by Dominik Berger and Iris Hauk / GRIPS

Competition has become fierce in the gaming industry in recent years. To achieve maximum profitability casinos need to activate the total potential of their slot floor, as slot machines are the most profitable games of casinos today. Slot machines have gone through many innovations to fulfill the requirements of exciting gaming experience players have towards them today. The result are multimedia machines that provide a high level of entertainment while keeping up the prospect of winning a considerable amount of money. Players want to enjoy this gaming experience with a high level of convenience. Casinos are therefore faced with high customer expectations and a fierce competition. Successful differentiation among casinos will mainly depend on extending a player´s gaming experience and increasing customer convenience while constantly improving the efficiency of the operation at the same time. Cashless Gaming will support casinos right with these efforts.

To increase operational efficiency and profitability, casinos need to reduce or even eliminate cash handling by introducing an electronic purse which works like real cash. Carnival City, the world´s first "Cashless Casino" operated by SUN International went live in January 1999 and has been very successful since its opening. All 1750 slot machines of the casino have been equipped with the GRIPS CRYSTAL WEB™ Smart Card based Cashless system. Increased pull frequency and customer loyalty as well as reduced operational costs are the main advantages of the system. Derek Panaino, Slot Manager of Carnival City stated: “Through ongoing teamwork of SUN International, GRIPS and machine manufacturers, large scale cashless gaming via CRYSTAL WEB™ is here...to stay. The gaming experience has been enhanced with an easier method of play which is also safer and cleaner. Customer response has been overwhelming and traditional coin players have stated that they will not go back to the “old” way. Revenues and improved bottom line speak for themselves.” The elimination of coins and tokens obviates the need for removing coins from the slot machine, transporting them to the counting room, counting or weighting them, wrapping or bagging the coins, transporting them to the vault and issuing them to the cashiers. The CRYSTAL WEB™ Cashless system therefore reduces operational costs by as much as 40 %. Cashless Gaming also improves the cashflow of casinos. A lot of coins are normally needed as change and for those wins, which are paid out directly by the slot. This capital tied up in floats is not needed anymore when going Cashless. Players also appreciate the easy and convenient usage of Smart Cards. Players can charge the card, which they get from the casino, by using bank notes at a terminal or slot machine and can then start playing right away. They just have to insert the card into the smart card reader which is embedded in the CRYSTAL WEB™ state-of-the-art player interface with a graphical display and keypad. Money will be loaded automatically from the card to the slot machine and winnings rebooked. Cashless gaming also makes it easy for players to move between slots with different denominations. In addition, they will no longer have dirty hands from coin handling. As well as for use at slot machines of the casino, the card also acts as an electronic purse when paying for meals, drinks and entertainment on the site and it is also used to collect loyalty points. Smart Cards also lessens the risk to players as they don't have to take cash with them. The easy usage of the CRYSTAL WEB™ player interfaces also enhances the slot experience. All types of messages and animations such as special events or happy hours can be broadcasted simultaneously to all slot machines on the floor and are displayed on the interfaces. Uniquely in the industry all player interfaces are connected directly to a standard Ethernet floor network that guarantees far lower maintenance requirements compared to other existing systems. Cashless Gaming also increases the gaming revenues of casinos due to faster play as Smart Cards avoid time consuming machine tilts and disturbance of players by clearance. These are all advantages, which players really appreciate and the customer response at Carnival City has been very enthusiastic - a survey has shown 96 % user acceptance. The suceess of Cashless Gaming in Carnival City has led to installations of the CRYSTAL WEB™ Cashless System also in the South African casinos Naledi, Thaba´nchu and Wild Coast. Further casinos which are planned to be equipped with CRYSTAL WEB™ Cashless are Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and SUN City.

Despite all the advantages Cashless Gaming involves, there is still some skepticism about its future in the gaming industry. That is, however, something that nearly every real innovation has to struggle with. Let´s think back to the 80´s when bill acceptors were introduced to the gaming industry. Many people thought that they wouldn't be accepted because most slot players were low coin gamblers who would never put a $ 20.00 bill in a slot machine. But they were wrong. Players appreciated the bill acceptor and its success is one of the reasons why slot machines have become the most profitable part of today's casino operations. CRYSTAL WEB™ Cashless system installations have already proven high acceptance by the players. The other major obstacle to overcome is the fear that cash transactions via smart cards are not secure. The GRIPS CRYSTAL WEB™ Cashless System provides a special security hardware placed into each slot machine that proofs the authenticity of each smart card and secures all electronic transactions by using sophisticated data encryption. As each slot machine has its own security hardware a network breakdown will not stop players from playing an additional advantage for casinos.

The Casino Baden legere, operated by Casinos Austria, has also been equipped with the CRYSTAL WEB™ Cashless system. After the field trial in this casino, installations of the CRYSTAL WEB™ Player Tracking and Cashless system in all other major Austrian casinos are planned in 2000/2001. Additional CRYSTAL WEB™ projects are under negotiation, which is a clear sign that more and more casino operators are interested in cashless gaming, which will be the next revolution in casino operations.