Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming December 2014 36 Tech Talk Amid the merger mania sweeping up gaming industry suppliers, the joining of MEI and Crane Payment Solutions is one of the easier unions to rationalize—and one of the best-positioned to thrive N o doubt about it, 2014 will go down as the “Year of Consolidation,” when not only the slot behemoths gobbled each other up but a number of leading innovators on the peripherals side also joined the fray, some merging with competitors, others seeking to acquire complementary product lines. The motivation behind Crane Co.’s acquisition of MEI to create Crane Payment Innovations was clearly strategic and eminently sensible. MEI mainly specializes in cash, currency, physical bills and notes, while Crane Payment Solutions’ products primarily handled coins. By bringing the two together, the new brand, CPI, promises the industry’s most comprehensive portfolio of cash management solutions. And it wasn’t as if Crane and MEI were merely jumping on the merger bandwagon either. Crane had originally announced its intent to acquire MEI back in December 2012, but the process was delayed by the European Commission’s request that two Crane Payment Solutions products first be divested (neither one gaming-related) in order to comply with EU competition rules. CPI was finally founded in December 2013 and its combined reach now encompasses markets ranging from gaming and retail to financial services, transportation and vending. Its presence stretches across 144 countries serviced by some 2,200 employees, including more than 500 engineers, manufacturing 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 theCashCode one, SM and Ardac Elite bill validators and a trusted lineup of coin validators, sorters, hoppers and recyclers. The combined entity exhibited its full range of products for the first time at October’s G2E in Las Vegas, a display that included the new SCR note recycler, which is performing strongly in field trials in Germany and is scheduled for launch in early 2015. Natural Fit Trusted portfolio of payment systems—(From left) The SC Advance note acceptor, the Ardac Elite bill validator and the CashCode one bill validator.