Digital payments are common nowadays, from Uber to daily purchases, but cashless gaming has been slow to catch on with tribal casinos. That doesn’t mean they’re adverse to technological advancements, insist industry leaders.
“Gaming has remained this cash-centric ecosystem,” said Jonathan Michaels, a principal at Michaels Strategies, who moderated a panel on cashless gaming for tribal casinos at G2E. “A lot of that doesn’t make sense. I’m flabbergasted that five years after COVID, fewer than 10% of casinos in the U.S. have some form of digital payments. It’s one of the areas in Indian Country where there’s opportunities.”
Steve Bodmer, general counsel with the Pechanga Band of Indians, said how to push the technology forward has
been talked a lot about internally at Pechanga.
“We’ve heard in polling the belief that tribes aren’t participating in this technological world,” Bodmer said. “We try to get our players more activated in the digital field and integrate all of the services there. I don’t have an answer to the slow acceptability. Our next generation of players will be looking do it seamlessly like everything else.”
When Bodmer uses Uber, he doesn’t tolerate any disruption. He wants his car and wants it paid for, so he can be on his way. That will be a motivating factor for digital payments with casinos. “Tribal casinos need to work with vendors to make this seamless transition, because if there’s any confusion, it’ll only reinforce the existing idea to take the cash.”
Victor Newsom, senior vice president of product management at Everi, said that as far back as 2020, they held trials with tribal partners. He called it a false narrative that tribal properties aren’t leading the way in technology.
“We’ve also underappreciated the fact that unlike our daily lives, buying Uber and fast food menus, in casinos we’re buying money, so it’s a different risk and experience,” Newsom said. “There are a lot of moving parts in casino operations. That complex thing has been a contributing factor. They’re trying to figure out if it’s worth focusing on rolling out cashless. That has been a big question mark for a lot of customers.”
Patrick Richards, senior product management with Crane Payment Innovations, agreed about the false narrative that tribes aren’t first movers. Tribes do have an appetite to lead in that space, but cashless isn’t at the top of their priority list.
“In talking with a lot of properties over the last couple of years, they all said they have cashless on their radar, but it’s never in the top three,” Richards said. “It’s everything from re-carpeting the gaming floor to upgrading the locks on hotel room doors and you name it. Customers say they have to worry about paving the parking garage this year, so the money is going there instead of for cashless.”
Richards said while it’s easy to dismiss it as too complicated, it’s easier to write a check to a paving company or locksmith. The decision about a digital strategy to bring more players back is harder to make.
Jonodev Chaudhuri, a principal at Chaudhuri Law and former tribal regulator, said it remains to be seen how quickly tribal casinos will start adopting cashless technology, but that doesn’t stop tribes, their regulators, and others who work with them to start thinking ahead for alternative regulatory standards at the National Indian Gaming Commission or about internal tribal controls.
