One of the biggest deals in the debit card systems business has been concluded between India-based specialist Semnox and the US fast food/entertainment corporation Chuck E. Cheese.

A partnership between the two companies will see Semnox’s RFID cashless solution go into its stores to replace tokens. So far, 100 of the stores have been re-equipped but news of the partnership has been kept under wraps until now.

Word coming back from the CEC locations suggests that guests have accepted the new system with enthusiasm. The card system has provided customers with an enhanced experience. Now, parents can register play cards and keep track of points totals, and recover the points if the cards are lost.

The latest technology EDGE readers have been programmed for time-of-day-based games or for promotions such as Chuck E. Cheese’s current Half Price Tuesday, when game prices are automatically reduced. The tap-to-play wireless readers also allow guests to tap their card to the reader activating games quickly and eliminating the confusion of multiple card swipes.

Now going into stores are self-service kiosks with 22-ins touchscreen displays, bilingual capability and easy-to-use graphic interface, currency and token acceptors, credit card integration, new game card issue and recharges and guest registration set-up. Each location has a store management console that permits managers to perform special transactions such as loading credits or viewing real-time operation reports.

All of the CEC stores are linked with the Semnox cloud-based solution that will permit centralised, corporate management of all of the stores and their operations.

An official release from the two companies said: “This system offers a powerful card roaming feature that lets customers use a single card at multiple locations, further improving the guest experience. The cloud-based system also has a comprehensive set of business intelligence and analytic tools built in and designed to deliver an entirely new experience for visually analysing sales data across all locations simultaneously.”

Tom Leverton, chief executive officer of CEC Entertainment, said: “With the online business intelligence and analytical reports through Semnox’s cloud-based offering, we get a better understanding of our customers spending habits and are able to make informed decisions quickly and accurately.”

“Utilising Semnox’s innovative technology in our stores is making the Chuck E. Cheese’s experience more enjoyable,” said Mahesh Sadarangani, senior vice president of strategic initiatives at CEC Entertainment. “We are satisfied with the way the installation at these 100 sites has been rolled out.”

Iqbal Mohammad, managing director at Semnox, said: “Since our first installation in the US, we have persistently focused on offering an integrated solution coupled with the best customer service while listening to clients and continually updating our offering to this industry.”