Nevada Board Leery of Wireless Cash Advance Systems

LAS VEGAS -- Two companies anxious to install wireless cash advance systems in casinos have been told they need to provide unbiased research showing the systems wouldn't contribute to problem gambling.

In a presentation to the state Gaming Control Board on Wednesday, representatives of Cash Systems Inc., Burnsville, Minn., and Las Vegas-based Mikohn Gaming Corp. said they have developed a portable wireless device that could someday help casino customers get cash quickly by debit or credit card.

Craig Pott, chief executive of Cash Systems, said that under the proposal trained casino employees could carry the device, which is slightly larger than a telephone, to a customer at a slot machine or table game.

The casino employee would swipe a debit or credit card through a magnetic strip reader and encrypted financial information would be transmitted wirelessly to a base processor, which would transmit the information to a third-party processor for approval of the transaction.

After confirming identification with a photo ID, the customer could receive cash, chips or credits to continue play.

Casinos would charge a percentage or a cash fee to make money in the transaction.

Mikohn, a gaming equipment manufacturing and licensing company, has agreed to help Cash Systems market and distribute the product. Two Mikohn vice presidents, Mike Dreitzer and Bob Parente, joined Pott in the presentation and told regulators the system functions much like a automatic teller machine with additional human interaction.

But a problem gambling expert said Wednesday that the quick accessibility of cash is what feeds problem gambling.

Carol O'Hare, executive director of the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling, an industry-funded education group, said she couldn't comment directly on the Cash Systems proposal since she didn't attend the Gaming Control Board's session.

But in a telephone interview, O'Hare said ATMs can make it easier for gambling addicts to lose their money faster.

"Every time we look at making money faster, quicker, more accessible, there is a greater burden or responsibility for operators, regulators and the community to ask the questions that have to be asked," O'Hare said. "There comes a point where you can't just put up another brochure or offer another phone number for help."

O'Hare said technological advances have to be weighed carefully and not accepted merely for the convenience of the customer.

"What may be good for 90-some percent of the population may have serious consequences for the 6 percent of the residents of Nevada" who have addictive gambling behavior, she said.

Although O'Hare was not present at the session, Control Board members made it clear that they weren't about to make any immediate decisions without considering the consequences of the system on problem gamblers.

Board member Scott Scherer said he would support a trial operation of the system and an independent study to determine whether it contributed to addictive behavior. Mikohn and Cash Systems said MGM Mirage has expressed an interest in the system.

But Scherer's colleague, Bobby Siller, said he was leery of allowing any wide-scale testing of the proposal.

"I don't like the approach of, 'Let's put it in there and see if it doesn't hurt anybody,' " he said.

In the end, the board agreed to put the responsibility on the applicants to determine the best way to test the system and find an unbiased expert to study the problem gambling repercussions and bring a proposal back to the board for consideration.

Tom Sears, executive vice president of business development for Global Cash Access, a competitor of Cash Systems, asked the board to reconsider regulations that prohibit debit-card access built into slot machines.

He noted that as society increases its movement toward cashless transactions that the public is becoming more receptive to such accessibility and that the wireless cash advance system proposal provides the opportunity to explore the issue.