Inside Asian Gaming

11 Cover Story tion (RFID) technology as applied to the casino industry,” says Mr Leparoux. “Because of our history, we believe in giving our customers facts about tried and tested technology rather than making prom- ises about systems that haven’t yet been commercially released,”he adds. Brand strength GPI was created in late 2002 through the merger of three of the largest suppliers of chips and other table game equipment: Bourgogne et Grasset from France, the Bud Jones Company and Paulson Gaming Supplies from Las Vegas.These trusted brand names continue in the market under GPI’s strategic guidance. It was in the mid-1980s, says Mr Leparoux, that officials of Bourgogne et Grasset first got the idea of embedding a com- puter microchip in a gaming chip for identification purposes. In 1986, they began studying the possibilities of RFID chips. “At that time, it was not possible, because microchips were too big, the costs were astronomical and the tech- nology was just not there,” explains Gerard P. Charlier, GPI President and CEO. Cost and efficiency From 1992 to 1996, the company conducted the first practical experiments to embed microchips in its products, working with two separate radio frequencies: 125 KHz and 13.56 MHz. The company chose the lower 125 KHz frequency as the best commercial application at that time because it offered value for money and fulfilled most of the requirements of the operators. “GPI selected the Philips 125 KHz RFID technol- ogy as the best adaptation to all its requirements” says Mr Charlier. “It had the right size, allowing embedding in regular chips. It also had a large reading capacity, high reliability, and low cost for the reading units.” Popular Today, 125 KHz RFID has been fully deployed in various jurisdictions and remains a favourite amongst casino operators, says GPI. More than eight million chips have been sold to more than 100 casinos across the world including Galaxy City Clubs in Macau andWynn Las Vegas. In addition to the technology being available in all types of chips, jetons and plaques, a full range of inexpensive readers are also op- erational to enable the authentication, accounting, tracking and in- ventory of the chips. A line of operating software known as CIDs™ (Casino Identification software) is also supplied to compliment these various reading devices “Casinos now have the possibility to use our technology for chip tracking–our Casino Currency Control™ system– in an even more ef- ficient way than central banks control their country’s money supply” says Mr Leparoux. Gear change GPI is also offering a full range of high frequency RFID chips,jetons and plaques, allowing lots of operational data related to table man- RFID