JCM Global wants the gaming industry to know it’s more than just a cash-handling company. It’s also one of the largest suppliers of systems in the global casino industry and is showcasing that at G2E.
JCM showcased its ICB ASAP, which automatically process assets.
“JCM has always been a quiet company that goes about its business, doesn’t ruffle feathers and keeps working toward the goal of growing and expanding,” said Dave Kubajak, senior vice president of sales, marketing, and operations at the technology transactions company. “And over the last 20 years, JCM has quietly grown into the third largest systems’ company in the gaming industry. Whenever you see companies talking about the number of machines they have under their system management, you think of the big guys, but companies like JCM that operate in the background might not be their first thought.”
Kubajak said JCM always spotlights its technology at G2E and the systems are the center of their booth this year. The other pieces include peripheral technology, electromechanical equipment, such as bill validators, recyclers, and ticket printers. The third is count-room and cash-processing technology that employs robotics and high-speed sort equipment.
“The systems technology connects all the pieces together to bring a much higher level of value and much larger amount of data that the end user can use to make better business decisions,” Kubajak said. “It allows our customers to earn more revenue and profit and operate efficiently, while needing less labor. The data the systems collect can help people run their business better, which immediately improves their bottom line.”
JCM installed its first system in the early 2000s, which connects to the peripheral devices in the slot machines at MotorCity Casino Hotel in Detroit, Kubajak said. It was a joint project working with management to install the ICB Intelligent Cash Box System, which monitors and tracks financial data inside the slot machine. It tracks all the tickets and cash that go into the machines and produces various financial reports for the property.
“(MotorCity) was having some challenges and operational issues and wanted to solve them,” Kubajak said. “They said, ‘You’re the company that counts and verifies all the money and would be a great choice to track and provide financial data.’”
Kubajak said they put in the ICB solution and it started to grow and expand. Over the last 20 years, they’ve gone from that one system to more than 300 locations. They monitor and track more than 261,000 electronic gaming machines and will be expanding into table games as they promote their bill validator, TITO printer, and table-game products, Kubajak said.
“It started with ICB with financial tracking and management of the cash process and when we acquired Future Logic in 2014, we acquired their PromoNet that does promotional ticketing. That has expanded nicely for us and helps us provide customers the ability to market to their players while they’re playing the game. They can do direct messages, advertising, and promotions. Targeting players while they’re on your casino floor and cross-market to them to expand their time at the property is critical. It’s about getting them to have a better experience and enjoy their time at the property and have some unexpected happiness by issuing them real-time promotions. That catches their attention.”
As part of their Future Logic acquisition, JCM also offers Ticket2Go, a ticket-in ticket-out system (TITO) that it operates in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
“It’s not something we talk a lot about in the U.S., because it was created for the international market where they’re looking for more cost-effective and economical solutions for TITO,” Kubajak said. “It gives operators a chance to upgrade their legacy machines that may be coin-based or never had any type of system installed in them. We install a network that allows them to bring TITO to a machine that only accepts coins or banknotes, but never had a way to pay out. It’s a system that has expanded for us nicely on the international scene.”
JCM’s FUZION is the consolidation of all of the systems’ technology and combined it into one package, Kubajak said. It’s operating in California and newly installed in Nevada, but growing.
“It will bring cashless technology to the players,” Kubajak said. “Not only will it help operators manage and track financials and financial reports and manage their assets, it gives them promotional ticketing and the ability to do virtual TITO, which we call iTITO. It allows for NFC-based or Bluetooth-based transactions at the slot machine using the mobile wallet. That’s the big buzz in the industry for G2E. Everybody’s showing cashless solutions. JCM has been involved in cashless for more than 10 years and we showed our original cashless solution to the industry back in 2017. We’re pretty excited about that last aspect of the system in bringing another cashless technology based around virtual TITO than through mobile wallet transfer of funds from banks.”
Kubajak said one of the great things about iTITO with FUZION is that because it functions like TITO, players can remain anonymous, since they don’t have to register with a bank or financial institution. They just have to download an app that comes with their virtual wallet to hold a virtual representation or a TITO ticket, he said.
“It simplifies a lot of the financial reporting, because it functions under similar regulations as physical TITO,” Kubajak said. “It’s a promising technology and I think you’ll see it expand a lot over the next two to three years.”
