Resonating Reliability
by Marian Green
November 1, 2008
MCA Processing offers a hardware line called the MCA Multifunction Redemption Kiosk. In addition, the young Las Vegas-based company offers a software line.
MCA Processing promises to give casinos more uptime and better security with its new ATM/Ticket redemption kiosks
MCA Processing is making
gaming industry inroads with its ATM/Ticket redemption kiosks and software
designed to deliver the accuracy, security and reliability of financial
institution ATMs to the casino floor.
The Las Vegas-based company is owned by Robert Cucinotta and Karim
Maskatiya, the co-founders of Global Cash Access, the largest ATM service
provider to the gaming industry. “They felt they could do a better job in the
ticket redemption business than is currently being done,” said David Balmer,
executive vice president for MCA Processing who previously worked in an
executive-level capacity for one of MCA’s largest competitors, before leaving
to help start the new company.
“What we provide today is
kiosk hardware and software for the purposes of ticket redemption, bill
breaking and automated cash services. We also offer jackpot redemption, points
redemption and other related software and services. The thing that we’ve done
differently is we’ve approached it from more of a financial institution point
of view, whereas our competitors have attempted to create custom software to
process transactions,”
Proven software
MCA Processing uses proven industry standardized banking software to
drive the machines. “The utilization of this tried and true software allows us
the highest degree of uptime in casinos throughout the industry,” Balmer
said.
The company offers two product solutions – a software line and a hardware
line called the MCA Multifunction Redemption Kiosk. MCA Processing will sell or
lease the hardware and then will license software for multiyear terms.
“Along with
licensing the software and selling the hardware, we also provide a support
service package. We consistently meet or exceed our customers’ expectations
regarding service level uptime,” he said, noting the MCA machines currently in
the field operate at an extremely high uptime rate. MCA monitors these machines
in real time in order to ensure uptime commitments.
MCA software can accommodate new or existing hardware, provided it is of
a certain type, such as NCR or the Wincor Nixdorf machines, which MCA also
uses. “We have competitors that have provided essentially the same equipment we
do, and we’ve written software to convert those machines to our
platform.”
For instance, Balmer noted, the company has been working with several
major gaming operators to provide software to use in their existing ATM/Ticket
redemption machines and have sold the gaming operators additional machines.
That’s attractive to gaming operators, he said,
“particularly in a capital-constricted environment.”
Balmer noted the company won’t write software
for non-standard machines in most cases. “Every application takes gaming
approval, so we’re very selective as to what hardware platforms we’re going to
use,” he said. “It’s important to utilize a robust, proven platform when
performing the volume of transactions we do.”
Robust reliability
MCA Processing has high hopes and expectations for the product’s
success.
“In a nutshell, what [gaming operators] are getting is a more reliable
product, from a hardware/software standpoint, as well as overall better
service,” he said.
“We’re managing these machines the same way banks manage their ATM
fleets,” Balmer noted. “In most jurisdictions we have a live connection to the
machine, and, because we’re using standard ATM software, it’s constantly
sending status messages. If one of our properties has a hardware or software
issue, we typically know it before they do and we can automatically generate a
service ticket and dispatch a technician based on that
issue.”
This automated process dramatically reduces the time with which it takes
to respond to service issues and eliminates the need for casino personnel to
spend valuable time placing helpdesk calls.
That’s extremely important
to casino operators, he said, because maintaining uptime and reducing operating
expenses associated with these high-volume devices is a top priority. “We also
provide our casino customers with several automated tools alerting them to
minor issues, which they can respond to themselves such as paper jams and cash
status message,” Balmer said.
On a mission
“We consider, and most importantly our customers consider, their
ATM/Ticket redemption machines to be what they call ‘mission-critical’
systems,” Balmer said.
A high percentage of the cash spent in the casino is processed through
these machines, “whether it’s through ATM or credit card cash advance,” he
said.
“Nobody comes to Vegas with a wad of cash. People come to Vegas with a
little bit of cash, their debit card and a couple of credit cards,” Balmer
said.
If the
machines go down, that creates issues for the casino, he said. “If customers
can’t redeem their tickets there, they’re forced to redeem them at the cage,
potentially causing a customer service nightmare, so reliability. service and
uptime are some of the biggest keys to what we do.”
That need is the reason that the market opened up for MCA Processing,
Balmer said.
The young company already has more than 100 machines installed in high
profile/high volume locations and is in the process of installing several
hundred more, Balmer said.
As casinos look to replace redemption machines, Balmer expects to pick up
market share.
“I’m predicting sometime by the end of ’09, we’ll be one of the largest
redemption kiosk providers in our space,” he said.
MCA also is open to providing its services and products overseas, Balmer
said. “We’re trying to bring value to wherever our customers are. Anywhere our
customers go, we’re willing to be there as well.”
Balmer noted the company
also is working on other products for the industry, including an employee
banking kiosk that would allow employees with a till to use a machine to
receive their bank and later to deposit their bank.
Looking down the road
For the future, he noted, the industry is looking toward cashless
solutions. “The ultimate goal in our end of the business is cashless. You get
to the point where you’re producing a ticket instead of cash or you’re
producing a stored value card, instead of dispensing cash.”
That, he
said, brings real value to the casino. There’s a cost to the casino to load
cash into multiple machines at each property, he said, noting each machine can
carry about $275,000.
“It’s a lot of money that’s not in
the bank, so the more efficient you can be with that cash or the more options
you can offer to the customer instead of cash the better,” he said.
Gaining customer acceptance will take creativity,
he said. “You have to work with the casino to kind of incent the customer to
push in the direction you want, maybe give a break on the ATM fee or produce a
promotional coupon.”
“There are all kind of things we can do, but, remember, to develop these
ideas you have to work very closely with the customer to make sure this is the
direction they want to go because it’s a very costly thing to get it
approved,” Balmer noted. “You bring
these ideas to your customer and you really let them lead you in the direction
they want to go.”
“The
bottom line,” Balmer said, “is our turn-key solution for ticket redemption and
ATM needs brings banking automation standards to the casino industry. That
translates to unsurpassed accuracy, security,
reliability and stability not previously enjoyed by our competitors.”
Marian Green
greenm@bnpmedia.com
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