Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming July 2014 20 Feature “It’s taking what was something that is very basic and it’s really beefing it up,” says Mr McCarthy. “But there needed to be a response because the customers like the hologram, they like the holographic effect.” The popularity outside North America of European-style jetons poses a unique set of security challenges because jetons don’t fit into a chip rack, and their characteristic rounded edges make them impossible to read in a stack. Last year, GPI tackled the problem with the J3 Hybrid. It’s marketed under the company’s popular Bourgogne & Grasset line and is available in two different decal sizes and with different-colored inserts to make identifying the jeton surface easier. But the key to the J3 is its squared edge and thickness, which means it handles like an American-style chip: it can be racked and read by its edge spots. Building on that this year, the company brought to G2E Asia a J3 with a taggant inserted in the edge spot that is detectable right at the table using GPI’s LaserTrack optical reader. And it can be read in the same way racked in large quantities. The taggant also can be added to the gold lace of a plaque, so LaserTrack protection is now available at very high-denomination tables. “Over the last 12 months, we’ve taken it from A to Z really quickly,” says Mr McCarthy. The same innovative spirit is evident in the company’s continuing work in RFID, a technology it helped pioneer in the gaming space. G2E Asia saw the debut of a new open-source version of its sophisticated Chip Inventory System. CIS was a groundbreaking technology for enabling a casino to track currency movements from cage to vault to the gaming floor with instant authentication and validation of amounts and inventory monitoring in real time. The new 2.1 is even more versatile. It can be customized to create alerts for cash buy-ins and chip-tray variations, and open-sourcing allows it to interface with any third-party casino or table management system and integrate with surveillance systems to make chip movements and transactions observable in real time. GPI also has released a proprietary technology that combines its high-frequency RFID tags with electromagnetic chip detection in a system that triggers an alarm when a piece of currency is taken into an unauthorized area or past a designated staff exit or entrance. “We’re seeing a lot more interest in RFID,” says Mr McCarthy. “I think people are allowing themselves to get excited about it again.” The feedback stemming from this will ensure the technology becomes even more robust as needs require. “It’s critical,” says Mr McCarthy, speaking of GPI’s commitment to involving its customers in the design and application of every new product and product concept. “We’ve always done it to a certain degree, but now that really drives our development. We’re very focused in the way we do it inasmuch as we’re very mindful of where the security feature is going to be used—whether it’s going to be at the table, the cage, the fill bank—and the supporting device that goes with that product. The application’s got to be practical. We understand that it’s all about ROI.” GPI’s new multilayered UV authentication tool—3-in-1 UV—provides operators with a veritable firewall of security, the foundation of which is the company’s exclusive gaming industry rights to a chemical signature (a taggant, as it’s called) that is blended covertly into a chip’s pigment to respond to ultraviolet light at a wavelength of 312 nanometers by glowing a bright orange while remaining invisible under the standard wavelength of 365nm. Inside Asian Gaming Editor James Rutherford presents GPI Vice President of Sales for Asia Scott McCarthy with the IAG 2014 Supplier Award for “Best Table Gaming Currency” for GPI’s Bourgogne & Grasset plaques and jetons.