Cashless payment solutions are revolutionizing the gambling industry, and Koin is at the forefront of that.
The Las Vegas-based company offers a fully integrated payment management solution for casinos and resort operations, at the cage, table games, slot machine, and retail transaction level.
Payment methods, including bank ACH transfer, Venmo, direct deposit, and Marker Trax digital credit, reduce merchant processing charges and cash-out activities while providing extended revenue opportunities both in and out of the casino and resort.
“At the casino and resort level, the industry in general is slow to adopt new technologies,” said Patrick Schmit, Koin’s Vice President of Product Integration and Business Development. “I don’t know if it’s a regulatory environment or just a general mindset. Cashless is no different.
“Despite that, after three-four years of introduction to the cashless world, operators now are taking a closer look at it. They know they are going to have to do something in terms of the cashless situation on the floor.”
Schmit joined Koin in February, but he’s no rookie – bringing more than 20 years of gaming industry expertise to the table, most recently as owner of Highbrow Consulting in Las Vegas, where he specialized in casino technologies, including cashless networks and operational improvements.
Schmit also has leadership experience at major gaming technology companies like Aristocrat Technologies, where he managed casino information systems and slot machine sales across the western U.S. He also held sales and marketing positions at Aruze Gaming, Konami Gaming and Bally Technologies.
He comes into Koin tasked with leveraging that experience to drive the company’s product integration strategies and expand its market presence.
According to Schmit, technology in the gaming space must have two things going for it to help propel the growth of companies like Koin.
“First and foremost, it has to be beneficial to the operator and have some sort of positive, measurable ROI, or else it won’t be introduced,” he said. “And secondarily, perhaps more importantly, it also must have a benefit for the gaming patron. You could have the greatest technology in the world, but if it doesn’t benefit the operator and the player, it’s probably not going to be introduced at all. And certainly, if it is introduced, it won’t be very successful. Cashless falls into that category.”
Schmit said he is hearing more educated questions from casino operators, beyond general queries.
“As recently as nine months ago, you would have more kicking of the tires,” he said. “That is quickly changing to more product specifics. What can it do? What is the ROI? How can it improve my operations? How can I introduce it? How will my patrons and guests absorb this new technology?
They know it’s coming, so the questions are becoming more focused. They view it as inevitable, but nobody wants to step off the plank.”
The objective for the operators: Make the transition as smooth as possible, because they want to maintain their brand, maintain consistency and levels of services.
What are some of the key components of the cashless eco-system for 2025?
Schmit says everyone promotes “seamless integration”. That’s a catchphrase phrase you see across the industry. It’s a catch-all for the basic transactions: Take credits and put it on a slot machine, take money and pay a point-of-sale bill, or a hotel folio, all of which are simple API (application programming interface) interactions.
“At Koin, seamlessly integrated is, of course, doing those transactional things,” Schmit said. “But we also try to be integrated with the patron themselves in their wants. When do they like to pay? How do they like to pay? What other lifestyle attributes can we learn about them to just make it a more holistic payment approach, not so much just a transactional, moving money to and from a slot machine.”
“Koin does so in several ways, including engaging with patrons on social media, because getting educated about the patron opens the door for the operators to get to know them better. [The operators] want to build not only brand awareness but loyalty, because they believe that if [the guest] has disparate payment situations, and not a consistent guest experience, that’s negative to the brand,” he said.
The industry wants an all-encompassed, seamless payment eco-system, whether the patron is at a slot machine or poolside ordering drinks.
At the same time, with the means of funding the digital wallet evolving, the end game being more acceptance to a wider base of users (being able to walk into a casino, carry cash around, drawing on it when the patron wants to) is a game-changer for the casino operators and the resorts. And it’s an industry that’s transitioning in a very short period.
All transactions within the wallet are secure. One of the big worries today expressed by operators to people like Schmit in the cashless technology universe is security with carrying cash around.
“They’re seeing huge demand for patrons who no longer want to carry that much cash around,” he said. That’s one issue that is driving a “major casino operator” into the cashless space, he added. The guest doesn’t want to be walking around a parking lot at 1am carrying $2,000 in cash. They would rather cash out, put that in their electronic wallet, and be on their way.
“Security from a guest perspective can’t be a unique situation,” Schmit said.
Plus, cashless makes things more secure, and more cost effective. If casinos are not running money all over town, filling ATMs and paying jackpots, obvious efficiencies will be apparent.
Casinos are going to see a 15-30% lift by going this route, he said.
“The rub always comes down to ATM and cash advance fees,” he explained. “That’s a dependable revenue source for casinos. The first thing they ask by going cashless is what will happen to that dependable revenue item? So far, we’ve seen virtually no impact on that. But in exchange for a 15-30% lift, that they might not get? That’s one of the reasons for slower adoption.
“Casinos are coming to the point of are we in the fee business or are we in the entertainment business? Do we want convenience for our guests? Do we want to increase velocity, where they want the guest not to have to get off the chair and go to an ATM, get in line, where the ATM canister may run out of money while they are there. Or do they just want to make things simpler and frictionless for their guests?
“I think they want to be in the entertainment business and operate their casino and business with the best level of convenience for the guests. That’s slowly taking over.”
PENN Entertainment was one company that, after deciding to not charge the transaction fee to the guest, saw “in excess of our high-end estimate range in terms of lift.”
Casinos can differentiate their product by going this route and creating an experience that’s not offered at competing properties.
