Slot machines generate a smidgen of the profit that baccarat tables do in Macau, but Melco International Development continues to count on its ability to spin money from machines.

Mocha Slot, which is controlled by a joint venture between Hong Kong-listed Melco and Australia's Publishing & Broadcasting, officially opened its fourth electronic gambling lounge in Macau Friday evening in the new Hotel Taipa Square.

Melco is finding its footing in pushing multiplayer electronic versions of casino table games rather than single-player slot machines. The new hall includes what Melco said are Asia's first three-card poker machines. Several players can bet simultaneously while an on-screen virtual dealer runs the game. The hall's 137 machines also include multiplayer electronic versions of baccarat, roulette, blackjack and the big-small dice game. "Contribution from slot machines and electronic gaming only accounts for less than 5 percent of the gaming revenue in Macau, but in Las Vegas and Australia, it is over 50 percent,'' said Lawrence Ho, Melco's managing director. "But in the long run, the market will mature.''

Shepherding experimental gamblers along, many of the slot machines in the new hall offer games at 10 HK cents each, though playing requires deposit of at least HK$5. A slightly raised section of the second floor of the 6,156- square-foot new lounge includes a ``high-roller corner'' where games charge HK$5 a bet.

The new hall, operated under the license of Ho's father's company Sociedade de Jogos de Macau, sits across the street from the Macau Jockey Club, which also hosts an SJM gaming hall, and next door to the Grandview Hotel, in which SJM has a casino. Mocha's four halls encompass a third of the 2,254 gaming machines deployed in Macau.

Melco plans to open additional locations every three months for the balance of 2005, at a cost of HK$30-50 million each.

Most Mocha locations will be linked to two- or three-star hotels, the company said.