The EGC is being used as an alternative to the traditional scratchcard, and as Lottery Executive Director Ed Van Patten says: “Our EGC is flying off the shelves, which is a strong indication this is the kind of added entertainment value our lottery players are looking for in their lottery games.

“We anticipated a positive response to the game, but the sales and positive feedback from our players have gone beyond our expectations.”

So the signs are good that the technology is robust and interesting enough – not to mention affordable enough – to be used on a large scale already, despite being relatively young.

In fact, a US casino has just adopted the EGC as a promotional tool, and it’s unlikely to be the last. The MGM Grand Detroit has signed an agreement to use the cards in its 75,000ft2 property in a third-quarter promotion in 2006.

So the interest is there, from forward-looking operators. We grilled EGC’s Roger Holden about the product to see how it could fit into the modern casino…

Casino International: Explain to our readers what the card is, please?

Roger Holden: An electronic game card is about the size of a credit card and is a LCD (or liquid crystal display) card with a silicon chip inside, which allows you to play gambling games. For example, we can play Lucky 7s, we can play poker, we can play slots. Generally, lottery-type cards work like a lottery scratchcard, but instead of having one go on it the player can have up to 80 goes on it, so you end up with this multiple game. It’s like having 80 spins on a slot machine or 80 hands in a game of poker or 80 spins on a Lucky 7 machine; at the end of it, it will aggregate all the points that you’ve earned at it will say congratulations you’ve got these many points which then can be converted into cash or they can be converted into points that you can use in lotteries or casinos or in general sales promotions.

CI: So where would somebody buy one of these?

RH: Currently we are on sale in two United States State lotteries, so you can buy electronic gaming cards in Kansas and Iowa.

CI: How does it work with the lottery?

RH: In the UK, for example you’d go into your local newsagents and in the rack you see scratch card and you say ‘I want to buy a scratch card’, you pull one off the rack and you hand over your up-to-fivepounds, then you scratch it and you see whether you’ve won or lost. In Iowa or Kansas, as well as having paper-based products which have a very limited player experience and are all over in literally seconds, you can buy our extended play electronic game card which allows you to have up to 80 spins and the whole gaming process. The enjoyment of playing the game can last up to 10 minutes but if you decide not to play it in one go and put it down, it will remember where you are and you can pick it up later and continue your game. There’s a much longer play, extended play type of product with a lot more fun in engaging with it and a lot more enjoyment than simply scratching off some rubberised ink off a piece of paper.

CI: How do you see it working in a casino environment?

RH: Well we have two casinos which are using our cards at the moment. One is the MGM Grand in Detroit and the other is the Santa Ana Star casino which is a Native American casino in New Mexico. They’re currently using the cards in a promotional way, using our game cards like our slot machine cards or our poker game card and they are sending those out to those people who either play the slots or play poker in their casinos and saying play this game through and see if you’ve won a prize. If you’ve won a prize it will say how many points you’ve won, come and see us and we’ll tell you how many points, what that is worth, so that could be a glass of champagne it may be a free entry to a poker tournament it maybe a $100 on a slot machine, it might be a slot weekend where everything you do on the slots is paid for by the casino. There’s various different techniques to generate footfall, generate awareness, generating that playing sense of fun and enjoyment while you’re not at the casino by engaging these cards in promotional marketing strategies. But there’s another side to it. In Indian gaming we have a NIGC Class 2 license, which means we can actually sell these game cards just like we were a lottery, so we can sell them for money and you can play for money, but that’s only in Native American games.

CI: These cards are single use, are they not reusable at all?

RH: They are recyclable to the extent that they are biodegradable. But they aren’t recyclable to the extent that when they get recycled it reduces our security stability, therefore with the product we’re pushing that the product is highly reliable and highly secure. Our security features are extensive because you don’t get to work with the US state lottery unless you can prove you have a reliable and secure product. As soon as you make it reusable you jeopardise your security. Our credibility and our brand is so important to us.

CI: I’m assuming this is relatively expensive to do because it’s quite new.

RH: It’s not very expensive at all. Within the United States a big mailing pitch can cost up to $5, whereas our starting price with discussions with people is between $1.50 and $3 for 5,000 units. Obviously at $3 it depends what the card is, we’re talking 5000.When we are talking the US lottery and the people we’ve been talking to at places like MGM and Santa Ana, the more you order the cheaper they are, so there is an economy of scale which comes in, but at the most expensive they are only going to be 80p or £1.40 or something like that in sterling. If you’re talking about catching someone who is going to spend 50 or 60 bucks on your gaming table or on your slot machines it’s a relatively small price to generate that kind of response.

CI: That is cheaper than I thought it would be, I must admit. but surely if you’re pushing new technology, you’re absorbing your start-up costs into your early prices?

RH: Well we’re a NASDAQ listed company, we raised $13 million on the NASDAQ and that’s our working capital at the moment. You’re right, our intention is to recoup that over the long term for our investors, but you see when we start shifting 120,000 units through Kansas, and 180,000 through Iowa it’s very easy to get through the millions of multiples of units. Then as we become more sophisticated in the approach we’ll obviously maximise those kinds of economies and the people who buy most game cards will benefit the most.

CI: What about the durability of the product?

RH: So far we have not had any problems with the design or the size or abuse which I know is an issue which the slots manufacturers talk about. It is relatively simple to play and we are happy to send out samples to people, once you’ve played it you’ll realise it’s not an issue. If you can use a mobile phone you can use one of our gamecards, the buttons are as small as on a mobile phone. I don’t think there is a issue there with playing with, or enjoying the product.

CI: When the card was being created, was there an initial idea for which you thought, ‘I know what I can do with that’.

RH: Yeah, well the initial idea was, we were talking to people, both lottery and casino operators who said that scratchcards, though lovely, have been aound since 1973 and that people had become somewhat tired of the format, they wanted a game which was more exciting that also had a longer gaming experience. So you’ve got extended play, you’ve got interactive formats, you’ve got a card which is designed to have a play action which is conducive to continual play. The lotteries sell cards for $20, it’s somewhat difficult to sell a $20 piece of paper with a bit of rubberised ink on it but I think our game cards provide a sense of technology and worth which is greater than that which people are happier to play and happy to pay for. When we designed the cards that was the whole thing was to get the sense of fun and originality which the scratch cards obviously brought to the casinos and also to the charity lotteries and to state lotteries.

Printer friendly version

Email this article to a friend