Effective Cash Handling Increases Profitability says Leading Operator

Leading gaming machine operator, Gamestec believes that safe and reliable cash handling helps ensure gaming machines are profitable for both the operator and licensee.  However, new security threats and changes in player behaviour mean that the Operator is constantly looking at ways to improve the cash handling process and make it as efficient as possible.  This can take the form of physical or electronic measures such as security encryption, to prevent fraudulent activity and a system of checks and balances to ensure there is no interference with takings during the collections process.

Mark Batty, Product Manager for Gaming at Gamestec, said: “All machines are backed by electronic meters so it is immediately obvious if the machine has been tampered with. We have a series of checks and balances in place during the collection process to make sure that all money collected from the machines is banked. When sums of money in excess of £1000 are being handled it is prudent to make sure there are strong security measures in place.”

On site security is also a big issue whether people are physically attempting to break into the machines or are using advanced electronic devices to tamper with payouts or with the coin and note acceptors.

Mark continues: “We are constantly working with our suppliers to make sure we keep on top of these security threats. A good example of this is, recently there had been reports of increased attacks on coin mechanisms, to prevent this continuing we have fitted extra security plates on the coin mechanisms across the estate.  As well as looking at ways to physically stop attacks, such as using a rubber sealant to protect electronic plugs from attack by electronic devices, we are also constantly updating machine encryption software to prevent attacks by electronic devices.”

Effective cash handling is extremely important in legitimate machine play too. Over 70% of fruit machine players use notes rather than coins to play and this has led to hopper starvation issues, as most machines only pay out in coins even if they accept notes.

Mark says: “To make sure machines are maximising profits it is really important that hoppers are kept topped up as machines will stop accepting notes if hoppers are not refilled, which puts players off using the machine and results in declining revenue.  However, we appreciate that some licensees, especially in pubs going through  financially challenging times, it can be difficult to put aside floats of up to £500 a week.  With this in mind, Barcrest and Bell Fruit have started producing machines which pay out notes thus reducing the amount of coin float required. These machines are new to the market, but early results are encouraging and Gamestec is actively supporting this innovation in conjunction with our customers.”