In the UK, the Gambling Business Group led by CEO Peter Hannibal has taken the first steps towards developing technical standards for cashless and ticketing operations.
Only a month since its launch, the strategic gaming body, through its Machines Sub-Group, has produced two documents that form the technical standards for a UK Machines Cashless and Ticketing Protocol. One is for general web services and the other extends the ccTalk technical standards that enable compatibility with current UK machines. The documents are available to any organisation that has an interest in either operating such a machines ticketing solution or providing compatible components, systems and solutions.
Many of the UK's machine manufacturers, ticket printer suppliers, note validator and peripheral manufacturers, systems providers and solutions suppliers have been involved in the process, including Bell-Fruit Games, Barcrest/SG Gaming, Project Coin, Playsafe Embed, Future Logic, Eurocoin, GeWeTe, Innovative Technologies, Astra Games, Merkur-Blueprint and with particular assistance from Rob Wheeler of Future Logic and Dave Bush from Aardvark.
"For many years,” said Hannibal, “UK machines operators have looked upon other jurisdictions who operate TITO and similar systems with envy. Dreams of lower service demands, reduced machines floats, zero refills and income improvements remained as just dreams. With the exception of the casino sector, the two significant blocks that stood in the way of the rest of the UK adopting a machines ticketing system had been the prohibitive cost - including licensing and the heterogeneous technology used by manufacturers."
The documents are now in circulation and are intended to be used by the industry as a set of rules for cashless and ticketing.
