Question of the Day - 23 November 2021

“While consumers have been accustomed to making mobile payments or using cards for nearly all other goods and services, land-based casino gaming has remained primarily dependent on cash transactions,” reported the American Gaming Association in 2020.

Then came a little thing called coronavirus and cash suddenly got cooties.

While America was, for the most part, hunkered down for the pandemic, gaming labs were busy developing new cashless technology. These new products were all the talk of the recent Global Gaming Expo. They're almost certainly the future. But will they replace casino cashiers and cages? We asked around and these are the answers we got.

Frank Legato, editor of Global Gaming Business and as conversant with gaming technology as anyone, told us, “No. I’d say the cashiers will remain in place for some time. There’s not a lot of technology out there yet to convert table games to cashless play, so they’ll be cashing out chips at the cage for some years to come. As for how far into the future, it will be a gradual transition. As in, years. Still a lot of old people, like me, want to do things the old way.”

Indeed, Casino Cash Trac CEO Kurt Williams, a man with a vested interest in ceaselessness, conceded recently, “We’ve had a chance to work with several of our customers as they started to introduce cashless on the floor. It’s a slow start and they expect it to be a slow start. It’s going to take awhile to get that adoption throughout the process.”

Of course, there are also non-health-related incentives for casinos to minimize cash, as it also enables them to minimize customer service (think of all those change persons you can lay off).

Still, says Williams, “You have an entire ecosystem in your casino right now. You have food and beverage outlets and table games, slot machines and kiosks and cashless at the front. Having that ability to use the same functionality throughout the process is vital. If I have to leave my cashless to move over into another form of ticket, use cash, or switch to credit card, it’s one more reason to avoid using that functionality altogether.”

He did, however, allow that it took a few years for ticket-in/ticket-out slots to be fully embraced and even now 20 percent of players prefer to play cash at the one-armed bandits.

Speaking on the same panel, Viejas Casino & Resort Vice President Ram Patrachari said that the preferred strategy is to target cashless adoption at high-end players. “We’re much more focused on the guest service. Typically, when you talk about cashless, you’re targeting the cream of the crop and higher tier, because if somebody does cashless and books $5 every time, it doesn’t make sense.” Another idea is to reward customers for employing cashless technology, much as Starbucks did.

AGA Vice President Jessica Feil sees both sides of the issue. “Adding digital payments to the casino floor provides a seamless resort experience. Importantly, digital payments options advance already robust responsible gaming efforts and increase transparency to support robust anti-money laundering efforts,” she told us. 

“That said – like TITO and kiosks already show – payments modernization is about adding options and providing customer choice. It’s not an either-or between digital and cash, it’s both. The pandemic certainly accelerated the adoption of digital payments. Today, eight states and many tribal properties provide players with payment choice and the AGA is focused on educating regulators, banks, and payment processors to support broader adoption.”

Boyd Gaming spokesman David Strow takes a conservative view, saying, “While we have seen a lot of exciting developments when it comes to cashless gaming, cash and cashiers are not going away any time soon.” On the plus side, “Cashless gaming offers convenience, especially for players who play larger amounts and/or higher denominations. It allows you to move seamlessly from game to game, skip waiting in line to cash out at the end of a visit, and avoid the inconvenience of getting cash or returning it to a bank account. Those customers who have tried Boyd Pay have told us that they appreciate the convenience that cashless gaming has to offer.” However …

“Having said this, the vast majority of gaming customers still use cash on the gaming floor. And while more customers will adopt cashless technologies over time, I think it is likely you will continue to see many customers preferring to use cash for the foreseeable future—and we will continue to cater to them.”

Finally, we asked multi-decade industry veteran Alan Feldman, who has seen figures like Steve Wynn come and go, what he thought of the issue. He took a progressive view. “Resorts World Las Vegas already bills itself as cashless although I believe they will transact in cash at the cage, but possibly on a limited basis,” Feldman said, “There is definitely a move towards a cashless society in many countries and here in the U.S., cash use is on the decline. I’m not certain I’d count cash out entirely any time in the near future, but cashless transactions are clearly preferred by consumers and businesses in virtually every sector.

Echoing Fiel, Feldman concluded, “For the gaming industry, removing cash reduces cost, reduces AML exposure (if other measures are in place) and increases security for everyone. In other words, I think the benefits outweigh whatever business risks might be associated with reducing the use of cash.”

So cashless is coming. But it’s not quite here.