In Macao’s economy, where six gaming concessionaires are competing to capture a gaming market of nearly 300 billion patacas ($38 billion), data has become the most important asset on an operator’s balance sheet. That’s according to several panellists on the second day of G2E Asia and the Asia IR Expo, being held at the Venetian.

In two sessions moderated by Niall Murray, chairman and chief executive officer of Murray International, industry experts, analysts, and c-suite executives examined both the regulatory and operational challenges of staying ahead of a fast-moving technology at a time when the physical gambling space is converging online.

Jamie Dorbian, managing director of International Light & Wonder Gaming Asia, noted that one of the biggest shifts stems from where the data was coming from. Previously, information was primarily driven by the casino floor, but now the intelligence gathering starts as soon as the customer steps onto the property, he said.

“But because that information comes from various business units, data is often siloed due to regulatory reasons or fragmented IT infrastructure, so its full value is harder to recognise,” he shared.

That frustration builds amid intensifying competition where the informational edge could win market share. Casino operators are feeling the pressure, not just from board directors, but also from shareholders who want to see value accretive results, commented Shaun McCamley, founding chairman of Gameworkz.

Operators need to be seen doing something. One idea is to pass their data to an IT department that is not integrated into the main business, or even to the marketing team that treats data analysis as a branding exercise, McCamley remarked. Many will decide to work with a third-party vendor, entrusting their company’s most valuable asset to an outsider.

While concerns have been expressed, they are often misplaced, countered Priscilla Wong of Twilio, a communications company that enables businesses to connect with customers through application programming interfaces for voice, messaging, email, and data‑driven engagement.

Speaking on the sidelines to The Bay, she explained that the perception of data being handed off is mistaken. “In reality, it remains securely housed in the cloud. For us, there is no human handling this information, it’s being accessed via artificial intelligence,” she said. Operational reluctance, she emphasised, reflected the paramount importance of security more than anything else, but was creating an opportunity cost in the interim.

Other challenges discussed included whether collected data provided a reliable snapshot and if data‑driven decision‑making was feeding down to a company’s bottom line. Regardless, panelists agreed that with the rise of younger customers more immersed in digital technology, data analytics must become an increasingly important part of any business. Yet, when in doubt, nothing beats walking the casino floor to see firsthand what is happening, McCamley remarked.