Inside Asian Gaming

December 2011 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 43 TransAct card in the slot machine, the promotions pop out in ticket form. So where is Epicentral live on casino floors at the moment? We’ve installed at Foxwoods in Connecticut, where Epicentral is on 1,100 slot games. We printed 350,000 coupons over the course of six months, and it’s run flawlessly there. And because this is not deemed to be a gaming system, but is deemed to be a marketing system, we haven’t had any problems with regulatory issues. We’ve also received regulatory approval from the state of Washington here in the US, and that’s actually where we’re getting ready to do our next install. Are there any applications for Epicentral we haven’t mentioned? Epicentral applications are not just about giving things away. They also involve communicating with the player. In Canada and in New South Wales in Australia, for example, messages warning about problem gambling are considered a priority by the jurisdictions there. Another example is the tax form a player is required to submit if they have a win at a US casino. The tax reporting form is printed automatically via Epicentral. So when you hit the jackpot, and the machine says ‘Cash out,’ you get your cash out voucher and you automatically get your tax form right along behind it. Without Epicentral it’s really time- consuming for casino staff to fill in the tax reporting form. And the players get frustrated when they have to wait for the attendant to come over and help fill out all the form. So Epicentral makes use of the identifying information already available to the casino when a carded player puts their card in the machine. Here in the United States the casino already knows your social security number, your driver’s licence details, etc., when you get the player’s card. So Epicentral fills out all the information the casino already has on the player on the tax declaration form, and then the player pretty much only has to sign at the bottom. The casinos are very excited about this application. TransAct’s Tracey Chernay