Cashless Slots?

The Nevada Gaming Board recently approved a field trial of technology that allows casino patrons to receive a TITO (ticket-in/ticket out) voucher instead of cash when making an ATM withdrawal. If the player takes this option, the ticket is printed with the entire amount of the withdrawal and it can be used in any of the property’s slot machines.

The next logical step is the cashless slot machine. Technical, and perhaps legal, issues may preclude installing true ATM functionality in a slot, but allowing players to link debit or credits cards to a wagering account fund accessible by player cards may not be far off. See: "Cycling Toward Cashless" Las Vegas Sun, Aug. 23, 2010
So what are the pros and cons? On the pro side, it seems a simple matter of customer service. Why force a patrons to leave a favorite machine and wander around the casino in search of a working ATM? Cons would argue that this nominal convenience actually facilitates problem gaming by eliminating a possible “cooling off” period for the gambler to rethink the need for more cash.
From a regulatory perspective, we don’t have any big issues with permitting use of debit or credit cards at the slot machine. Our own experience in several tribal and non-tribal jurisdictions has convinced us that physical separation of ATM and gambling devices has little, if any, impact on compulsive gamblers. In Detroit, for example, the statute required ATMs to be located at least fifty feet from the nearest “gambling device” (slots and tables). As regulators, we dutifully took out our tape measures and carefully gauged the distance. Our meticulous efforts, however, didn’t prevent an off-duty police officer from pulling out his service revolver and blowing his brains out at a blackjack table in the high limit area of one casino. We’ve known compulsive gamblers to drive through blizzards to mountain casinos in Colorado. To appease friends and family, compulsive gamblers put themselves on an exclusion list at one casino and then fly across country to gamble. A few feet between a slot machine and an ATM is not a deterrent to such compulsively driven individuals.
In our view, allowing access to funds at the slot machine could actually give the casino, and the regulator, a better handle on problem gamblers. Regulators could condition approval on a variety of requirements designed to detect or limit abuse. For example, insertion of a player’s card and entry of a secure pin number could be required for downloading cash credits to the slot machine, which could then be used to limit the number or amount of daily withdrawals. Regulators could also require that the machine display a compulsive gambling warning and help line number at each attempt to make a withdrawal. A player withdrawal at a slot machine could also be linked to a compulsive gamblers database that would disable the functionality if a person on an exclusion list were detected. We’re confident that the creative minds of the regulatory community can come up with other conditions to address the compulsive gambling issue in this context.
The bottom line is that the vast majority of slot players are responsible adults and will watch their gambling budget regardless of whether they access their cash from a bank, an ATM, writing a check or even at a slot machine.