Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | August 2012 20 G aming Partners International (GPI) has earned its position as the world’s leading provider of casino currency by tirelessly innovating to stay ahead of ever-resourceful counterfeiters. GPI supplies chips, plaques and jetons under the well-known brand names Bourgogne et Grasset (B&G), Paulson and Bud Jones. The first of those brands to be established was B&G, and its raison d’être was, unsurprisingly, beating the would-be cheats. In the 1920s in Beaune, in the Burgundy region of France, lithographer Etienne Bourgogne and engineer Claudius Grasset were working to pioneer the use of plastics for use in items such as brooches, hair slides and plastic playing cards. The partners were the first to master the art of plastic film printing. One day in 1925, Mr Grasset read in the newspaper Le Figaro that a player had broken the bank at the Monte Carlo Casino to the tune of 600,000 Francs using counterfeit chips made of solid ivory and mother of pearl. Bourgogne and Grasset saw an opportunity to use their plastics research and their technical skills to address the counterfeiting problem. The partners got to work onproducinganewgenerationof chips that would offer casinos total security. They perfected an ingenious process by which the impression of the chip was protected by a thin plastic film, which made it practically impossible to imitate them. The partners sent some samples to the general manager of the Monte Carlo casino, Monsieur Blanc, whose reply came in the form of a chip order, and Bourgogne et Grasset was born as a gaming supplier. For almost nine decades since then, GPI has helped casinos secure their currency. It helps that B&G is among a handful of brands with plaques and jetons made of laminated acetates.“Therearenotalotofmanufacturers in the world who use acetates,” reveals GPI Global VP of R&D Emmanuel Gelinotte. “We use a process very similar to that used to make credit cards. However, while credit cards are usually made of PVC, we use acetates. It’s actually very difficult to laminate acetate sheets, but back in 1923, Bourgogne et Grasset developed an intricate process to laminate acetate sheets that is a significant trade secret of our company. This process hasn’t changed much over the years, and is one of the reasons our plaques and jetons are so secure.” At this year’s G2E Asia, held in May at the Venetian Macao, GPI showcased four new security features. The first is an innovative application of ultraviolet security protection the company calls UV-4C, which entails using a standard UV detector to reveal a unique full-color photo or image hidden in the chip decal. “Regular UV has been around for years and years,” observes Mr Gelinotte. “And, because it’s used by so many industries for so many applications, it’s not as strong a security feature—you can even buy UV pigment on the internet. So 4C-UV is really unique: it uses multiple UV inks in a very advanced four-color process way to produce pictures or intricate multi-color designs that can still be detected with a standard UV light. And, when it’s used on a gaming chip, a casino can have a series of multi-color logos, a unique photograph, or virtually any other multi- or four-color image that will be revealed when we shine the UV light on it, but will totally disappear when you switch off the light.” “It’s a very new technology,” adds Mr Gelinotte. “You need specific software to do it, because you are working with invisible colors. Whereas with visible colors you know what to expect when you mix green with red, with invisible colors it’s a totally GPI Currency Protection Emmanuel Gelinotte, GPI’s global vice president of research and development, describes the company’s latest counterfeiter-thwarting security features “It’s like the bank note industry: there is no miracle security feature. A secure solution is a combination of security features from different levels— Level 1 to Level 3—and of overt and covert features.” Emmanuel Gelinotte