Cantor Gaming is an offshoot of Cantor Fitzgerald, the international financial services organization. They have approached their entrance to the gaming market in just the way one would expect from a company this size – with thought, care and serious investment in the right places.

The result is the birth of a product which may introduce another revenue stream to casino destinations around the world. Cantor calls it ‘curb-to-curb gaming’ – Commercial Director Tom Kenny sat down with Casino International to explain this exciting product and the other directions this young company is moving in.

Casino International: Cantor Gaming is quite young in company terms; how long have you been around?

Tom Kenny: Cantor Gaming is a young brand, launched in summer 2005, shortly after I joined the company. We are a part of the Cantor Fitzgerald international financial services organisation that has been working in financial markets around the world for 50 years now.

CI: So why come into gaming?

TK: The basis of our success over those 50 years has been on transaction processing on a large scale, risk management, technological innovation and regulatory compliance. Those are also the four cornerstones of our strategy for gaming. The strategy is that we will partner with blue-chip companies which own popular consumer brands in the media, sport, beverage, tobacco and other suitable sectors so we can reach large numbers of retail customers via those popular brands with a remote gaming service, be that casino, poker or bingo, where we provide the full end-to-end solution.

CI: How does Cantor Gaming work to provide online casino functionality to clients?

TK: We currently hold remote gambling licenses in the state of Nevada and in Alderney, which is the only non-US remote gambling jurisdiction currently recognised by the state of Nevada. We operate end-to-end remote gaming services on behalf of FHM, and also we are very close to signing a deal with a major Premiership football club which will operate on a similar basis promoting that to their fan base at the stadium and through the media channels they have access to. We have a deal where we are the exclusive remote gaming provider for Las Vegas Sands, so we will operate an internet casino out of Alderney for LVS to reach large numbers of their UK players, and we expect to continue to sign further brands in these sectors as we go forward.

The proposition is we take care of the licensing, the end-to-end operation, we provide customer services and in turn, our brand-owning partner takes ownership of the marketing, so they put the products in front of their customers using their own marketing inventory.

All the technology is our own, we are not a reseller of other people’s technology. We have two online development facilities, one in Sydney, Australia and one in Mumbai, India, and we have a mobile development facility in Thailand. All our products are developed in-house.

CI: Explain the concept of curb-to-curb gaming.

TK: Curb-to-curb gaming is interactive gaming which takes place on handheld devices, which run on a Wi-Fi network within the confines of a land-based resort casino.

We aim eventually to take advantage of live table feeds so, for example, people can bet on a real baccarat table when they can’t get a seat at the table. Roulette could work the same way.

We’ve come a long way in a short space of time with the wireless gambling. We even had to lobby for the creation of the legal framework for wireless gambling, which is Assembly Bill 471, which we helped with the drafting of and lobbied through Nevada Assembly. After that was put into place, we were able to apply for relevant licenses.

We have four Nevada licenses, which are associated with the remote gaming area. Version one of our remote gambling solution is in the Nevada Gambling Commission’s laboratory for testing right now, which we expect to complete soon. When that’s done, we’ll move on to a field trial in The Venetian Casino. It will pilot in the VIP slots area, 5,000 square feet. When that’s complete to the satisfaction of the Venetian and the NGC, we will then fine-tune the solution and make it ready for a full-scale commercial roll-out.

This might include, for example, expanding the range of devices available. It’s currently based on a Hewlett Packard iPAQ running Windows Mobile 5.0, but I’d expect to see the number of devices expand to include larger tablet-type devices, possibly a customised device which could work for the PlayStation generation. We’ll also be adding new gaming content to complement what we currently have. Currently it’s high quality graphical representations of traditional casino games like Roulette, both versions, Baccarat, Craps and more. Going forward we’ll look to add person to person betting, poker, tournaments and we’d want to expand the marketing potential of the device based on the pattern of play on a particular device.

CI: Surely there are inherent problems with monitoring gaming on a remote device?

TK: Well, there’s the problem of collusion because we wouldn’t want two people with mobile devices retreating to a quiet corner of the bar to work together, looking at each other’s cards to hammer the other players in the game. There’s work going on to deal with that issue.

CI: There’s also a security issue with someone picking up a device while a player is distracted.

TK: Security has been a prime consideration from day one. With what you suggest there in mind, we do have a mechanism in place which will prevent anyone but the registered user for that device from playing with it. The device will be allocated to the player at the cage when photo ID is produced and a deposit is made. The device is tagged to that person. We will be able to tell you more about this when we’re closer to the actual launch of the product.

In terms of the overall security of the system, very little actually happens on the mobile device itself. All significant events happen on the back-end servers which are held in a secure, restricted area inside the resort casino. We use triple-DES encryption between the servers and the mobile device and between different aspects of the server system.

All gameplay outcome generation and customer account information is held on the back-end servers, there is very little on the device.

CI: There is obviously enormous potential – the games that are unprofitable in a casino at the moment but are viable online can become revenue streams for land-based casinos.

TK: One of the things we need to bear in mind is that this is a very new delivery channel and we need to be flexible and prepared to be surprised by the direction it might take. Don’t forget, when the conventional telephone was first invented, it was thought it would be used for people to listen to opera from their home!

CI: So where can it be used? You can’t play in the restrooms, car park or rooms of a Las Vegas casino.

TK: A computer-generated map of the resort casino will be generated and divided into red zones and green zones. The device will only be enabled for gambling when we have positive verification that the device is in a green zone. This will be the gaming floor, bar, restaurants, pool and lobby areas.

CI: Will a venue be able to sell advertising on the platform and also cross-promote their own offers?

TK: The Nevada Gambling Commission is taking a step-by-step approach to this, and there currently is no legal framework for us to provide anything other than gambling on the mobile devices. So there’s no legal framework to provide advertising or concierge services like ticket booking, restaurant reservations, money off vouchers or anything like that just yet. Going forward, I’m sure that will come in due course.

CI: That’s where this becomes an amazing device – when you can order tickets or make bookings from the poolside, and also maybe play a live roulette table.

TK: It’s not difficult to envisage that the device could become a focal point of someone’s stay at a gaming destination.

CI: So how does Cantor Gaming make money from this? Installation is presumably expensive.

TK: The technical hardware and software for the field trial for a 5,000 square foot area is around US $1million. The price of technology is falling month by month, which will help us bring down the cost of installation.

But resort casinos that fit our participation model may be able to do so free of charge. We’d establish the operation, recoup our outlay then share revenue with the operator thereafter.

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