICJ) has long urged the casinos to strengthen their monitoring systems on the gaming floor. For the operators, smart tables not only increase the amount played – a factor which normally relies on greater customer traffic – but they also track international players, who fall under a lower taxable bracket in the current gaming concession.
Combining RFID chip information with AI Capture technology helps refine the table’s operation, where better data not only strengthens game security but can also raise casino profitability, Pearson explains.
Building smart tables in Macao
The potential of AI-RFID hybrid technology is solidifying Angel Group’s presence in Macao. Back in September, the company announced plans to build a new factory in Coloane’s Concordia Industrial Park, located just south of the Cotai strip.
The US$130 million development covers a total floor area of 26,000 square metres, and represents Angel Group’s third manufacturing site in Asia after Japan and Singapore. (It also has factories in France and Mexico.) When the plant is up and running by the end of 2026, the Macao operation will resemble Singapore’s, incorporating not just a sales office and manufacturing site but also a research and development centre.
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The mostly automated Macao facility can increase Angel Group’s global production of its daily cards by a third, even if imports from the Japan and Singapore plants will still be required to meet the level of demand in Macao. At the same time, Kan says, the capacity previously allocated for Macao will now be available for other markets like the Philippines, Australia and Thailand, where the government is pressing ahead with a bill to legalise casinos.
To manage quality control, Angel Group will continue to import key raw materials, like its paper supplies, which are entirely sourced from a preferred Japanese supplier. Although the escalating price of global commodities, such as pulp, raises expenses directly, the group views this as a necessary cost to ensure the operations can meet the industry’s rigorous standards.
[See more: Macao’s gambling industry lacks a comprehensive strategic plan, says expert]
Angel Group’s Coloane project also serves as an early litmus test for Macao at a time when the city is hoping to leverage the proximity of Hengqin and the rest of the Greater Bay Area (GBA) to lure more investment. The Concordia Industrial Plant is one of four industrial facilities identified to help shape the city’s development by 2040.
That top-level policy backing is part of what drew Angel Group to Macao. The announcement of the new Coloane plant comes as the company marks its 75th year. When the facility is in service by 2026, it will be the group’s 20th anniversary in Macao – an opportune time for the company to push forward with the rollout of more smart tables. The move looks set to transform the industry, but for visitors flocking into the city and thronging the casinos, it will probably be the last thing they notice.
