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Cash Handling
Operators and manufacturers are spoiled for choice when it comes to bill acceptors. The technology most casino-ready acceptors boast is staggering, and all without noticably sacrificing speed for accuracy.
There are many companies making acceptors, of course, and most of them have benefits unique to that manufacturer, so it's hard to choose when faced with quality on every side.
We demand great things from bill acceptors as both customers and manufacturers. As As Tom Nieman, JCM's Senior Vice President of Operations explains: "The amazing thing in this business is that balance between very, very high acceptance rates but for goodness sake, don't take anything counterfeit! You can tighten up the security but it's then going to give a more difficult read even to legitimate bills. If it's backed up to take the legitimate bills the first time, it's reduced the security features just slightly to be able to take that. As we all know, currency exists in our pockets and wallets and it gets wet and sweaty and greasy and oily… In a casino they can be smoky, dusty and dirty. And we keep sticking them into these devices and expect them to operate absolute at optimum 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It's a bit of a challenge. And everyone wants it at a price point and fitting into a tiny space… It's a delicate balance of form and fit, price point, security, and high rate of acceptance. You have to get those all in balance to have a successful device."
That's the magic recipe for success all manufacturers strive for, and it really is a challenge to constantly improve, move forward and stay ahead of ever more sophisticated forgeries.
Eurocoin is a respected supplier of casino and amusement products – including bill acceptors – since 1973, when it was founded by Tom Veitch. Now it's run by his two sons, and Colin Veitch is Sales Director. He concurs with Tom's thoughts on the demands on validators: "A huge amount of the companies making bill acceptors invest a large amount of time in trying a massive cross-section of bills. It's not enough to get the new Euro bank notes and set up your note table on that; you have to get street-quality bank notes and old, creased, crumpled ones because that's what people bring to the casino in their wallets. You have to measure that first-pass percentage on the entire range of notes, and that's a genuine challenge for any business.
"All bill acceptors are only as good as the last fraud they saw; their technology is designed to beat the cheat. But as we know from standard European news, the number of frauds on the Euro note has doubled in the last 12 months because the cheats are getting better at it. It comes down to how the bill acceptor technology is future-proofing itself against the next generation of frauds."
So what does a validator need to actually do to succeed in this competitive market? Colin explains, "Undoubtedly the benchmark a casino slots director wants to see is percentage first pass acceptance on a bank note, and the corollary to that is that it must still detect all known frauds. The speed of the bill acceptor's ability not only to make a decision on the validity of the note but also the end-to-end note speed, which is when you introduce the first end of the note to when the back end of the note has disappeared through into the stacker."
Of course, the casino environment is a uniquely sheltered one for a bill acceptor to exist in; the climate is generally constant, security is top-notch and it's usually indoors, so they do not need three inches of armour surrounding it in the same way as, for example, a Coke machine at a bus stop might.
Historically, bill acceptors entered the gaming arena almost 20 years ago when JCM started working with IGT to marry their respective technologies. Tom expands on the story: "JCM was the first company to get into the gaming industry when a young guy came out of the parent company in Osaka, named Aki Isoi. He was sent to go find more business, and was in North America going to various places; someone suggested he go to Atlantic City for a weekend, and while he was there he talked to some slot guys and the idea of slapping a bill validator on the side of a slot machine was born. Aki started working with IGT; the first ones were nothing more than a bill acceptor bolted on to the outside of the machine's body, that's the very first ones here in Las Vegas. But Aki started working with key people at IGT and got the device implemented right into the interior design of the slot machine. So the footprint that was created from that really set the bar for the industry of how you had to fit inside."
Here's a round-up of what's available at the moment from the leaders in the industry.
CashCode
Industry stalwarts CashCode have a wealth of product to be proud of, and new product on the way.
In their current line-up is the FrontLoad (fixed width), FrontLoad (multi-width), BackLoad (horizontal), Stackerless (fixed width) and Stackerless (multi-width) to name a few.
CashCode has a reputation as one of the top two or three manufacturers around the world. Despite strong references from product users in Europe, South America, South Africa and Asia, CashCode products will show significant validation rate differential with competitor products – up to 30 per cent in some instances.
CashCode has five separate criteria for validation of notes versus other products that have four or three criteria – that point of difference is the message we are delivering to the gaming machine OEMs and operators.
In pricing, they apparently stack up well against competitors, but it’s in the area of validation quality where the company expects to stand out.
CashCode's bill validators stand out from the competition, they say, because of a number of points, including: patented multi-color optic sensors inside patented Sense-a-Click, patented self-centering transport guides, patented non-contact inductive sensors and dielectric sensors to maximize counterfeit detection resulting in highest security in the industry, an excellent validation rate of 98% on first insertion and validation software updates with Smart-Stick memory.
Their new FrontLoad Standard is being released later this year, which was apparently designed specifically for international gaming market requirements.
No doubt the new FrontLoad model will have been moved forward by the company's ethos, which is to listen to customers and determine exactly what they want from a validator; this amounts to universal design (so one model supports any country or currency), fast transaction speed, superior validation technology, recognition of frauds for any currency, standard footprint and compatibility for retrofit design, comprehensive communication protocol offering wide variety of statistical data and more. Whatever their customers need, CashCode are there.
GPT
With over 20 years experience, Global Payment Technologies is a leading player in bill validators for the gaming market.
Fast note validation means a happy customer and more money in the bank for the operator. The SA-4 is not just quick – it is secure, low maintenance, TITO enabled and has a four-way barcode reader. And just as important for customer and operator satisfaction, acceptance rates are high, up to 97-98% for the Euro on casino floors.
The SA-4 is also an ideal upgrade solution for existing GPT Bill Validators (including G2, G2+ and Argus bill validators) already out there in casinos. This economical, easy to fit upgrade solution has now been placed in casinos in the Far East, Europe and South America to name but a few.
GPT has also just launched its new lower-cost bill validator, the Falcon. The Falcon is a successor to GPT's highly successful Aurora bill validator; created in the same envelope and with enhanced processing and validation speeds, integrated barcode reader, plus the high security features synonymous with GPT bill validators. The Falcon is ideal for use in gaming machines, as well as payment terminals and its high security, lower cost and enhanced speeds have impressed.
In response to market needs, high capacity note stackers have been produced, available from 200 to 1,000 notes for the Falcon, and from 600 to 2000 for the SA-4. They are ideal not only for gaming, but also for the payment terminal and kiosk markets.
And the thrills do not stop here, watch this space as Global Payment Technologies will be previewing their new products at G2E Las Vegas later this year. Their new bill validator for the gaming market will thrill manufacturers and operators alike. With the casino market in mind, new innovative features have been designed to secure high performance, low cost of ownership and featuring a new optical engine. Watch this space and prepare to be dazzled!
JCM
JCM's core product is undoubtedly the Universal Bill Acceptor (UBA), a validator created with a universal application in mind as it has an 85mm width, which is large enough to accept even England's £50 note. It has many strengths though, as Tom Nieman, JCM's Senior Vice President of Operations, explains it best: "We provided a device to the OEMs where they didn't have to stock the varying width bezels based on the currency. Prior to the UBA, wherever you were going to send this you had to put the head on it that corresponded to the currency you were going to be using it for; if it was in one location headed for another using another currency, that portion had to be swapped out. The UBA presents itself with an 85mm width which was built for the English £50 sterling. It has a centreing mechanism, so obviously if you stuck in US currency at 67mm it has a lot of space on the sides. It has the ability to take the note, centre it and run it through the validation process.
"If it needs that centreing process and it might take three attempts to centre it, it could have a slower processing speed to it, and that has been an area competitors have attempted to exploit, saying 'Well we can process the note faster'. In certain situations, it probably does, but the question to ask is does that have a financial impact to the earning capabilities of the machine? Because it takes two-tenths of a second more, does the customer not spend the money they intended to spend in the device? I suspect not.
"The bottom line is the UBA functions at between a 98 per cent and a 99.5 or -6 per cent acceptance rate when properly calibrated, cleaned and operating correctly.
It's a good, solid device which has served the industry well, continues to serve it well, it has a good set of sensors in it in a balance between optical and magnetic.
"I think the biggest plus of UBA is that it has ICB, the Intelligent Cash Box. That means it has a module within the validator that takes all the data and information of each note and sends it to a small computer or storage facility on the cash box; it also send it through the game to the back-end system. So they know slot machine XYZ has taken this much money and this much currency. On our system, that information is also held in the cash box, so when the box gets pulled the data comes with it. It goes to the soft count room, sits on a docking station and all that data is downloaded. Then you empty the box, put it in the count-sort machine and you have three points of check and balance: you have the data that went to the back-end system, the data in the cash box that was downloaded independently, and you have the reality of what actually was in the cash box. Those three points of data have to reconcile. So it gives the casino operator today far greater accountability and control than they've ever had.
"In addition, the ICB system documents when that cash box was pulled, how long it took to get to that docking system and count. Also, the cash box doesn't need to be assigned to a particular slot machine; it gets assigned to that asset number when it's inserted into the machine, so when an empty one is put into a slot machine, the asset number of that slot is assigned to that cash box. That cash box cannot then be assigned to another slot machine until it's been downloaded and emptied. This was, you don't get 'hot boxes' going out onto the floor.
"This ICB technology truly distinguishes us in the industry because no-one else has it. That doesn't mean they won't be introducing it soon, but we've been in the marketplace now for a couple of years and we know from experience, they can see the advantages of ICB immediately. When Steve Wynn was planning his Wynn property here in Vegas he sent his people out to find the greatest technology in every aspect of casino operation; they determined their future was best spent fully committed to JCM bill validators, but quite honestly it was the ICB that really captured their imagination."
That's not everything JCM have up their sleeve, however; the company has recently put an innovation called Trident into production, which is taking a bill validator mentality and simply applying it to table games. Expressed like that, you wonder why no-one's done it already. Over to Tom: "Instead of the dealer taking money he's collected and paddling it down into a free-fall box, he can drop it into the mouth of a wide bezel that grabs the money, validates it, stacks it in a cash box and gives them real-time accountability of the cash that's been taken in table games. We're implementing this in North America right now, then we'll begin to expand it internationally.
"It's just taking off and we're about to do a full casino installation of Trident in California, and we have five sites operating in three different US jurisdictions, and it's done so well. It doesn't affect the dealer or the players at all, and now the casino knows on a real-time basis exactly what they're taking at the tables."
Watch this space for news on Trident coming soon…
Money Controls
Colin Veitch, Sales Director of Eurocoin, sums up Money Controls' Ardac bill acceptor beautifully: "One of the reasons Eurocoin has added Ardac to its portfolio is this is a genuine 21st century technology; the way they are doing their sensing is quite unique, quite different to anybody else in the marketplace now, and we're proving out in the field that this is a genuine advantage for clients. It already meets the first-pass percentage, and meet and exceed the end-to-end speed. What's unique about the Ardac is it's taking a full width colour scan, taking 200,000 data points on the note and making its decision based on that. There's no other bill acceptor in the world that's doing that, and that gives the client a huge amount of confidence." Praise indeed, and from a man who knows his validators. Eurocoin is the distributor for Ardac in the European casino industry.
Money Controls believes the Ardac Elite, its latest bill and ticket acceptor, is one which takes bill acceptors to a new level, thanks to its state-of-the-art optoelectronics and its ultra-high-speed digital processing techniques.
Whereas traditional acceptors, typically, have to work with less than 10,000 data readings per bill, Ardac Elite has 200,000, covering the whole of a bill up to 85mm wide. And, as well as taking a true ‘full-colour’ image of the bill, Ardac Elite also scans the whole bill using UV and IR light, enabling it to identify the latest in-built security features anywhere on the bill, unlike competitive products which have ‘blind spots’. All this enables much more accurate note tables to be produced, resulting in the highest acceptance of street-grade bills and rejection of frauds.
In the last few months, Ardac Elite has undergone extensive trials with OEMs and in casinos around the world to confirm Money Controls’ claim that it is ‘the world’s best bill acceptor’. Results from these ongoing trials show acceptance rates of street-grade bills in excess of 97 per cent. The company is now using data from these trials to push that rate ever closer to 100 per cent. The trials have resulted in Ardac Elite being approved by many of the world’s leading gaming machine manufacturers. The exceptional performance in the trials, coupled with the ease of integration into existing machines, has also led to a number of retrofit programmes which are currently under way in casinos in Europe and South America.
It’s not just Ardac Elite’s acceptance rate that is attracting the attention of casino operators and OEMs: the ease of bill insertion, the minimal cleaning required and the proven Ardac heritage all add to its appeal. As does the ease and speed of updating both core firmware and note tables in situ, thanks to Ardac Elite EP, the USB hand-held, battery-powered update device.
That’s a compelling proposition, but Money Controls reckons Ardac Elite offers the casino operator even more, as Ron Rollins, Vice President Global Gaming, explains: “Our initial goal was to achieve ever-higher acceptance rates, without risking fraud, and deliver a product with low cost of ownership to the end users. But we wanted to go further than this, in particular by making more use of the data that Ardac Elite collects. As a result, we now have the ability to truly understand the nature of why a note rejects: it could be folded, torn, a fraud, ink-stained, etc. The amount of information we are able to gather and share with the casinos is truly amazing.”
Looking ahead, Ron revealed the company’s development strategy: “Money Controls has always had a reputation for innovation, and product development is our highest priority. We are continually developing our support tools to enable simple, yet effective means of providing software updates and greater floor analysis. This helps our customers realize the full potential of our products in the field.
“Another exciting field of development is imaging, as we believe there is yet further value to be gained through information capture for ourselves, OEMs and casino operators, in terms of validation, integration and usage tracking.
“In response to a request from one of our major customers, an upstack version of Ardac Elite is in development and is expected to be available later this year,” concluded Ron.
wh Berlin
wh Münzprüfer Berlin GmbH offers a full range of payment systems for gaming, amusement and casino machines, including state of the art products ranging from mechanical and electronic coin selectors with a variety of adjacent products to hoppers in different sizes, contactless payment systems as well as bank not readers. wh Münzprüfer also presents the Nanoptix PayCeck III TITO Printer which is the perfect solution for fixed length tickets in the Casino industry.
The proven electronic technology of our 3.5” electronic coin selector EMP 800 is now also available with fast coin acceptance. The EMP 830 /Q v5 allows to accept up to 6 coins/sec. Additional coins or tokens may be programmed on site with the teach mode function. Also with this fast coin acceptance sorting of coins is possible. The sorters SRT 400 and SRT 500 for two- or three-way sorting are available for this application.
Visit www.whberlin.de for more information!
MEI/Suzo
Suzo has been in the component business for over 50 years, and together with Happ it has grown to become the world’s largest component supplier. The company’s major focus is on the gaming and amusement industries, through which it offers over 30,000 different components, so Suzo can offer solutions to practically all component requirements; it is also company policy to offer best in-class products. This can also been seen in the choice of partners for banknote readers, namely MEI.
For high-end banknote reader solutions – as required in gaming machines – Suzo offers the MEI SC83. This banknote acceptor is indeed revolutionary, being very different to the standard competition. This results from how MEI designed the product. To do this, MEI spent considerable researching the requirements / improvements the casino market is looking for. The marketing department of MEI brought back considerable information gained first hand from casino operators and this resulted in the SC product. To-date, MEI has sold over 250,000 units in the USA with many casino groups preferring MEI. In Europe, casino groups have been testing the SC83 with excellent results. For example, at Holland Casino the test showed an acceptance of 800,000 notes with not a single jam or fraud. Marcel Oelen, Managing Director of Suzo, stated, “We have a strong history in the gaming industry. With products like the MEI SC83 we are sending a signal to the market place that we support innovation and progress to ensure the further benefit of the industry. The MEI SC83 brings many new features to a product. Our sales department has received much interest from the market place for the SC83”. Indeed, the SC83 has many new features. The new technology ensures very high note acceptance (standard 98% and above) and optimal features against fraud. The fact that the acceptor head is only half the length means that the possibilities of any note jam are halved immediately. Indeed, the way the SC83 has been designed is so that note jams become a thing of the past. Furthermore, the banknote is stacked at the front of the note stacker. Two windows in the stacker thus allow the operator to check the last note entered without having to open up the stacker... very handy to clear any problems on the casino floor. Coming back to the acceptor head, there is not a single belt (it's all wheel-driven) ensuring longevity and simple functionality.
