Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | 70 G2E ASIA 2013 T he CASHFLOW SC was voted “Best Electronic Gaming Peripheral—Bill Acceptor” by a region-wide panel of judges for Inside Asian Gaming ’s Supplier Awards 2013 , announced last month. The judging criteria were determined by the growing sophistication of the technology itself. Operator floor feedback figured prominently in the results. It took into account software stability, the quality of the hardware components and the ease of servicing and upgrade. Interoperability and integration were also weighted heavily based on factors like plug-and-play capability and compatibility with back- of-house operations. Finally, consumer friendliness had to be taken into account, assessed on the basis of the overall robustness and intuitiveness of the technology and the consistent strength and integrity of that all-important interface with the end-user, the player. The CASHFLOW SC celebrated its 10th birthday last year and it’s still going strong, though MEI has released a strong follow-up in the form of the SC Advance. IAG got a look at the SC Advance in action at G2E in Vegas. The demo consisted of feeding wet, crinkled and torn notes into the SC Advance, which was able to process them without skipping a beat, underscoring the importance on the casino floor of bill acceptors that can quickly and consistently process themost badly used bills, and how critical that is both in terms of keeping players happy and eliminating down time at the gaming machine. MEI claims the SC Advance delivers the industry’s best first-time acceptance rate for valid street-grade notes and is packed with valuable features that include faster bill-to-bill speed, comprehensive bar-code recognition, expanded memory to allow more currencies and denominations to be recognized and a USB 2.0 upgrade to speed up communications with the host machine and allow for the addition of even more functionalities. Expanding the reachof its noteacceptors from the slot floor into the soft count room is MEI’s EASITRAX Soft Count, which, since its introduction in 2008, has been installed on 100,000 games worldwide. The addition of EASITRAX to SC Advance or CASHFLOW SC creates a comprehensive software/ hardware system designed to streamline the cash management process, says MEI. EASITRAX Soft Count works by gathering data from multiple note acceptors and funneling that information into a secure remote database that can be accessed to track revenues and analyze slot performance. RFID technology connects slot machine asset numbers to a specific cashbox to help eliminate“hot boxes”and increase operational efficiencies. MEI claims operators typically receive a return on their investment in EASITRAX Soft Count in under a year through newfound efficiencies in labor, maintenance and accounting practices. MEI will also be exhibiting two new products at G2E Asia—Web EASITRAX and PPM Advance. Web EASITRAX is a portal that allows operators to create customized reports and track performance remotely, giving operators the flexibility and assurance that they can manage their slot floor from anywhere in the world. The PPM advance, meanwhile, builds on the success of the traditional unit, adding new features including a visual display, Bluetooth functionality and enhanced memory help. The PPM Advance can also sense the host unit—whether it is CASHFLOW SC or SC advance—and ensures the correct software is downloaded. Visit MEI at Stand #824 Best Acceptance MEI returns to G2E Asia with its comprehensive suite of cash management solutions, focused on the efficiency-boosting combination of SC Advance and EASITRAX Soft Count The SC Advance reliably deals with wet, crinkled and torn notes. EASITRAX Soft Count expands the reach of MEI’s note acceptors.