Pharmaceuticals firm LifeTec Group announced yesterday it had signed a five-year contract with Macau gaming boss Stanley Ho Hung-sun's Sociedade de Jogos de Macau (SJM) to install proprietary semi-automated baccarat gaming systems in all 16 casinos run under the SJM umbrella.
In a revenue-sharing deal similar to the subcontracting agreements SJM has with VIP room operators, LifeTec will receive 31 per cent of the winnings from the baccarat tables it manages.
The new gaming system features a human dealer, but unlike traditional baccarat where players sit 14 to a table, LifeTec's version has 20 single-player video terminals with touch-screen betting and a computerised payout program.
The company installed its first 20 terminals inside the Greek Mythology casino, which has a revenue-sharing agreement with A-Max Holdings, and plans double the number to 40 by the end of the month. LifeTec will install another 20 terminals in the Jai Alai casino by early next month and hopes to have 300 terminals across Macau by the end of the year.
'We are offering a service in between the traditional mass-market tables and the VIP rooms,' said company secretary Philip Poon Yick-pang.
'This live baccarat system is a combination of [traditional] baccarat and the slot-machine styles of gaming and we feel the potential is enormous,' Mr Poon said.
LifeTec shares surged 25 per cent to close at 13 cents in trading on Thursday even though a press release announcing the deal was not distributed until after the market closed. The firm announced the deal to the stock exchange yesterday morning and after a brief midday rise the counter slid 5.38 per cent to end the week at 12.3 cents.