“For Astro, the financial crisis didn't impact in Latin America, as much as in US”

How did you see the show? Was it a positive presentation for your company?
Yes, this year was much better than last year. Customers are looking for the new machines.

Which are the current most important markets for Astro?
Latin America and Europe.

How do you evalute the company's position in the US and in Latin America? 2009 was a challenging year due to the international financial crisis. What is the balance of this year for Astro?
For Astro, the financial crisis didn't impact much in Latin America as much as in US. Starting from this summer 2009, the US market is getting better.

Which are your expectations for 2010?
The economy issue is very important for the gaming industry. At this moment, it seems that the economy is getting better in US, but who knows how it is going to be next year. We hope there are no more Lehman Brothers.

Next year will also be very important for the Asian market, because Singapore casino is opening on 2010 and countries like Japan, Taiwan, Thailand and India are watching the Singapore market very carefully. In fact, in all the countries I mentioned above, the Governments are considering to open casinos to gain some more tax collection, but after the financial crisis, everyone is looking at the projects and watching how is the Singapore market going.

The gaming industry was very hot from 2006 to 2008 because of the high revenue of Macau. At that moment, we noticed that Asia had more "big players" than western countries,  and this is the main reason why Macau casinos were doing very well with "big players" from China. Taiwan has already passed the gaming law and it will be very important to set up all the execution details next year. It will be a good opportunity for Taiwanese-based company Astro Corp.