Ticket-in ticket-out is coming to the street market and, as InterGame’s David Snook discovers, FutureLogic, in partnership with UK adult gaming centre and bingo operator Praesepe, is leading the way.
REPLACING cash with tickets has become second nature in the casino industry. But the thought of making the same transition in arcades or in pub locations has always been anathema to street operators.
The fixed attitudes are traditional in the street market, where the ‘casual coin’ is regarded as far more essential than it is in casinos. A bold experiment by Gauselmann Group subsidiary Praesepe, in the UK, may however be changing all of that. Praesepe operates 160 locations across the UK, mostly arcades, but including nine bingo clubs, one of which is the largest in the UK, and also five seaside or family arcades. The 2005 Gambling Act permitted the use of different payment methods for new gaming machines in the UK and in conjunction with FutureLogic for the past six months the company has been running an in-depth study of the use of TITO (ticket-in ticket-out) in some of its arcades.
The results, says CEO Nick Harding, have convinced him of the value of the TITO system. Harding has now taken the philosophical decision to gradually move all of his 7,800 machines over to ticket payout. “I am totally committed to this fundamental change in the way in which we operate; it is self-funding (the money released from hoppers more than covers the cost of installation) and players prefer it,” he said. “I would go further and promote the use of TITO in the pub market, where it immediately removes the problem of hopper starvation and ensures that the machines keep running during busy sessions. We currently have three arcades running happily with TITO and now plan to experiment at one of our smaller bingo clubs.”
And, believes Harding, there is no reason why that which works well in the UK market should not operate equally happily in other jurisdictions where the AWP machine dominates and where payment via tickets is also permitted.
Read the full article in the May issue of InterGame
