Nevada may be on its way to allowing remote sign-up and verification of cashless payment accounts in the state’s casinos, to lessen the bottleneck customers face when they try to do so in person.
The Nevada Gaming Control Board held a 70-minute workshop Thursday afternoon to discuss the proposal, with members showing some support. It’s expected to come before the three-member board at a regular meeting in the future, while the Nevada Gaming Commission has the final say.
The request was made by Sightline Payments, which in June launched the world’s first property-wide casino cashless payment system at Resorts World Las Vegas. Patrons can pay for anything at the property from slot play, table games and sports betting to restaurants, retail, and entertainment without the need to access cash.
The workshop did not cover allowing remote registration for sports and horse wagering accounts. Those are expected to continue requiring in-person set up in casinos, unlike what is allowed in other states.
Sightline co-founder Omer Sattar pushed Nevada to change its regulations for in-person verification to match those the state has allowed for online poker since 2013. Since the June rollout at Resorts World, the consumer experience because of long waits in line “has been far from optimal,” he said.
“Our options at Resorts World were to launch the product that we knew was not optimal, or wait six or nine months. Resorts World rightfully decided it was better to launch the product and continue to enhance it,” Sattar said. “We and our competitors that are payment providers in Nevada have spent a lot of time thinking about what is the optimal flow.”
The process should take about three minutes or less to download a mobile app, create an account, fund an account, and be fully verified so the account can be used at a slot machine, table game, or non-gaming amenity, Sattar said.
“At Resorts World, primarily because of the ID verification issue, in the absolute best of cases the time was six minutes,” Sattar said. “In reality, the time was more like two hours. That included paper forms being filled out, people writing Social Security numbers on pieces of paper and handing them to cage personnel, and cage personnel trying to identify each person by looking at their ID. Our partners have been quite successful, but the experience from a user perspective [hasn’t been]. The lines have been hundreds of people long waiting to enroll and fund and play. That’s what we’re trying to solve over here.”
Sattar said such remote registrations and verifications can be done with technology used in other industries, without showing someone an identification. Sightline is regulated in 50 states by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Sightline has opened 230,000 accounts in Nevada and does checks to ensure Social Security numbers and identification are proven true. Its Nevada partner, Bank of George, wouldn’t allow an account to be set up without such verification, Sattar said.
Sightline executives cited an Oct. 19 memo from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, that describes non-documentary methods for verification of identifity. Board members asked whether Sightline would agree to customers using technology to remotely submit their driver’s license to further verify their identity. Sattar said it’s acceptable to do a digital upload of a driver’s license or passport.
Getting approval, however, won’t happen without facing opposition.
Station Casinos attorney Marc Rubinstein said FinCEN allows remote verification for online gaming but now regulations allow it for those seeking to use cashless payments within casinos themselves. That would be a violation of anti-money laundering laws, he said.
“We do not dispute what is permissible for online gaming,” Rubinstein said. “Federal law indeed requires in-person validation of a government-issued ID in order for a terrestrial casino transaction.”
That immediately drew some skepticism from board members on why FinCEN would one say one is legal and the other isn’t. It would also mean that similar verification used in seven other states for both tribal and commercial casinos would be illegal, and FinCEN has not stepped in on those cases, board members said. There are 30 jurisdictions that allow remote setup and verification for online gaming, officials said.
“It is a nuisance for players to wait in a queue when they could easily do this remotely, which they already do [for online poker],” said board member Phil Katsaros. “To not allow for that in the terrestrial world where that player has to come into the casino, and I know the commission is on the record saying we don’t want to discourage people from coming to casinos. This would actually encourage it because they sign up for it and theoretically thereafter they want to go to the casino. It doesn’t detract in any way. Much has been on the record in discussion on the sports wagering side of the aisle. This doesn’t touch that. I am supportive of this concept but not necessarily to this exact language. I would like the opportunity for us to tweak internally and put out another draft so it is then brought back to us for consideration.”
Board Chairman J. Brin Gibson agreed the issue should be brought back to a regular board meeting in the future. Board member Brittnie Watkins said she would like to hear fully vetted arguments from both sides.
Rubinstein argued the opening of a new casino like Resorts World shouldn’t be used as a measuring stick for a cashless technology. It’s a staffing issue that everyone is facing, he said. “Resorts World, despite being the new shiny object, is no different,” Rubinstein said. “To use that as the justification to say all of these people were left standing around at Resorts World and that it hurts the utilization is not a good measuring stick.”
Station Casinos has been one of the biggest opponents of Nevada adopting igaming — a stalled proposal that’s been pushed by Strip resorts. Casinos that cater to locals, and pubs with slot machines, fear it could take away from their businesses.
