A tiny percentage of tribal casinos have adopted cashless payments, but that could change, an executive from a Washington state casino told a panel at the Global Gaming Expo, CDC Gaming Reports wrote October 17.
Kevin Zenishek, director of Table Games at Northern Quest Resort & Casino, noted that 5 percent of tribal casinos use cashless payments, but said he expects such systems will expand “more and more on the gaming floors” in the next decade. However predictions of 60 percent by 2025 are overly optimistic, he said.
That transition might have happened more quickly if the industry hadn’t zeroed in on skill-based gaming in recent years, he said.
He declared, “For those of you who remember the millennial challenge over the last five to 10 years of building skill-based games for millennials, props to the manufacturers for stepping up and developing products to go after that market, but I think it was a miss, hindsight being 20-20.
Himself an admitted fan of skill-based games, the industry might have been better served by bringer a younger demographic into the market “if we had adopted a better cashless model,” he said.
He argues that adopting digital payments will increase gross gaming revenue because consumers will spend more time on devices and come back more often due to convenience.
Another panelist, Ron Allen, chairman of the Jamestown S’Kialiam Tribe in Washington, added that fewer and fewer people pay with cash. “It’s a new industry that people are getting comfortable with but it’s a transition,” Allen said. “I know when we stopped putting the quarters in slot machines. You are changing the way you’re doing business.”
He attributed this to generational changes. “Whether it’s a casino or tribal government services, it’s a new tool to get people comfortable in using.”
Joseph Watkins, president of Worldpay Gaming Solutions at Worldpay, noted that Baby Boomes like cash but that beginning with Gen X, cash use has begun to vanish.
The Covid pandemic accelerated this trend because many people fear the transfer of the virus through contact with cash.
Rich Roberts, president of Mohegan Digital said many tech issues have slowed the spread of the technology to tribal casinos.
According to CDC Gaming Reports he said, “Being on the other side, people think they can get this done easily but most of the casinos are looking at cybersecurity and other things going on within their operations.”
He added, “And from the Mohegan perspective, we’ve got successful casinos across the country and we just got into digital. If you’re going to make a cashless decision, you need to include digital if you’re going to maintain this 360-model.”
Roberts concluded, “Those are the challenges but also the opportunities. The question is, what’s going to be around in five to 10 years?”
