Focus on Global Payments: Making the cashless experience seamless

April 29, 2022 2:00 PM
  • Buck Wargo, CDC Gaming Reports
April 29, 2022 2:00 PM

Global Payments has positioned itself so that when all of their products are added together, no company can compare with what they offer.

“When you think about all of the different products and solutions that Global Payments provides to the gaming industry – both land-based casinos and online – there’s no competitor out there that can compare when you look at the overall cashless and self-service funding experience,” said Josh Swissman, founding partner at The Strategy Organization, a company consultant. “And when you have a broad offering where customers engage in multiple components, you drive an increase in engagement, which benefits both the player and the casino.”

VIP Preferred

It starts with VIP Preferred. It’s a funding solution for customers who don’t want to stop at the bank and withdraw cash before they enter the casino. Customers can conduct eCheck transactions on the casino floor to fund their gambling.

“That serves as a foundation for a number of different products,” said Swissman. “That piece has been around for a long time in the gaming industry and allowed Global Payments to have great market penetration. It has allowed customers to become familiar with VIP Preferred for an extended period of time, and that allows Global Payments to have this great database of users that numbers in the millions. I would find it hard to believe other casino funding companies have as robust a database as Global Payments does.”

VIP Financial Center

In the past, those eCheck transactions took place solely at the cage where enrolled customers could withdraw funds. But there’s been a number of enhancements, starting with the VIP Financial Center, where the player can withdraw cash through VIP Preferred via a kiosk rather than interact at the cage.

“Historically, if a player wanted to conduct a cash-advance transaction with a credit card, it was a two-step clunky process where they went to a kiosk and initiated the transaction,” explained Swissman. “Once that was done, a receipt was printed that the player would have to take to the cage where they would stand in like a second time to complete the transaction in order to obtain the funds.”

Global Payments, however, is the only company that can provide a completely self-service cash advance service instead of that two-step solution, he said.

The VIP Financial Center also carries out other kiosk activities such as ATM transactions, bill breaking, and TITO redemption.

“It’s an incredible piece of hardware and a light footprint in the casino,” Swissman enthused. “The real estate on the casino floor is incredibly valuable, and there’s an advantage to having a solution that has a smaller footprint on the floor.”

VIP Mobility

VIP Mobility is also a self-service solution and serves as Global Payments’ cashless solution.

“Just like the big transformation of shifting the eCheck transactions for VIP Preferred from the cage to the self-service kiosk, they’ve also allowed users that want cashless transactions and don’t want to deal with money at all, to conduct VIP Preferred eCheck transactions on their mobile device,” said Swissman. “Instead of the kiosks spitting out currency or the cashier giving you cash, this transfers an electronic balance to the VIP Mobility app by way of your VIP Preferred account. That balance can then be moved from the mobile device to the gaming device of choice, either slot machines or table games.”

What makes Global Payments the leader in this space is the way that transfer is made from the mobile device to the gaming device by the way of the bill validator. They’ve moved around the task that other cashless providers have out there in terms of creating a wagering account, Swissman said.

“There’s a lot of regulation tied to having this gaming wallet that interfaces directly with the casino operating system,” he pointed out. “Since Global Payments transacts directly with the bill validator, they avoid the necessity of creating a wagering account or gaming wallet. That allows for a lighter regulatory lift and it is easier to get integrated into the casino environment, whether it’s tribal or commercially regulated.”

Swissman noted that another differentiator is the Global Payments VIP Mobility solution is casino system-agnostic because it links directly to the bill validator.

“For those properties that have a specific CMS solution but want to go a different route for their cashless solution, they’re pigeonholed into a small handful of cashless solutions that integrate with a particular CMS,” he said. “If you go the Global Payments route, it opens the possibilities and interoperability in a much broader fashion.”

Choice 4

Global Payments’ Choice 4 is only available in certain jurisdictions at this time, but that number is growing, reported Swissman.

“What it allows the VIP Preferred user to do is defer the settlement of those eCheck transactions against their bank account for a set number of days,” he said. “That’s a popular value-add amongst the VIP Preferred users. Choice 4 is another offering that increases the engagement of the VIP Preferred member within this broader Global Payments ecosystem.”

Other differentiators

System security and integrity are additional differentiating factors for Global Payments, when viewed against the competition in the self-service and cashless gaming space, Swissman said.

The gaming division of Global Payments has built its products with bank-grade level security that is drawn from its other divisions and companies outside of gaming solutions, he added.

Global Payments goes through great lengths to nurture their account holders and explain the different components of the VIP Preferred and Global Payments ecosystem that exists at a casino.

“There’s a robust collection of email campaigns that helps target customers at various stages of the VIP Preferred life cycle or across different Global Payments offerings at the individual casino level,” said Swissman. “Those campaigns offer sophisticated gamified mechanics [through Engaged Nation] which increases retention.”

Global Payments offers personalized and customized videos and a Member Rewards Center that showcases the gamified content that educates and introduces products and services to their customers.

“As I Iook across the industry and see what competitors are offering in terms of a customer-engagement solution, no one is going to the lengths Global Payments is to deliver that seamless onboarding experience and ongoing customer engagement experience to increase retention and decrease defection or inactivity,” Swissman said.

“When you couple the broader customer email, video content and Member Rewards Center online portal, that has a great effect to increase customer engagement. The collection of all of that, nobody does that near as well as Global Payments. And all of the foundations are there.  This should be an important consideration for casinos when choosing a self-service or cashless provider.”

Global Payments offers responsible gaming solutions in line with what’s offered in other parts of the industry where customers are able to limit their transactions or close themselves off from transactions. If they want to limit themselves, they can set certain dollar-amount limits or time-based limits, said Swissman.

“There’s some incredible flexibility and customized ability that Global Payments can offer via its responsible gaming solution,” he assured.

From an anti-money laundering standpoint, Global Payments has a robust Title 31 solution, Swissman said.

In another benefit, Global Payments customers only have to sign up one time whereas competitor offerings are tied to location-specific wallets or wagering accounts, he explained.

“You have to sign up at every casino you go to with others but with VIP Preferred you only have to sign up one time so your balance follows where you go,” said Swissman. “That same balance follows you online to whatever online sports book or casino you go to that accepts VIP Preferred. That ease of use is an industry first and big differentiator.”