Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | July 2008 34 The growing popularity of factory pre-shuffled playing cards is a clear trend in the Asian casino market. There are a variety of reasons for this trend, says Scott Madding of the United States Playing Card Company (USPC). They include increased efficiencies and reliability for casino operators. Mr Madding, Director, International Casino Sales & Business Development, says the primary reason is the protection of fair play. “The factory pre-shuffle dramatically improves game protection for both the consumer and the casino operator,”he explains. Labour-free “The design of the packaging reduces the amount of handling by the dealer to open the game. This minimises opportunities for human error in existing procedures and helps prevent certain kinds of fraudulent activity to cheat the operator,”he adds. Secondly, the pre-shuffled product allows operators to maximise their use of what may be a limited labour force. Staff can focus on revenue generating activities on the casino floor instead of what in effect is an administrative activity such as card shuffling. USPC says its“Bee”™ Factory Preshuffled playing cards have been distributed in the Asian casino market for more than 12 months. Mr Madding notes they have received“strong, positive responses”. GLI certified “Casino operators are attracted to the “Bee” exclusive, fullyautomatedprocess,whichis‘CertifiedRandom’ by Gaming Laboratories International (GLI),” he explains. “The “Bee” process is the only fully automated system with this GLI certification that ensures each carton will be as random as possible.“ The company says this focus on quality and integrity is upheld throughout the design of the “Bee” system, with a level of detail that includes verifying the completeness of every carton,the accuracy of every card size, and the cut of each and every card. “Combining these high quality assurance measures with a highly flexible system for the future ensures that “Bee” Factory Preshuffled playing cards deliver a unique and compelling approach to securing casino floors and increasing their bottom lines,” concludes Mr Madding. The Non-Shoe Shuffle Pre-shuffled cards are taking off in the Asian casino market Vendor Profile The United States Playing Card Company displays its wares at last month’s G2E Asia The Bee Preshuffler USPC’s Bee® brand playing cards have been sold in Asia for more than 100 years