Nick Khin will tell you his career arc is not special, but his rise from Waitākere in West Auckland to the top of one of the world’s leading gambling companies suggests otherwise.
“Like a lot of young Kiwis, I just jumped at the opportunity and told my parents I’ll see you in six months' time. Thirty years later, here I am,” Khin told the Herald in Las Vegas.
The University of Auckland alumni is the president of global gaming at Nevada-based International Game Technology (IGT), which is worth about US$3.6 billion ($6.4b) on the New York Stock Exchange.
There are about one million gaming machines across about 900 casinos in North America – IGT held one of the largest shares of that market, Khin said.
And that wasn’t including the gaming software it provided to casinos in the back-end.
“There are three main system providers, we are certainly one of them.”
Khin is based in Las Vegas where all the major casinos house IGT’s proprietary slot machine games such as Tiger and Dragon and the Wheel of Fortune.
“It’s really popular. We’ve had Wheel of Fortune now 28 years,” Khin told the Herald inside its headquarters.
“I think it’s probably the most famous and most popular licensed casino game in the market.
“It offers a life-changing jackpot. Many of our Wheel of Fortune games have a million [US] dollars or more jackpot.”
In total, IGT had made more than 1000 millionaires and paid out about US$3b in winnings, Khin said.
“If you were to win that Wheel of Fortune jackpot on the casino floor, we would actually come out, validate that it’s a genuine win, and we would write the cheque to you.”
Khin’s favourite game is one of IGT’s newer releases, Mystery of the Lamp, based on a genie character.
“On a Friday night, you can probably find me playing this at the Cosmopolitan.”
IGT had 1000 of its employees around the world dedicated solely to developing games at its studios in Nevada, Australia, Europe, Britain and Canada.
“Inside a studio, you would have mathematicians, obviously very important, who are required in terms of putting the math together for the games.
“We have artists. There’s a lot of work, a lot of really detailed artwork, that goes into these games.
“We have sound engineers, we have software engineers, hardware engineers and they all have to come together to put together a final product.”
Then comes the rigorous testing process where gamblers test the company’s developments for as long as 90 days.
“Our customers help us select the players and they come in and play the game and tell us whether or not they like the game.
“Depending on the feedback, the game may get released or the game may go back to the studio and get changed.”
Khin said the best games it created could attract a player time and time again.
“We’re in the entertainment business.”
Khin started his career in finance for the telecommunications giant AT&T - he only ended up in gaming out of enjoyment.
“Even before I joined the industry, I’d always loved going to casinos.
“I just loved that form of entertainment.”
His start was with Australia’s gambling machine manufacturer Aristocrat Leisure.
After more than a decade there he shifted to IGT.
IGT’s share price is down more than 30% year to date, but Khin said that’s despite the United States economy being in a good position.
“It’s fairly strong. Interest rates are coming down. The unemployment rate has levelled off. Inflation appears to be under control.
“So I think the consumer is relatively healthy.”
It was a critical macroeconomic factor for the industry because it relied on discretionary income.
“We’re always watching this really carefully and really closely because if things start to happen in the economy and suddenly things start to go off the rails, then absolutely, consumer discretionary income can be impacted and that obviously impacts on the amount of money that people can spend on entertainment.”
Even when consumers had dollars to blow, it remained a fierce competition in the industry, especially in a place like Las Vegas.
“When you decide that you want to go out on a Friday or Saturday night, you’ve got lots of choices,” Khin said.
“You can go to a bar, you can go to a restaurant, you can go see a show here on the [Las Vegas] strip, you can go to the movies, or you can go to the casino.
“If you want to play on the casino floor ... You have an option, you can play on the tables, or you can play on the slot.
“So, yeah, we are competing for that very precious entertainment dollar.”
Despite having spent most of his career abroad, Khin has kept close ties to home, including returning to Auckland’s northern beach suburb Ōrewa this Christmas.
“I’ve deliberately kept a close connection with New Zealand.”
His son has just completed a Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Auckland, following in his footsteps.
“He had an opportunity to go to a few schools in California, and I initially thought that was the better idea.
“But a professor friend of mine at Auckland University convinced me that he was going to get a great education at Auckland University, and I got a great education at Auckland University.
“I’m really grateful for that.”
Khin previously worked with SkyCity’s new chief executive Jason Wallbridge, a Kiwi who also worked in the gambling industry in Las Vegas and has recently returned to Auckland.
Given his continued connection to New Zealand, may Khin have also been in the running for the same SkyCity gig?
“I’m not saying anything on record on that one.”
Madison Reidy is host and executive producer of the NZ Herald’s investment show Markets with Madison. She joined the Herald in 2022 after working in investment, and has covered business and economics for television and radio broadcasters.