One of the categories that is sure to attract a lot of attention at the upcoming Global Gaming Expo (G2E) in Las Vegas will be “cashless” gaming. But the topic is certainly not new. SAS (or Slot Accounting System) was developed by IGT years ago. It is the protocol used by all slot machines to communicate with systems. The current version (Version 6.x) was released in July of 2002 and included all the base technology required to do cashless transactions at a slot machine. But, other than a few trials, cashless has never made the jump from coffee shops and supermarkets to the casino floor. What’s changing now?
According to Ryan Reddy, IGT’s Senior VP for Systems and Payments, the pandemic was the real catalyst. “We have been pushing this into the market for a number of years. What really changed was when COVID hit,” he says, “It went from being suppliers pushing it into the market, to the market pulling it from suppliers. Surveys from AGA and others showed that once COVID arrived, players’ attitudes toward cashless changed. They don’t want to stand in line, they don’t want to touch an ATM or whatever else. What you’re seeing now is that everybody in the industry, from operators, suppliers, players and regulators, are all pushing for this. We think this (cashless availability) is soon going to become a factor in a player’s decision of whether they go to Casino X or Casino Y.”
IGT may have a leg up on some other suppliers since they’ve been perfecting this technology for nearly a decade. While we often think of them here as only a land-based slot machine supplier; the company also has a national and international business in lottery, digital and sports betting. In those vertical segments, IGT has been supplying this type of technology since 2013.
Ryan explains, “The way to think about IGT’s experience is that all of the initial hurdles like building a team, a structure, and integrating all these funding sources like PayPal, banks, credit cards, debit, etc. – we’ve already done. We’ve been providing all these offerings to our different verticals through ‘IGTPay.’ Now we are just introducing these features to land-based casinos.”
IGT actually has two products that have been available for a number of years. One is Resort Wallet and the other is IGTPay. All practical cashless slot systems will need a combination of these types of applications. Resort Wallet is the software that “holds” the funds. It works with the existing players club system transferring credits between the slot machine and the players club account. Most casinos use a limited version of this technology today to transfer free play and other promotional credits to their slot machines. The other component required for true cashless (like most of us use at retail stores) is funding through an outside source like your bank or credit card company. That product is IGTPay. The two work together to provide a complete cashless solution at the gaming terminal.
The fact that this technology has been commonplace in the non-casino world for years could really accelerate its adoption in the casino world. The player’s learning curve will be flat once the products are in place. That is beginning to happen. IGT announced earlier this summer that they’ve signed an agreement with Agua Caliente’s three casino properties in southern California to move forward. Implementation is on track to be operational there sometime in 2021.
Bill Oliver, the Chief Information Officer at Agua said, “We’re proud to be at the forefront of global gaming technology innovation with this new service and are excited to leverage Resort Wallet and IGTPay to power the industry’s most seamless loyalty program.”
At the heart of all these systems is the Casino Wagering Account or CWA. This is the vehicle where players can store their funds. SAS 6.0 provided the basic technology required, which it called Advanced Fund Transfers or AFT. They described it as “a secure technology for transferring funds between a gaming machine and a casino accounting system.” Again, this first opened the door to free play and many other promotions, but it is finally being applied to true cashless.
Beginning with the emergence of on-line sports betting and other digital gaming platforms, the Nevada legislature and the Nevada Gaming Control Board (which generally sets the tone for the rest of the nation) clarified relevant laws and regulations to allow cashless beginning in 2016.
Michael Ratner, Senior Director Sales Enablement at IGT, described the typical carded player introduction to cashless: “The key is to first register and open a CWA account. Typically, this would be done at the cage, but we foresee as this picks up there could be Cashless Wagering Registration Desks popping up on casino floors. Depending on the regulation and the jurisdiction, various forms of identification or information may be required. From that point on, once their account has been activated in their personal players account, they can use cashless.”
There are a variety of ways to fund a CWA account, from depositing actual front money at the cage or using more convenient methods like debit, credit or PayPal accounts right at the slot machine using IGTPay. They can then download these funds or credits to the machine, just like they do with Free Play today. Of course, this would all require a secure PIN number to be entered. Once play ends, the customer can either transfer the funds back into their CWA or they can simply pull their card, and they are automatically transferred back into that account.
Perhaps one of the biggest benefits of this technology (other than the convenience of funding play) will be the reduction of time spent processing jackpots. With this system, jackpots can be transferred instantaneously to the CWA account. IGT’s Advantage system has a W2G Accrual module that allows this to occur even on taxable amounts. With that feature (once players have earlier provided all their information), the system automatically issues W2Gs and monitors and implements all other IRS and AML requirements (Internal Revenue Service and Anti-Money Laundering). Ratner said, “It really allows players to self-serve their own jackpots.”
Another option for players who would like to use a digital version of their Players Card is to use IGT’s Cardless Connect. Instead of using a plastic card, it utilizes your own mobile phone and a Bluetooth connection. Once the player establishes a CWA account, they can simply tap their phone to the card reader and begin using Cardless Cashless. Ratner says, “It’s as though they had inserted a card, but now you are connected to the machine by your phone and all of the features of carded cashless that you would have by using your player’s card are available through your phone.” Both carded and non-carded transactions are stored in the player’s CWA account.
Have we reached the tipping point for casino cashless yet? That’s something that remains uncertain. IGT admitted that it’s hard to predict broad acceptance on a macro level today. But Ryan had some optimism from an installation IGT did on lottery terminals for a customer in Sweden this April. He said, “They launched it on more than 4,000 machines in April 2020 with full end-to-end cashless with IGT and by September 2020 more than 20% of their transactions were cashless. If you just look at that as an example, adjusting for a different country and culture, that blew us away. That one example told us that there’s something here, and it will move quickly when it happens.”
Hopefully it does translate, because the convenience and ease of operations gained by having cashless technology at the slot machine is long overdue.
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(Note: Resort Wallet and IGTPay are modules available only for existing, or future, customers using the IGT Advantage system.)
