EVEN before Singapore's first Integrated Resort (IR) throws open its doors in 2009, a home-grown company which develops and manufactures casino games has hit the jackpot.

The little known SME (small and medium-sized enterprise), Weike (S) Pte Ltd, which will be 10 years old next February, landed a $4 million contract last month, and is now eyeing $30 million to $50 million turnover this year. This would be a huge jump over the $10 million turnover it hit last year.

Mr Daven Tay, 40, president and chief executive officer of Weike, sees a bright future ahead for the company.

"After nearly 10 years of hard work, we can say that we have finally arrived as there is good market recognition of our products."

The coming of the IRs and the generally relaxed atmosphere for gaming in Singapore now is a big boost to business, he says.

Weike manufactures and distributes slot machines, progressive jackpot link systems, electronic table games and exciting games.

"Our Singapore office functions as a design and development centre. The manufacturing plant is located in Malaysia because of the lower costs there. Some of the machines are brought to Singapore for final assembly and finishing touches before being shipped out to customers," says Mr Tay.

Weike has some 80 games on offer to its customers, who are mostly in Cambodia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore. In recent years, the company has also shipped its gaming machines to places such as Madagascar in Africa, Macau, Hong Kong, China, Ecuador in South America and Ireland in North Europe.

Encouraged by the huge $4 million order secured from Vietnam last month, Mr Tay disclosed that Weike will be setting up its first overseas representative office in the country by July this year.

In its efforts to go overseas, Weike is being supported by International Enterprise Singapore, through a $100,000 grant under its scheme to help home-grown companies internationalise their operations.

"We are the first and only gaming machines solutions provider in Singapore. And till recently, we were the only manufacturer in South East Asia," says Mr Tay. Two years ago, a gaming machine factory started in Penang, but the company does not do any work on developing new games and is a manufacturing outfit.

"We deal only with legal operators. The first thing we ask our potential customers is to show us their licence," Mr Tay says.

Weike was set up in February 1998, and started as a manufacturing company with a staff of 10 people. But life was not easy as the company made losses in the first two years.

The breakthrough came in 2001 when it got a licence from Malaysia's Finance Ministry to manufacture and distribute slot machines and electronic table games to both local and overseas licensed casinos and clubs.

The company was successful in securing a similar licence from Singapore's Home Ministry in 2004. But Weike says that it only does simple assembly and testing here as it is more cost effective to manufacture in Malaysia.

"Most of the clubs licensed to have gaming machines in Singapore, have our machines," claims Mr Tay.

While Weike's key markets are all in South East Asia, Indonesia and Thailand do not have any of its machines yet as gaming is illegal there. These two big countries are potential big markets for the company if they allow legal gaming one day.

Mr Tay says that his company believes in stringent quality control to ensure that all its products and systems comply with industry standards, and obtains certifications from international certification bodies.

To keep track of the latest developments in the gaming business, Mr Tay and his senior staff go to the world's biggest gaming exhibition, the Global Gaming Expo held every year in November in the United States, and similar trade shows elsewhere, including Macau.

"Visiting and exhibiting at gaming expos and casinos and getting feedback from customers are among the ways we get ideas to improve our games and produce new ones," says Mr Tay.

Mr Tay who has a masters degree in technical design from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), says he personally guides his design and development team, dividing his time between the Singapore and Malaysian operations which together employ over a 100 staff. Most of the design team is based in Malaysia.

One of Weike's major successes has been electronic casino tables which do not require a dealer. This results in tremendous salary savings to the casino operators as the tables operate on a player-to-player system.

Mr Tay says the electronic casino games tables are superior to dealer operated tables in that every move is electronically recorded and can be played back in case of a dispute. At the same time the casino operator can better track its revenue, while the authorities have better control over their tax collections.

Each table costs between US$80,000 and $90,000, and 30 tables have been sold to Vietnam alone.

As Weike's business is booming, its Singapore office in Kolam Ayer Industrial Estate is moving to a new office which is two-and-a-half times the size of the present one.

And staff have been rewarded with a record 5.5 months bonus.