Is the future cashless or are we writing off coins and notes too soon? InterGame takes a look at the latest payment and cash handling solutions for the amusement market.
CONSUMERS’ tastes are changing. We all now shop online for our groceries, download mp3 files onto our iPods and smartphones, and pay for goods with our debit or credit cards… right?
Well, some of us do. Many still enjoy a trip to the store, listen to CDs and vinyl (curiously, not tape cassettes!) and prefer to pay using coins and banknotes. Yes, there are now a myriad of ways of completing transactions, many of which do not feature the physical act of handing over notes and coins, but to suggest that cash is being eliminated from this process is overstating the reliance on cards, for example.
‘Coin-operated’ may have given way to ‘pay-to-play’ to accommodate cashless, or more accurately, card-based or electronic systems, but coins play a crucial role in the amusement sector. After all, the majority of transactions remain cash-based, if only to purchase tokens or to load credit onto a card at a kiosk.
“There is no doubt,” said Colin Veitch, director at Eurocoin, “that businesses across multiple market sectors are seeking to reduce or eliminate the need for their operational staff to handle or process client ‘cash.’ This is absolutely leading to a re-evaluation of many traditional payment methods.”
Could we ever truly eliminate cash? Probably not. There is, I believe, a sense of not only attachment to physical coins and bills, but a greater feeling of security – ‘these items have a definite value; if I drop one into a machine I get that reciprocal value of play.’ Perhaps younger generations do not feel such an affinity, hence suggestions that the marketplace is moving towards a cash-free environment.
“Cashless as a payment option obviously provides a variety of benefits to the operator and the customer,” said Tom Nugent of MEI. “However, to simply limit payment transactions to one form would be a backwards step for the industry, especially with the current cost structure associated with cashless technology.”
Read the full article in the July issue of InterGame.
