Global Payments says it is head-and-shoulders above the competition when it comes to cashless gaming. The reason: Cashless gaming isn’t always seamless and doesn’t work as well as it should in the casino industry because firms piece together technologies from a variety of companies.
Instead, Global Payments has built its cashless ecosystem from the ground up as a vertically-integrated organization. This is no different than what Apple has done in comparison to the other personal computer products in the marketplace. Apple products integrate seamlessly and are supported across-the-board – Global Payments has done the same in the gaming space.
“This cashless ecosystem that Global Payments has created extends beyond developing an app, throwing it in the app store and encouraging casino customers to download it,” said Josh Swissman, founding partner of The Strategy Organization and Global Payments’ consultant. “There’s much more to it than that.”
There is a sophisticated system that works in the background, transferring funds back-and-forth between the app, the financial institutions, and the casino floor, Swissman explained. This combines with the company’s VIP Preferred network to allow its 3.5 million customers to conduct transactions electronically and cashlessly. Where it’s approved, Global Payments also offers deferred settlement options – a nice value-add for customers that take advantage of that feature, he noted.
In addition, there is hardware that exists on the casino floor as kiosks, known as VIP Financial Centers. The system that powers it all at the casino cage, which Global Payments calls VIP LightSpeed, has important elements attached to it such as the Title 31 (anti-money laundering) solution, which is called VIP Shield.
“There’s a lot to be considered when you think about the cashless ecosystem, especially when you think about creating an environment where the casino customer has the notion of choice,” Swissman said. “You don’t want to force guests through one specific sequence of interactions, which may feel very foreign to them, in order to conduct their cashless transactions. They won’t continue to do it in the long run. Guests may want to transfer funds to their app and remove a little bit of cash from a kiosk to tip someone or have a little bit of money in their pockets to walk around with. Others may want to convert some of their funds to cash at the cage. Guests that are interested in non-gaming amenities may want to use their funds to pay cashless for their steak dinners. All of these options and more should be afforded to customers to make the process feel as natural and as close to their previous behavior as it can be. That is what leads to increased adoption and utilization.”
Swissman pointed out that the big difference with Global Payments is that it has looked after every step of that process in-house and developed all of those different products and services from beginning to end. They are also supported in-house.
“They do it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year with a great team of contact center solution representatives that are located right here in Las Vegas next to the team that develops these products,” he said. “The whole integrated environment that Global Payments brings to the table creates not only a better solution for casino operators, but as an end user they are able to deliver an environment that’s very seamless – all of the different components just work.”
Swissman maintains that because of that deep integration, with a singular support and development structure across all of those products and services, better security for casinos and end users is achieved as well.
“Apple is a great example of that,” he said. “Apple has created one of the most secure technology ecosystems known to the public because of the vertically integrated nature of the business. It’s the same thing with Global Payments. Because they are responsible for every step of the way, they look after security and integration at every single point of contact. What’s more, they bring a bank-grade level of security to the table that the other companies in the space can’t bring because they don’t have the depth and breadth of experience in other parts of the FinTech industry and the financial world at large. Global Payments brings to the table all of that experience and security and all of that insight when they develop these gaming specific products and solutions.”
Christopher Justice, president of Global Payments Gaming Solutions, emphasized that “Embracing Global Payments’ system-agnostic solutions, like VIP Mobility, as well as VIP Preferred, VIP Lightspeed, VIP Shield and VIP Financial Center kiosks, allows casinos to tap the flexibility needed to offer digital alternatives to traditional forms of wagering. Pairing deep integration with a singular support and development structure across all of our products and services enables better security features for both casinos and patrons alike,” he said.
“By reimagining casinos’ internal processes to provide the most effective and efficient value, Global Payments equips operators with the latest technology to establish a true, consumer-centric approach to gaming and provide an enhanced gaming experience to patrons. With our suite of solutions, patrons are enabled to seamlessly transfer funds for game play, or simply convert some of their funds to cash at the cage for non-gaming amenities.”
