JCM’S bill validator for table games could soon be as popular as a shuffler
JCM GLOBAL first displayed its prototype and revolutionary bill validator for table games, known as Project 8, at G2E Asia last year. Nearly a year on, Inside Asian Gaming talked to Tom Nieman, Vice President of Global Marketing, and Kunal Mishra, General Manager, New Business Development Dept., about progress on the project and what the market can expect.
IAG: You’ve been collaborating with Gaming Partners International on Project 8?
Tom Nieman: We received an extremely positive reaction from operators when we showed the proof of concept last June at G2E Asia. Since then, Kunal [Mishra] and his team in Japan have made tremendous progress on it. Our work with Gaming Partners [International] has just helped to push this whole thing along so that we can tie it in to their [chip inventory] system and provide really almost a complete solution for table automation.
We’ve taken a minute-and-a-half to two-minute process of a player buying in at the table, and turned it into a ten- to 15-second event; and then tying the cash in, chip out relationship so that the house has a much stronger sense of accountability on the total transaction. We’ve decreased the time it takes to get everyone at the table back in the game. We’ve dramatically improved the accountability of chip inventory and cash in. It’s got particular potential for high-volume markets such as Macau, Singapore and Southeast Asia.
Has Macau’s table cap had an influence on the product’s development?
Kunal Mishra: You’re starting to see more properties opening up, and the table utilisation [level] becomes absolutely key in Macau. The end goal of the product has always been the same—to increase the utilisation of the table. And the cap situation has the operators really looking for answers to that question.
We’ve done a pretty thorough tour of operators in Asia, and we’re starting to solicit feedback from different markets. The operators—while they all say utilisation is key, all of their implementation details are slightly different. To that extent, we’ve been engineering the product in such a way to take into account the operators’ goals and how to phase in the different features they require. Some operators would like a very basic functionality for a bill validator, while some would want a complete management system of all the monetary instruments being wagered on a table. So we’ve had to account for all of those scenarios Player acceptance is also important. We’ve been working with operators to define a very easy experience for the player. Part of that is our very visible escrow that lets the player see the entire transaction from inception to completion.
TN: The money stays in escrow until the player agrees the amount shown by the system is the amount being wagered. If there’s any dispute or question over the amounts, the money can easily be returned by lifting the door of the unit and handed back to the player. In addition, the ability to handle multiple currencies simultaneously is also important. Where one house may say ‘We only want to take HK dollars’, another might say ‘We will take HKD and patacas’. The system’s quite capable of handling both.
KM: JCM has been searching for ways to be able to automate the cash in process at the table for a long time. And this desire comes from the DNA of the company; an understanding that this was a need of the market. I think we’ve finally caught up technologically to the vision that’s always been there at JCM, in order to bring a product like this to market. A lot of times the vision may be correct, but the technology may not exist to realise it.
TN: We’ve serviced one side of the aisle; the slots; for decades. Why can’t we bring the ease and simplicity of the slots transaction to the other side of the casino? It’s good for the table player, and it’s good for the house and then you’ve got a win-win situation. It’s been quite a journey.
KM: Initially we’re going after the highest utilisation markets, which today tend to be around Asia and maybe a couple of other peripheral markets. But conceptually the dream is to increase utilisation across every table in the world; to give every table this technology and make it as ubiquitous as a shuffler. That’s a goal I want to achieve and I will not stop until I do. It’s one thing to satisfy demand in a particular market, but once other markets see the results, they’re going to find their own uses for this technology.
While our initial expectations [on sales] have been set conservatively, we really expect a lot of good things from the product.
You were trying to scale down the footprint of Project 8. Has that been completed?
KM: It will be by G2E Asia. We have benchmarked the leading shufflers in the market as our target ‘height above table level’ for the product. However, currency bills have mass; especially when you’re talking about large volumes of them. So we tend to have the bill stacking process going on below the table away from the player’s view. But our goal has always been to minimise our footprint. We started out with a very basic proof of concept, and from there we scaled it down 30% for an engineering sample. And from there we produced a customer sample that’s another 20% reduction in size. We’re also working with GPI with minimising the footprint of the unit on the floor by doing some clever modifications to the tables
TN: The relationship to the table is critical, so that it looks as best it can a part of the table rather than like a Volkswagen parked behind a table. With the modifications to the table we’ve achieved that.
