On Wednesday the first ‘ontheffing’ (release) for a cashless arcade in the Netherlands was granted to Super Game, the arcade chain, at its location in Heerlen.
The new system will probably go live next week. It has been installed by REAC of Rotterdam, the company which had installed management systems into most of the Netherlands' 350 arcades. REAC has developed a new cashless system to add on to their existing management systems.
Under the new rules, a suitably equipped and approved location may offer a card system to players. Credits can be played off and wins added on to the card which operates on a ‘swipe’ system while the cash is actually handled at a redemption terminal or through the location’s cashier.
The ‘ontheffing’ has to be applied for by the location owner with the KSA, the Netherlands’ new gaming board, which took up its new role in April of this year. The testing organisation, NMi, handles the processing and testing of the system to be installed in each location.
An official opening of the newly re-equipped Super Game arcade will be held next month.
In an official statement, the NMi (Nederland Meetinstitut) said: “This is interesting to both arcades and players, as this simplifies the system and reduces the risk related to the storage of cash on site. The development of the new system has been the result of mitigating measures that were agreed on after the Dutch gaming industry suffered severely from increased taxes and the smoking ban.
“There has been demand for cashless play systems since the mitigating measures were agreed, but it has taken a while to develop systems compliant with the requirements , which cover areas such as fraud and money laundering. The first approved system has been extensively tested by the independent test laboratory NMi and then submitted to the Dutch gaming authority (Kansspelautoriteit) for approval. Yesterday (Wednesday-Ed.), the approval was signed by the authority and the system will now be installed in an arcade in Heerlen, in the south of the Netherlands. “Mr Ben Verhoeff of NMi explains: ‘We have been working on the project for more than a year in order to find a configuration acceptable to the authority while retaining the attractive parts of the system. We are proud to be the first to get through the process and have a cashless play system approved.’
“Every arcade with a cashless play system will have an initial verification and, after that, periodical verifications will follow. After the approval of this first cashless play system it is expected that other cashless play systems will follow soon.”
