An initial report on the results of a cashless gaming trial in NSW, Australia has highlighted mixed results, with the promising performance of the technology and positive feedback on the overall experience tempered by a low take-up rate by players.
The report, published by Liquor & Gaming NSW on Thursday, provides an in-depth evaluation of a cashless gaming trial run by Aristocrat at Wests Newcastle, which saw cashless technology initially installed on 36 gaming machines and later expanded to 144 machines.
It found that the technology appeared to be successful in delivering the functionality that was promised, including the ability to collect data on player behavior and their interaction with responsible gambling features. It also found that there was general support for those technology’s responsible gambling features, albeit low usage of them during the trial, and that it “may” have made it easier for people to control and monitor their expenditure.
However, the report said a principal challenge was the enrolment process to register for cashless gaming, which was considered too slow by users, venue staff and other industry respondents.
People therefore had a tendency to revert to the old legacy (cash) system rather than use the new technology, with the report noting that the trial was challenged by the fact that it ran in the context of players having “access to another legacy system and where they have opportunities to gamble on trial machines, but also others located at the same, or different, venues.”
Other aspects of the technology that need improvement include clarity around the naming of wallets, the issue of Bluetooth connectivity that seemed to affect some participants, the quality of wifi connections at the venue, appropriate spaces to sign people up, the demographic profile of the venue, and its staffing profile.
“Given the resources required to onboard patrons on to new technology, it may be that larger venues are better positioned to adopt cashless gaming than smaller ones,” the report observed.
It also noted the strength of data collection via the use of multiple convergent data sources, but with limitations such as the self-selected sample, low utilization of some features and only modest response rate for the post-trial survey.
The data showed that 260 patrons registered for the trial and completed the pre-trial survey, although only 77 of those completed the post-trial survey. Of those registered, almost two-thirds were men and most under the age of 45.
The results of a similar trial recently conducted by IGT on 112 gaming machines at Sydney’s Club York are pending.
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