Atlanta-based Global Payments Inc. plans to introduce what it calls a “revolutionary” mobile solution in August for players to deliver funds to casino games.
Global Payments is a publicly traded company with 11,000 employees in more than 40 countries and funds all but one of the current iGaming sites.
Christopher Justice, president of gaming solutions, said Global Payments funds all of the iLottery spaces.
The division’s primary services are check guarantee services where it secures funds from a player’s bank account and transfers the money to the property, assuring authenticity and availability. The company also handles credit card cash advance services and provides multi-functional kiosks and ATMs.
Global Payment will launch a mobile solution that will deliver funds to gaming. It’s an app that delivers payment to the slot or table and allows for self-service checkout to withdraw money from kiosks as well as uploading money without ever having to talk to someone, Justice said.
“I think it will revolutionize the industry,” Justice said. “Other folks that have attempted to do what we’re doing tended to focus on an application that works with a particular slot or slot system, and there are systems trying to fund the game directly, which creates all sorts of regulatory and compliance issues. We have put a solution that leverages gaming instruments that all of the casinos currently have and a single app that works ubiquitously with all of the slots and all of the tables.”
Justice called it an Amazon-like experience rather than some of the “clunkiness” that happens today in getting an app and filling out a paper form. In their case, the customer will download the app from the Apple store or Google Play Station. They put in their phone number and email address and start playing with cash or playing with their Global Payments VIP account in which they underwrite the players and set up high limits.
“You sit down at a slot machine and scan a data matrix code,” Justice said. “We redeem the money you uploaded into your mobile ledger and deliver it to the slot machine. It funds in two seconds just like you were going to make a credit card payment at Walmart. It’s very quick, very fast and very easy. It’s easy to get money into your slot. When you cash out, you continue to play with tickets from slot to slot but when you’re finished with your gaming day, you take a picture of that last ticket and upload it into the mobile application like depositing a check in your Bank of America account. You can send that money back into your bank account or scan one of the kiosks and have the money delivered right there in a self-service environment.”
Justice said others who have attempted to fund a slot machine with a mobile solution are slot manufactures who don’t work well together. If players aren’t able to use it on every system, that friction will kill that product, he said.
“I have to have an easy way to get money into the system,” Justice said. “Global Payments controls the process from start to finish. Gaming transactions have a special code that’s used for Visa and MasterCard and any transaction that processes through that code flows back to the financial institution that put the plastic in your pocket.”
It’s up the financial institution to determine whether they want to allow that transaction. Some people will find when they’re trying to fund a solution with a credit card, there are 60 percent declines as there is with iGaming today, Justice said. Large card issuers don’t want to support thousands of dollars in wagers on sporting events or play on slots and table games, he said.
“Through our VIP preferred process, we underwrite the individual players and back that player with a limit that they’re allowed to transfer from their checking accounts back to the casino,” Justice said. “It’s not credit. We will move money from the financial institution to the casino. The challenge is that some percentage of customers don’t necessarily have the money in their accounts. If I want to play on Thursday but don’t get paid until Friday. This allows them to play because we’re guaranteeing the funds to the casino.”
With their VIP preferred system, Justice said they process nearly $8 billion a year for play in casinos, about half of the iGaming wallet across the various properties. It’s been in gaming for more than 20 years and works with its sister division, Heartland, for the rest of the casino resort services.
“I think this is more of a game changer going to mobility than it was going from coin to TITO (ticket-in-ticket-out),” Justice said. “You think about the transition going to TITO back in the day there wasn’t anything like it. That transition period was very bumpy. I think the transition period here with mobility is amazingly rapid because everybody already uses their phone checking in on an airplane or at a hotel.”
If someone is playing blackjack and has an 11 showing and a dealer has a 5 and the player wants to double down but doesn’t have the money, the system can deliver money to the game within seconds without stopping the game or losing momentum, Justice said. It works the same at the slots if someone who is older and frail and doesn’t want to get up to get more cash from an ATM.
Responsible gaming elements positioned in the device make sure those self-excluded or disassociated aren’t playing, Justice said. It allows players to set up their own limits.
“People will have much greater convenience in their ability to play and it’s going to meet the expectations they have from using these devices and these type of applications in every other industry,” Justice said. “There experience will be improved, and it’s going to be done in a responsible way that ensures we’re meeting all of the rules and regulations and deliver a system to the players that allows them to participate with a lot more self-control.”
