Hollywood Casino in Charles Town, West Virginia, was allowed by the state regulator to move forward with plans to go cashless, reported news outlet MetroNews.
Pros and Cons
The Hollywood Casino is aiming to go cashless as part of a broad strategy across casinos operated by Penn National Gaming under which the operator’s land-based gaming properties in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan already introduced cashless gaming.
The commission members discussed the proposal by the casino at their last month’s meeting and while some spoke in favor of the proposal, others like the commission’s chair Ken Greear were not quite convinced and wanted to make sure it was the right move before issuing the final approval.
“It’s just a matter of making sure the players do not have something that interrupts and or makes their enjoyment of the game more cumbersome or something that doesn’t work well,” stated Greear.
Unlike Greear, Doug Bicksler spoke in favor of the proposal, stating that going cashless could not be “more cumbersome than cash,” while Lottery Commission member Roy Shrewsbury needed to “see it in action” to get a “better feeling.”
Need to See It in Action
The commissioners united around the idea that the project should move forward but they would need to see it in action first before giving their final approval. According to estimations, it will take several months for Penn National to go through the testing process and video lottery machines will also need modification.
According to the vice president and general manager of Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Scott Saunders, the casino would be able to go cashless later this year. Saunders, who spoke to the reporting media, also outlined that once people get to know cashless gaming, they will become more comfortable with it.
“I think the digital wallet and digital platform is the way many businesses are going and we want to make sure we are a part of that moving forward,” Saunders added.
Cashless gaming would lead to players spending more at the casino, industry experts Darren Simmons and Omer Sattar believe. The pair spoke at the AGS GameON Customer Summit and shared their vision during a panel dedicated to the future of cashless payments.
The EVP at Every Holdings Simmons and co-CEO of Sightline Payments Sattar also share the vision that despite the advancement in cashless gaming, physical money will not be eliminated from gaming floors in the near future.
