The no-card future

Most of the attention at G2E – and properly so – is on products you can buy and hopefully put on your floor in the next 12 to 18 months. But G2E is also a place to see emerging technology that could be a game changer sometime in the future. Note that none our major ideas today were instant hits, from ticket printers to LED screens. It took them a while to reach the magical ‘tipping point’ popularized by author Malcolm Gladwell in his 2000 book of the same name. It’s that time when ideas, products or technologies start to become widely adopted.

Here at the Expo, I believe that the next ‘next big thing’ will eliminate something that was the ‘next big thing’ 30 years ago: the player tracking card. That may sound like heresy to those of us who’ve made our careers by refining direct mail, determining total player value, analyzing slot play, spotting fraud and encouraging our very best players to return. But getting rid of the card should only make these techniques better; it doesn’t mean abandoning them.

Most folks wonder why we can’t track play without using ancient mag-stripe swipes. According to the experts here at G2E, relief is coming soon – but not right away. There are four major systems suppliers: Aristocrat, IGT, Konami, and Scientific Games (Bally). Each one of them are working on cardless solutions now and will be happy to show and demo their functionality in their booths. But they all say the tipping point is about two years away, and will come in stages.

First, a bit about technology. The first major conceptual step in this direction was facial recognition (yes, the slot industry was ahead of Apple). However, this idea has been largely abandoned due to cost and privacy concerns. That leaves three possible solutions for ditching your card:

1. Near Field Recognition: This is similar to, but better than, RFID, in that it can sense an object nearby. The best current example of near-field recognition are cars that start while your keys are in your pocket. Both Aristocrat and Konami are moving in this direction. The advantage is that most phones now act as NFR generators. In other words, when your phone is near a machine, the machine knows it’s you. Clark Warren, VP of Systems at ATI, likes this concept since today’s players value their phone almost more than their wallet or purse. Thus they’re not likely to leave it lying around like the thousands of player cards abandoned every day in casinos. Steve Walther, Senior Director of Product Management at Konami, agrees, and thinks we’ll see trials of this technology soon. He also joined his competitors in predicting that widespread adoption is probably 24 months off.

2. Beacons: most folks know that their cell phone “pings” off a nearby tower so you can make and receive calls. But another name for those towers is “beacons.” And they can be effective, even when they are very small (or embedded in a slot machine). They can “sense” that you are near if you carry a phone, similar to NFR. This is the direction IGT is headed with their “Cardless Connect” brand. Sina Miri, the VP of Casino Systems likes this concept since they can use the same technology for other future apps like locators, messaging and the like. He, too, thinks mass adoption is two years away, but excited that several properties are now actively pioneering this technology including corporate Stations and MGM.

3. Optical: Otherwise known as QR Codes, they’re those square black-and-white doodles that you can scan to find a website, or learn more about whatever objects you line up in the lens of your cell phone. Bally (aka Scientific Games) is using Optical both ways. They can generate a QR Code on the slot machine that you can scan with your phone, or you can have a QR Code on your phone that the slot machine can scan.

Bally is not certain which technology will be accepted most readily by the public, so they’re covering all bets. In their booth, they show a bezel that supports Beacons, NFR and Optical. Let the winner emerge, and they’re ready. CEO Derik Mooberry is a fan (largely because he’s an avid Starbucks consumer and loves their tap and go features).

Note that cardless and electronic wallets/cashless like Starbucks are different. But all these executives agree that gaming will probably take things slowly, in steps. The first cardless solutions will also feature a card reader alongside of it for months and months, and most likely cashless will wait for the success of cardless first.

For those of us who’ve picked up literally thousands of abandoned cards lying on the machines or floors in our careers, this can’t come soon enough.

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