The journey to Everi’s “digital neighborhood,” which speeds everything from loyalty card applications to jackpot payouts to cashless transactions, involved more than time and effort. A customer’s trip through a casino is the heart of the concept itself.
“This is something we’ve been trying to evangelize for maybe six years,” said Darren Simmons, executive vice president and FinTech business leader at Everi. “It’s really (based on) the interactive journey of the operator and the player.”
Architects of the digital neighborhood considered how to digitize many of the ways casinos and customers interact. From a player’s viewpoint, those include quick and easy methods to sign up for or replace a players club card; buy slot credits or table game chips; make a sports bet, online or in person; cash out; redeem promotional offers; and pay for meals, entertainment, or other purchases.
From an operator’s viewpoint, those interactions must be efficient and accurate while adhering to anti-money laundering laws, Know Your Customer requirements, responsible-gaming procedures, and a host of other regulations.
The resulting digital neighborhood is a range of what Simmons called “mission-critical tools” for casino operators, including:
- The CashClub digital wallet, which launched in December at WinStar Casino in Oklahoma and Seminole casinos in Florida and most recently installed at JACK Thistledown Racino near Cleveland
- Jackpot Xpress, which is live in about 30 locations nationwide and began its Nevada trials in July at Caesars Palace and El Cortez in Las Vegas
- Loyalty kiosks, where players also can apply for or replace a players club card, obtain check-cashing privileges, view promotional offers, play promotional games, pull up a casino floor map to scout slot machine locations or make restaurant reservations, sign up for a slot tournament time, and other casino options
- A customizable casino loyalty app
- Gaming floor kiosks/ATMs
“It’s a connected community of our products and applications,” explained Jeffrey Hoss, Everi’s vice president of product marketing, FinTech. “It reduces friction on the gaming patrons’ behalf to make things more seamless and enhance that customer experience on the casino floor.”
For example, Hoss said Jackpot Xpress enables slot attendants to complete a hand-pay jackpot, with accompanying tax forms and other documentation, in less than five minutes, cutting the typical time by 20 percent to 60 percent. It allows the jackpot winner to choose how to be paid – any combination of cash, digital wallet deposit, TITO, or slot credits back on the machine. A JackpotXchange kiosk can validate a jackpot payout and then dispense the cash or other payout methods. That eliminates the need for an attendant to make a trip to the casino cage or wait for security to witness a payment.
The CashClub wallet can pay for gaming or non-gaming purchases and be used for online and in-person bets. It also can work at affiliated properties in different jurisdictions.
He said the digital neighborhood concept means operators don’t have to resort to fragmented solutions that can increase customer friction and confusion while increasing operational costs.
Simmons said the highly regulated gaming industry historically has been “a little behind the curve” in implementing technological innovations. While many non-gaming outlets have adopted digital payment methods already, casino operators must ensure theirs meet state, federal, and tribal guidelines.
Simmons predicted more jurisdictions will allow cashless casino transactions over the next two years. “This is going to be somewhat evolutionary,” he said. “You’ll see it slowly increase.”
Recalling how TITO technology took a few years to replace coins on the slot floor, he predicted cashless will follow a similar trajectory.
He said the continued growth of igaming and sports betting will lead operators to expand connections between online and land-based casinos. “You’re going to see more of that engagement in terms of these disparate platforms and the entertainment experience,” he said.
Simmons pointed out that the digital neighborhood allows an operator to “create operational efficiencies, help move them from analog to digital, and help them move from cash-based to cashless-based” in compliance with all regulations.
Hoss offered a similar vision for Everi’s “bricks to clicks” strategy, designed to encourage brick-and-mortar customers to add mobile betting and igaming to their casino play. When igaming debuted in the United States, many operators sought to convert online gamblers to in-casino play, the “clicks to bricks” approach that has proved unsuccessful.
While cash is still king at casinos, Hoss said, “It comes down to choice, and we view the digital neighborhood as giving the customers choice.
“We’re trying to be the leader in transforming the casino floor,” he said. “We believe we are a trusted neighbor and a partner in this neighborhood journey.”
