Walker Digital to show Perfect Pay Blackjack at G2E Asia
Walker Digital Table Systems LLC, already known in Macau and other major gaming markets for its bet-tracking ‘smart’ table, Perfect Pay Baccarat, plans to show its blackjack-compatible version at the Global Gaming Expo (G2E) Asia casino trade show in Macau this week.
“We will be demonstrating Perfect Pay Blackjack at this G2E [Asia in] Macau and a couple of titles should be in production later this year,” said Stephen Moore, Walker Digital’s chief executive, in comments to GGRAsia.
He added, referring to casino games that use a ‘D-shape’ table layout: “Our first D-style tables – blackjack, three-card poker, Ultimate Texas Hold’em, etc – are planned to be in production prior to the end of [this] year and will come to [the] Macau [market] around second-quarter 2025.”
The CEO stated: “At G2E [Las] Vegas last year we launched Perfect Pay Blackjack and Perfect Table with bet tracking. Perfect Table with bet tracking can be configured for other D-style card games.”
Walker Digital says its technology enables casino firms to optimise management of critical operational matters such as oversight of casino currency, bet placement, bet settlement and player ratings.
The company uses a form of radio frequency identification (RFID) know-how called phase jitter modulation (PJM). Walker Digital holds intellectual property rights in relation to that technology.
PJM – currently in version 3.0 – makes possible high-volume, high-speed and secure communication between RFID-tagged casino chips and Walker Digital tables and other products it has fitted with antenna.
In terms of the company’s current suite of baccarat table products, it offers casino operators modular options.
Perfect Pay is described by the company as “fully featured,” and is said to offer “perfect payouts and payout protection with overpay alerts”.
The Perfect Table product suite (pictured, baccarat) includes a chip tray with dealer tools and can optionally be used to do player ratings. Perfect Table needs to be teamed with Perfect Pay to get the benefit of the latter’s full range of security benefits, stated the maker.
A third product, called Perfect Cage, allows casino cage cashiers to manage window transactions, along with player chip attribution, and automates fills and credits between the cage and tables.
Aside from gaming operators’ perennial focus on game security, Walker Digital says it can also offer the casinos the ability to rate accurately the value of players to their operation, regardless of whether the players are registered or unregistered: “carded or uncarded” in the casino industry jargon.
A number of investment analysts covering Macau has recently commented about market competition on “player reinvestment” rates, expressed as a percentage of players’ gross gaming revenue (GGR), and whether “irrational” competition between operators could erode industry margins.
Tracking the uncarded, use with AI
On high-volume play floors – and in cases where players are not registered – if casino staff formulate player ratings purely by observation, it may leave significant margin for error.
Walker Digital says its technology makes it possible for a casino to keep track even of an uncarded player.
“A buy-in at the table or cage creates a uniquely-identified bankroll of chips,” Mr Moore stated. “Tracking uniquely-identified anonymous players across the casino provides insight into player behaviour and value.
He added: “Uncarded anonymous play combined with AI [artificial intelligence] value forecasting may trigger an anonymous host call if it matches casino defined cohorts.”
The use of play-value triggers to spur the involvement of a casino host “has been done for decades,” noted Mr Moore.
“But with chip attribution, the AI host trigger is not just a single session at a single table, but a real-time alert based on the behaviour and life cycle of the chips in a particular anonymous bankroll across all sessions and tables,” he added.
A buy-in at the table or cage utilising Walker Digital technology creates a uniquely identified bankroll of chips that it is possible to associate to a player loyalty programme member ID, marketing programme ID or a unique anonymous ID created by the system, said the CEO.
“In markets where facial recognition is allowed on the casino floor, the casino will associate buy-ins with players with great accuracy. Without facial recognition, you have human eyeballs and the potential for collusion” between a staff member and a player, he notes.
Mr Moore also told GGRAsia: “PJM 3.0 is an RFID tag we launched in 2018 with optimised memory and faster performance.
“We will be launching PJM 5.0 at G2E Las Vegas,” in October, he added.
PJM5.0 “is a combination PJM & NFC [near-field communication] chip with increased performance,” the Walker Digital CEO stated.
NFC technology permits very close-range communication between electronic devices. General consumers are in likelihood most familiar with NFC when it enables an app-associated electronic wallet on a smartphone, to communicate with a payment terminal in a shop: a process commonly referred to as “tapping”.
Mr Moore stated: “PJM 5.0 will be powering player loyalty card taps and NFC player phone taps.”
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