Gaming industry supplier TransAct Technologies Inc is looking to focus its promotional efforts for the rest of this year on its newest casino ticket-in, ticket-out (TITO) printer, called Epic Edge, and to integrate its Epicentral software – for promotions and player bonuses – with the major casino management system providers in Asia.
So said Rashid Suliman (pictured), vice president – Asia Pacific, global gaming and lottery at TransAct Technologies. Mr Suliman made the remarks to GGRAsia following the three-day industry trade show Global Gaming Expo (G2E) Asia 2019, held in Macau.
“The rest of this year offers the opportunity to maintain our strong current business relationships with casinos, manufacturers, and systems companies. As the Epic Edge is approved, we definitely want to promote it as the next-generation casino TITO printer in Asia and throughout the rest of the world,” Mr Suliman stated.
The Epic Edge printer was showcased during the trade show. The new product is said to have “over twofold” improvement” of print-image quality compared to current options in the industry. This is on the basis the new printer offers 300-dpi resolution, enabling it to print materials across a wide array of languages, and thus to fit the needs of an increasingly-globalised casino industry.
“The ‘Edge’ [Epic Edge printer] creates razor-sharp barcodes for better ticket acceptance and reduced attendant calls,” Mr Suliman noted, adding that this feature could help casinos’ slot and table operations to run at “peak efficiency”.
The Epic Edge TITO printer allows for firmware updates via a USB2.0 connection or directly via a micro SD card. The printer is also equipped with serial and USB interfaces that are all built into a single board, a feature that allows a casino operator to activate an individual printer in a particular gaming machine if its so wishes.
Additional features of the Epic Edge printer include an adjustable ticket bucket, which can accommodate standard and “smaller, paper-saving” tickets to work with environmental-sustainability programmes adopted by casinos, according to TransAct.
Regarding the Epicentral software system, Mr Suliman told GGRAsia: “There has also been elevated interest and demand for loyalty products throughout Asia, and we plan to integrate the Epicentral software system with the major systems providers in Asia to provide a seamless coupon and loyalty experience for the casino operators.”
Upgrades to Epicentral include the ability to run multiple promotions at the same time; create games within games; run different promotions on different slot game banks; segment players by marketing tier; and offer promotions to different levels of “uncarded” players. The latter term is used in the industry to denote players that are not already signed up to casino loyalty schemes.
The latest iteration of Epicentral software suite also enables detailed activity reports for casino operators. On the players’ side, the product also allows for redemption, printing and reprinting of bonuses at multiple locations, according Mr Suliman.
“Our clients have experienced major success with Epicentral. We’re happy to say that Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut [in the United States] increased its lower-tier player ADTs [average daily theoretical] by over 50 percent when they incorporated our software. Epicentral has also encouraged repeat visits and boosted loyal customer base at Hippodrome Casino in London,” Mr Suliman remarked to us.
