GGRAsia – Aruze gets Walker RFID as moves into casino chips

Aruze gets Walker RFID as moves into casino chips

Jul 18, 2018 Newsdesk Latest News, Top of the deck, Trends & Tech, World

Aruze Gaming America Inc has signed a licensing deal with casino game automation company Walker Digital Table Systems LLC that will help Aruze, hitherto a maker of electronic games, enter the casino chip market.

According to an Aruze press release, the deal gives it access to Walker Digital’s PJM3.0 radio frequency identification (RFID) chip technology, which claims to be the world’s fastest, most secure and most reliable for the purposes of tracking casino chips during gaming operations. PJM stands for ‘phase jitter modulation’, said to provide particularly robust and high-frequency signals, making the technology faster at reading tags embedded in chips and more secure than other forms of RFID tracking.

Aruze said it would use Walker’s “industry-leading technology” to power a new line of casino gaming chips that can be tracked by their RFID tags. Aruze plans to introduce its casino chips and RFID casino chips to the industry before the end of this year, with the first product installation in a casino venue planned for October.

“We intend to be a major market disrupter, with the best technologies and prices that are often half that our competitors are charging. Walker Digital’s PJM3.0TM technology coupled with our chips allows us to provide a turnkey product to our customers,” said Eric Persson, Aruze Gaming’s global chief operating officer and the president of Aruze Gaming America.

Aruze’s core offer has been electronic gaming devices that include high-resolution video and stepper slot machines, communal gaming platforms and multi-terminal devices. Speaking to GGRAsia at the Global Gaming Expo Asia 2018 casino industry trade show in May, Mr Persson said the company was a “dominant leader” in electronic table games in Asia.

Earlier this month, Aruze Gaming America said it would soon start operating in Cyprus and Greece, as the company expands its business in Europe.

“We are growing aggressively really all over the globe,” Mr Persson said in May. “Our sales in Europe have doubled year-over-year. In North America we are up 80 percent for the last nine months, and are up over 50 percent in the last 12 months.”

Walker Digital Table Systems is a Las Vegas-based company with a branch office in Macau. In 2015, the company licensed its RFID tag technology to casino currency and table layout company Matsui Gaming Machine Co Ltd.

Walker Digital’s technology has also been licensed to casino chip maker Gaming Partners International Corp.