When Resorts World Las Vegas opened earlier this month, it was not only the first all-new casino on the Strip in 10 years, but also a preview of the future of gaming.
Billed as the first casino where guests can pay for anything at the property with cashless payments, the groundbreaking technology is integrated into all aspects of the Resorts World property. Patrons can avail themselves of everything from blackjack and steaks to T-shirts and slots by downloading the Resorts World app and using an e-wallet.
But how does that technology transfer to casinos that have been in existence for years, if not decades? Can cashless technology be retrofitted by older properties with legacy technologies?
Panelists Tuesday during “Casinos and the Digital Revolution: The New Way of Doing Business,” a session at the National Indian Tradeshow & Convention in Las Vegas, think it’s possible if all vested parties work together.
The Resorts World integration involved multiple companies working toward the ultimately cashless ecosystem by way of a collaborative blueprint.
“Bringing everybody together as early as possible is key to making sure you have an idea of what’s possible and what some of the constraints will be,” said Gaming Laboratories International Chief Commercial Officer Ian Hughes. “That collaboration, bringing the parties together in a testing laboratory — the regulator, the operator, the audience, the stakeholders — is very complicated.”
But necessary, Hughes added, to avoid any unforeseen problems.
For operators thinking about implementing a cashless system at a resort, it’s crucial to start with an outline. Sandy Leonard, Vice President, IT Project/Project Management Office for Resorts World, said sharing the company’s vision with its partners and even the Nevada Gaming Control Board was essential.
The NCGB was brought in eight months before the property opened, “which is kind of unheard of, to bring a regulatory (agency) into the whole process,” Leonard said. “We said, ‘Here’s our vision, here’s what we’re doing, here’s who are partners are.’”
Leonard added that Resorts met with the Gaming Control Board about every two weeks to keep it up to speed with the operator’s progress, which helped streamline regulatory approval.
Konami Senior Vice President and Chief Product Officer Tom Soukup said that any cashless system must account for older slot machines that require advance funds transfer and that the percentage of revenue slots generate versus table games also must be considered.
“At Resorts World, there’s a lot of revenue from table games,” Soukup said. “At some of the regional casinos, maybe slots account for eighty percent of the revenue, while twenty percent is from tables games. You have to decide how far that (digital) wallet is going to move, and then you have to figure out how to make it easiest for players, as frictionless as possible.”
Andrew Crowe, senior vice president business development for Sightline Payments, estimated that the time frame for implementing a cashless system (Sightline’s Play+ infrastructure is used at Resorts World) is about six months. But operators don’t have to “do everything at once,” Crowe said
“This could be something that you stage,” Crowe said. “For example, if you don’t have an app today, you can start out with an app that has the integrational ability to program and supports the cashless functionality, enrollment funding, pushing money out of slot machine and cashing out, and then you can add other modules of functionality going forward.”
