Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming September 2014 70 Tech Talk Validation for the World Crane Payment Innovations is bringing to G2E a star-studded cast in MEI, CashCode and Money Controls A ttendees at next month’s Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas will get their first look at MEI under its new brand, Crane Payment Innovations, which will be showing a portfolio of currency management solutions unequaled in the industry for breadth and diversity. CPI was founded with the merger last December of MEI and NYSE- listed Crane Co., both world leaders in banknote- and coin-handling technologies whose newly combined reach encompasses markets ranging from gaming and retail to financial services, transportation and vending. CPI’s presence stretches across 144 countries serviced by some 2,200 employees, includingmore than 500 engineers, withmanufacturing facilities in North America, Europe and the UK and 24 sales offices in North and South America, Europe, South Africa, Asia and Australia. The casino industry, of course, knows both MEI and Crane well—the former mainly through its renowned Cashflow series of bill acceptors, the latter through Crane Payment Solutions, parent company of CashCode and Money Controls, makers of the CashCode one, SM and Ardac Elite bill validators and a trusted lineup of coin validators, sorters, hoppers and recyclers. “Now we have the ability to develop new technologies together, whereas perhaps we were previously both developing competing similar technologies,” says Tom Nugent, CPI’s new president of Gaming and Retail. “We’ll also have more capability on the sales side and the tech support side—the way we interface with our customers. We’re just broader and stronger.” ICE Totally Gaming at the ExCel London in February was a coming out of sorts for Crane Payment Innovations, although separately MEI and CashCode have long enjoyed a sizable presence in Europe and the UK. The same is true in Asia, but, as Graeme Lewis, MEI’s vice president, Asia Pacific, pointed out at G2E Asia in May, “We now have a much bigger portfolio.” CPI saw G2E Asia as a prime opportunity for building brand awareness in Macau and across the region and made the most of it with an exhibit designed to highlight the dynamism of each company’s unique contribution to the expanded product line. “That’s the important thing,” Mr Lewis said, ‘to bring the names of MEI and CashCode together under Crane Payment Innovations.” Both have distinct followings. “MEI does very well in Macau on the traditional casino side, whereas in Australia, where there’s still a lot of coins usage, you have a lot of Crane influence there,” Mr Nugent explains. “And in the Philippines, Crane has a presence in the bingo markets, while MEI has the casino presence. So we’re able now to service customers however they grow.” Easitrax Soft Count