An update of last fall’s discussion of cashless technology by major suppliers addresses new urgency on the subject brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic
Last November, we asked several prominent suppliers of cashless wagering technology several questions concerning technology designed to remove cash from the casino floor. Of course, last November was a different world.
The Covid-19 crisis has resulted in a new outlook on the subject of cashless technology for the gaming floor, as casinos reopen with social distancing and new technology in place to minimize the number of touch-points encountered by gaming patrons on a given visit. The pandemic has caused people around the world to view the handling of cash as a potential source of transmitting the Covid-19 virus.
We asked executives of suppliers that produce cashless gaming how the Covid-19 crisis has accelerated the industry’s move toward cashless payment on the casino floor. Here are their responses to five questions on the topic.
What are the most prominent features of your proprietary technology for enabling cashless/contactless play on the casino floor?
Cath Burns
Cath Burns, Executive Vice President, Customer Experience, Aristocrat Technologies:
We are making sure that the (electronic) wallet contains all patron currencies, including cash, points, and markers. We believe that the complete package is required to convert a traditional patron that plays slots and table games using cash with a loyalty card to a contactless/cashless player.
The solution will work on slots, tables and throughout the property. Security, reliability, and user experience will be most critical for adoption at the betting spot, as well as outside the casino when it’s time to transfer funds or check balances.
Ted Keenan, Vice President of Product Management, Scientific Games Systems:
Scientific Games offers a comprehensive solution that enables the patrons to enroll and use cashless features effortlessly. The features include loyalty club registration, enrolling for cashless wallet, linking their bank cards and bank accounts, easy transfer of external funds to the wallet, and instant access to funds for slot and table play. All these player-centric transactions are conveniently accessed from a mobile app on the patron’s smartphone.
With SG’s proximity-sense Bluetooth card reader at the slot machine, physical player cards become a thing of the past. Starting the play session, funding the game, and depositing the remaining credits from the slot machine back to the wallet are handled directly from the mobile app.
Ryan Reddy, Vice President, Global Systems and Payment Products, IGT:
The features of our Resort Wallet cashless suite vary depending on the configuration selected by the operator: carded cashless, cardless cashless, or full-service cashless. The Resort Wallet cashless suite includes “carded” cashless, using a casino-branded loyalty card. Players allocate cash to a secure cashless wagering account from either the casino cash desk, kiosk, or any slot machine, and access those funds from any slot machine or table game using the card.
The second variation is “cardless” cashless using a digital wallet via a mobile device. The third option is what we call “full-service” cashless with an external funding gateway. This combines Resort Wallet with IGTPay, our proprietary, end-to-end payment gateway technology.
Tom Soukup, Senior Vice President and Chief Systems Product Officer, Konami Gaming:
The Synkros casino management system has supported cashless wagering at slot machines through its Money Klip cashless wagering module for years. It allows players to load funds to their loyalty account and perform secure digital transactions directly at the gaming machine. In an upcoming version, Synkros will also support cashless wagering at table games for buy-in and walk-with.
Synkros’ Money Klip cashless wagering is supported by traditional player card authentication as well as smartphone authentication. With a traditional player card, the guest can card in and use the machine’s LCD display or in-gaming windowing to navigate to their cashless funds; enter their secure PIN; and determine the amount they wish to download to the machine.
Nikolova Sonya, Vice President, Sales, Asia and Africa, Novomatic and Ainsworth:
Our myACP system supports cashless operations for both slots and tables. The added value of the implemented cashless functionality is the multi-site operability. The system can enable multiple cards per player, which are linked to a single player account and/or to separate sub-accounts.
The myACP system features an AML module that can be parametrically configured to record specific type of player transactions above defined limits. Limits can be defined per transaction or cumulative for specific date range. The enabled cashless play facilitates the transparency of the transactions, but also the strong control over the cash streams.
Darren Simmons, Executive Vice President and FinTech Business Leader, Everi Holdings:
Leveraging industry expertise on payments in gaming and strategic relationships with social gaming payments partners, Everi’s omnichannel CashClub Wallet can integrate and extend payments throughout the gaming enterprise using traditional, alternative and mobile technologies, producing expected increased funds to the floor and an enhanced, streamlined guest experience. The infrastructure of the wallet is designed to be the hub of all payments within the gaming enterprise.
Dave Kubajak
JCM’s iTITO
Dave Kubajak, Senior Vice President, Sales, Marketing & Operations, JCM Global:
JCM’s iTITO module in our FUZION system is functionally different from other solutions because iTITO truly virtualizes TITO tickets. The iTITO module displays virtual TITO tickets in the casino’s application on the player’s phone, so they are playing with money they deliberately transferred into an application specifically designed for use at the casino for their gaming floor.
Please describe how the Covid-19 crisis has affected interest in and/or sales of your cashless technology.
Burns: There is more interest in mobile and cashless experiences than ever before. Covid-19 has raised the priority of cashless and mobile projects with our customers in almost all jurisdictions.
Keenan: The level of interest in SG’s cashless solution has dramatically increased due to the Covid-19 crisis, and in some cases has resulted in accelerated timelines for patron offering by our casino partners.
IGT’s Cardless Connect
Reddy: Progressive operators had been moving toward cashless gaming prior to the pandemic, but Covid-19 has been the catalyst for this recent widespread interest. This is because the demand is coming directly from the players—they’re seeking a more sanitary, contactless play experience, with fewer contact points and greater degrees of social distancing. They’re also having far more contactless experiences at retail because of Covid-19, so they’re increasingly familiar and comfortable with this technology. Operator interest continues to intensify, so cashless remains front-and-center for IGT.
Soukup: In recent months we’ve seen an increased interest from Synkros customers to deploy cashless wagering options. And because Synkros has the agility to support remote upgrades, we’ve been able to provide property teams with the technology very quickly and without disrupting normal business. Our customers understand that by shifting to more digital transactions, they’re able to significantly reduce those physical touchpoints and better cater to safety considerations of guests and staff.
Sonya: The Covid-19 crisis and the enforced spread-prevention measures generated an increase in the demand of a full cashless functionality both for slots and live games. The monetary transactions by means of any cash or cash equivalents should have been turned into card or contactless payments, while featuring secured and accurate accounting and control for the consumers, casinos and control bodies. The new system requests we’ve recorded in 2020 come predominantly by markets, whereas the cash transactions have been widely popular amid players, which had obviously raise the red alert for the operators and let them consider safeguarding tools both for the players and the staff.
Simmons: Everi is committed to partnering with commercial and tribal customers to address the new operating environment in their reopened properties with gaming and financial technology solutions that help ensure the safety of their players and staff. Our fintech business is inherently designed to promote safe social distancing and has several contactless cash access solutions which has generated significant publicity recently. Due to a coinage shortage, we are also seeing an increase in the Everi Cares module to donate through gaming voucher redemption, allowing patrons the option of donating the change from their voucher funds to pre-selected charities.
Kubajak: Every central bank still considers cash as their core, and the majority of transactions under USD$40 are still cash-based. However, the current crisis has created positive movement in virtual payment technology. Virtual currency and payments are nothing new for us at JCM; we have been showcasing solutions with this technology for nearly 10 years. Virtual payments really come down to giving consumers additional options and convenience, and the great news now is regulators are more open to the idea of virtual payments than ever before. Players have been asking for it, which means operators have been asking for it, so as regulators become more comfortable with the idea, we are hopeful we will be able to fulfill our customers’ needs in this area.
Do you feel increased interest in, and adoption of, cashless technology will be sustained after the Covid pandemic is over?
Burns: The change in consumer behavior is likely to remain after Covid-19, especially when a superior customer experience is delivered. The convenience and safety of cashless wagering will likely make most patrons long-term users of the solution.
Keenan: We would think so. Given the benefits of a cashless solution, a better player experience and increased player engagement, potential increase in operational efficiency will help sustain the momentum post-Covid as well.
Reddy: As soon as operators and players are consistently exposed to the convenience, safety, and liquidity that cashless delivers, it will become entrenched in the industry, regardless of when the Covid crisis ends. The question is, how long will it take to reach that level of consistency? We don’t think operators will enjoy the full benefits of cashless until the majority of players have migrated to cashless play, and that will take time, because legacy forms of payment continue to be viable options.
Soukup: As players become more accustomed to using mobile payments or digital wallets linked to their banking or debit cards in other areas of their daily life, players will increasingly expect digital wallets for gaming activities. Assuming the property management systems and point-of-sale systems also enable the player to pay their folio or meal with a digital wallet, the entire casino ecosystem will become frictionless for players to enjoy their total experience at the casino using cashless (i.e., a single digital wallet.)
Simmons: We believe great products will find their way to the floor, albeit in a much more calculated fashion. Like other suppliers, we will have to wait and see how quickly casinos continue to recover which will vary from property to property and how this could impact operators’ capital spend. However, it’s encouraging our products and services continue to reflect a return to the performance momentum we were achieving pre-pandemic, as we shared on our most recent earnings call on August 4.
Sonya: Yes. The Covid-19 pandemic boosted the interest of casino operators in cashless technology as it significantly reduces operating expenses compared to other monetary transaction technologies. Another important role of the adoption of the cashless technology is the system connectivity and the effective utilization of the player tracking module – a multi-purpose electronic device, which facilitates the customer-centric system functionalities – interaction of the player and the personnel with the cashless module, transferring money from the player’s account to gaming device credits and backwards, and management of an additional prize system.
Kubajak: Yes, because it’s all about consumer convenience. Consumers like options. Go to any retail store, and you see people paying with cash, with credit cards, and with mobile wallets or other fintech solutions. Now look at the gaming industry and virtual payments – this is just one more way to offer consumers convenience. As regulators in gaming become more comfortable with that idea, we should expect more widespread adoption. Will virtual payments replace cash? No. Mobile wallets will function as another option, as another convenience that simply makes it easier for people to enjoy their experience at your property.
