Technology can offer a great deal to the amusement machine operator - if the amusement machine operator is prepared to take a close look at the options and work at it to get it to work for him.
For example, I would like to see much more made of the player-tracking facilities that come with debit card operations. More and more operators of fun-oriented amusement arcades and family entertainment centres are getting rid of cash and using debit cards.
Those debit cards come with a host of highly useful applications, not just the ability to validate play. Player tracking is only one of them, but one that I think can be very useful. Not all players want to be tracked, of course, but discounting those, in my experience about 25 per cent of them don’t have a problem with it.
But the operator has to give something back to the player in exchange for that personal information – which of course he can use to his advantage going forward. Even more important than player tracking is what we call the “bounce back” promotion, which really gives added value.
Some operators are stuck with two old concepts: impulse play and credit play. The impulse play, or casual coin, is money played on impulse just because it is jingling around in the player’s pocket. The credit play is a very old-fashioned way to operate. Kids don’t think that way any more.
When a youngster is playing with an iPad or smartphone he/she is basing the play on time, so why don’t operators charge according to the time used? It is not such a strange consideration. We have a tool called Play Time, which we created 20 years ago as a result of a request from major US operator Main Event. You could buy a 30-minute card and play games for that period.
An operator could even select which games could be played during those 30 minutes and limit the number of consecutive players at the same game.
The concept is not a crazy one. In the Middle East, which these days is a great innovator of fresh thinking in family amusement and entertainment in FECs, there is strong evidence to suggest that timed play is a real possibility. Big operators such as Al Othaim and Al Hokair are heading in that direction, charging by time. They give one hour or two hours unlimited play access in some of their locations. The new Snow City from Al Othaim offers play in two-hour segments.
When you go into a bar, a restaurant and even a movie theatre, your entertainment is in reality measured in time, not in credit value. Think about it.
