Picture this: A gambler has just ended a successful session at a slot machine and is ready to cash out.
This time, however, instead of calling upon a TITO system to generate a paper ticket and pocketing the loose tickets for future redemption, a new system prints a ticket that can be scanned for safekeeping in the customer’s virtual wallet. The customer can then take their virtual wallet to the cage to collect their winnings. (Due to legal requirements, the ticket can’t be sent directly to the customer’s virtual wallet; the benefit here is that the player doesn’t need to be concerned about losing physical tickets.)
For years, this improvement was considered nothing more than a casino operator’s pipe dream – a potential future that likely would amount to nothing more than a regulatory nightmare. Today, however, the approach is a reality, thanks in large part to the new FUZION peripheral management system from JCM Global.
The technology enables existing machine technology and casino management systems to do new things. For players, the developments improve convenience and communication; for operators, they open a bevy of new efficiencies, all of which could potentially improve the bottom line.
“This takes the investments operators have made and gives them the ability to do more,” said Dave Kubajak, JCM’s senior vice president of sales and operations. “Every machine becomes a multifunction kiosk.”
JCM plans to unveil the new FUZION system at the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas next week. It will be the first time since JCM’s early days that the company has pulled back the curtain on the system’s development.
As Kubajak explained, depending on the implementation, this new functionality can potentially encompass everything from placing sports wagers to ordering drinks. It can optimize jackpot pay processes by printing requisite tax forms right at the terminal. FUZION also allows third-party companies to access the system and make offers they couldn’t traditionally make through targeted advertising based on player profiles or special promotions.
Naturally, operators can monetize these capabilities as additional revenue streams.
The FUZION system is still new, but already it’s getting some big play. JCM announced earlier this month that the new Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Sacramento at Fire Mountain would be opening at the end of the month equipped with FUZION products—one of the biggest installations in the state.
Elsewhere in the domestic market, the FUZION solution will also be rolled out in Osage Casino outside Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Kubajak noted that because the new FUZION technology links up to casino-wide management systems, it powers virtual relationships that extend casino-wide, beyond the slots and gaming floor into the IT department and the property server room. In this sense, the technology truly fuels a connected casino that operators can manage from just about anywhere.
“It’s all about transactions,” he said. “The idea is to allow them to happen from any place, at any time.”
With capabilities like these, the FUZION system offers powerful innovations on its own. But with optional add-ons, the technology is downright game-changing.
Two of these add-ons are gaining significant traction in the marketplace: JCM’s iVIZION bill validator, which scans bills quickly and easily right at the machine; and the GEN5 thermal printer, which can print everything from TITO stubs to promotional coupons – again, right at the machine.
Once these technologies work in concert with FUZION, operators can rest assured their casinos will be more connected than ever before, and as modern as they can be in the current environment.
