Advanced Gaming Kiosk Solutions

There is a trend for advances in kiosks seen commonly disbursed through the casino floors to bring them to a new level by introducing innovative and new technologies that are part of the leader "cashless payment" trends in society through proprietary payment system technologies coupled with "gaming industry "trends driven by proprietary gaming system technologies. Introduction of a forward thinking kiosk solution such as that developed by Sightline Payments and Bally Technologies not only materially improvements on what consumers and operators are already accustomed to, but lays the foundation for a future roadmap that can fundamentally change the way payment systems and gaming systems communicate with one another providing invaluable information to an operator so they may better serve their customer.

Payment Trends
Debit cards, credit cards, and ACH / check usage on the internet or at brick and mortar retailers have proven that removing physical cash from the transaction life cycle has many benefits to both the merchant and the consumer. Many retailers also offer a loyalty card that is used at the time the purchase is made with the consumer's payment instrument of choice. Many believe the next wave of payments innovation has begun driven by the consumers and merchants desire to facilitate payments through their mobile phones using NFC (near field communication) and several of the mobile handset makers, card companies, merchants and mobile carriers have recently launched Mobile NFC pilots.

Why Will Payments Go Mobile?
A credit or debit card or loyalty card in your "physical wallet" can only communicate one way, however when you migrate it onto a smartphone you have a two way real-time communication channel to a consumer's "mobile wallet" opening the door to a whole new avenue of payments, coupons, rewarding and driving loyalty. Gartner forecasts that 190 million people will adopt mobile payments worldwide by 2013 and that the proportion of smartphones in the overall installed handset base will approach 90 percent by 2014. Adoption rates for mobile devices are accelerating and 2010 statistics are on track to be $ 100 billion and double, to $ 200 billion, in 2011 and are forecasted to reach almost $ 630 billion by 2014.

Gaming Trends
The gaming industry is one of the last holdout industries where you need cash to begin your play and when you end your gaming play by settling out with cash. ATM's and other ancillary payment services as debit & credit card advances and check cashing in casinos has been a conduit for the mass majority of patrons accessing cash for their gaming entertainment for more than 20 years. Statistics indicate that anywhere from 50-70% of a casinos revenue is from cash vended while a patron is within the concessions. As ticketing has become the industry standard on slots machines over the past decade so has the rapid proliferation of redemption kiosks as an efficient and labor savings means for casino operators to serve their guests.

A more recent trend over the past 5 years has been the migration of the ATM cash services onto these redemption devices as operators continue to look for ways to reduce costs and provide better service to their casino patrons. And while the migration of ATM onto redemption kiosks has accomplished some of the operator's goals there are numerous opportunities yet to be exploited regarding other forms of payment acceptance such as mobile phones and payments that vend tickets instead of cash. The tremendous cost savings and superior customer service and targeted marketing that can be realized from "cash" to "electronic cash" or in other words a "truly cashless" casino environment is immense-not much unlike in the retail industry on the internet or mobile phone.

A Sightline Payment & Bally Technologies Kiosk Vision
Integrating advanced payment systems with gaming systems onto casino kiosks has many advantages, including
(1) addressing emerging trends of consumer behavior towards more convenient payment forms using NFC on their mobile phones and richer targeted rewards
(2) imports labor savings and better customer service as in the case of the ancillary payment services that removals human intervention
(3) reduces other costs throughout the transaction lifecycle when you factor in device costs, cost of cash, and other 3rd party vendor costs
(4) provides a missing link of tracking payment choices by the patron to their behavior out on the gaming floor through the loyalty program
(5) in the case of redemption devices reducing the footprint by up to 40% saving valuable floor space
(6) serve targeted media through a media server
(7) incorporated facial biometrics to reduce fraud and mitigate need for presenting identification.

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Source by Kirk Sanford