From Casino Journal.

Four financial powerhouses join forces to provide a one-stop shop to meet every casino’s financial service needs.

Four well-known financial-service providers have merged to form Global Cash Access, a new venture that offers a host of comprehensive products and services derived from the most efficient technologies from each contributing partner.

The newly formed company is based in Sunnyvale, Calif., and is comprised of Bank of America, BA Merchant Services, First Data Financial Services and USA Processing. The company has offices in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Denver, San Francisco and Nashville.

While this new company showed off its new look and product offerings at the recent World Gaming Congress in Las Vegas, the venture didn’t just happen overnight. In fact, the consolidation process began in January when First Data Corp.’s financial arm acquired Comdata Gaming Services, which had been a long-time provider of financial services for the gaming market. After acquiring Comdata Gaming Services, FDFS announced a joint venture in July, which unified the company with BA Merchant Services Inc. and USA Processing Inc.

BA Merchant Services is the nation’s fourth-largest processor of credit card transactions and the leading processor of debit transactions. USA Processing is a non-bank institution that provides electronic payment systems. Bank of America is the largest banking institution in the Western United States.

This final creation of Global Cash Access integrates all of the active partners and stands to provide casino operators with better technology and more efficiency than ever.
This new company now provides a full range of electronic funds transfer and other services to more than 1,200 gaming properties nationwide. First Data Financial Services will own 58 percent of the new venture, while the other three partners will share a combined 42 percent of the company.

“The commitment to innovation and quality is part of the history of each company involved in this venture,” says Karim Maskatiya, chief executive officer of Global Cash Access. “As a combination of these four ventures, Global Cash Access is able to offer customers comprehensive cash access and financial management services utilizing the most current technologies and superior customer service.”

Ultimate Solutions
Essentially, each of the four partners bring their own expertise, products and services to the table, which has allowed Global Cash Access executives to mix, match and merge the different technologies to create ultimate solutions.

In addition to its numerous cash-access services, the new company is the exclusive service provider of TeleCheck check guarantee and authorization and Western Union wire transfer services.

Effectively, Global Cash Access now offers the best that all its partners have to offer, making technology easier and more user-friendly for the gaming operator.

According to Kirk Sanford, executive vice president of sales, marketing and product development for Global Cash Access, one of the most innovative advancements is the move to a client-server network.

Prior to the merger, First Data used POS (point-of-sale) devices that were based on mainframe computer technology. Sanford says that while Comdata and FDFS were prominent in the industry, its POS technology had certain limitations.

“BofA was able to bring the latest and greatest technology to the table, which meant First Data’s POS technology could migrate onto a client-server platform,” Sanford says. “That client-server network allows flexibility for the casino customer, which includes, but isn’t limited to, the all-in-one ATM, the POS device with touch-screen access and the Internet reporting option.”

A big benefit of the client-server architecture, according to Sanford, is the automation, which not only speeds transaction processes but allows operators to trim their staff requirements because processes are now easier to perform.

“With this architecture, you’re able to offer efficiency,” Sanford says. “In your back office, everything is fully automated. When it becomes automated, you have a reduction in bodies necessary, which means you’re then able to pass that value along to your customers.”

Global Cash Access’ Casino Cash Plus single source ATM product utilizes this client-server platform, which allows casino operators to offer ATM, POS debit and credit-card cash advances from the same footprint. The company can also outfit its Casino Cash Plus ATMs with a video monitor “top hat,” which can be used to run any type of promotional footage a casino desires.

The client-server network has also been put to use in the company’s QuikCash cash-access product, which provides credit card and POS advances within 15 seconds of a customer’s request. Sanford also says the QuikCash product is the industry’s first POS cash-access product to be “Smart” card ready.

“There’s no one else that can offer this type of power,” Sanford explains. “As a property, I would think that operators are going to be excited that nothing has changed except that everything is getting better in terms of technology and support. They’re also going to be dealing with the same people that they have been dealing with over the years, which I’m sure will be assuring to many.”

“The commitment to innovation and quality is part of the history of each company involved in this venture. As a combination of four ventures, Global Cash Access is able to offer customers comprehensive cash access and financial management services utilizing the most current technologies and superior customer service”

QuikCash Plus
For cage operations, Global Cash Access offers its QuikCash Plus product, which features PC-based, networked cashier work stations, which have access to a patron data base of more than 80 million. The work stations all feature touch-screen interfaces and generate real-time transactions, which gives cage operators the flexibility to generate activity and balance reports on demand.

“[The QuikCash Plus product] is very user-friendly,” Sanford says. “Minimal computer knowledge is necessary to operate it. It features a new touch screen for easy navigation. It also has a small footprint, a custom coupon capability and a state-of-the-art printer that requires no warm-up time before use.”

In addition to operating without a required warm-up time, the QuikCash Plus laser printer has the ability to imprint a unique MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition) number on every check it prints.

Not only does this eliminate the need for check-inventory tracking, but Sanford says the system also eliminates fraudulent checks, because every MICR number printed is unique, unalterable and internally remembered so it’s never duplicated.

According to Sanford, Global Cash Access is the first financial service provider to offer its own call-in service center, which has been outfitted with its own “knowledge-based” software system. That system, he says, makes it possible to train new employees quicker than usual.

“Call centers usually have a high turnover rate,” Sanford says. “It usually takes two or three weeks to effectively train someone. With this system’s software, you can usually have someone up and running in a matter of hours.”

The software system developed by Global Cash Access, Sanford says, was also designed to help process and assist each call quickly and efficiently.

In addition to providing its products and services to casino operators, Global Cash Access gives operators the opportunity to out-source its financial services. By out-sourcing its services, Global Cash Access would set up its own booth at a casino and handle all financial services for the casino.

The Web and Beyond
One of the more notable features of the combined companies’ offerings is the Internet reporting option, which allows casino operators to access commission, transaction activity and marketing reports through a secure Internet service, rather than by sorting through stacks of paper printouts.

Sanford says this new option alleviates the hassles of manually sorting through hard copies and puts valuable information in a place that has rapidly become a part of everyday life.

“When you think of the size of the market today and how many transactions actually occur over our vast network, you can imagine how many inches thick the various reports can be,” Sanford says. “I’ve seen reports as thick as a phone book, so this capability is a real benefit.”

Because he says the service is simply for accessing and copying information, it can be used by multiple people simultaneously÷another benefit of the company’s client-server architecture.

“If two different people had their own lap-top computer and wanted to use the Internet reporting service, they could both be out surfing the web, come to our web site, access this feature and access their reports with their own user name and password prompt,” Sanford says. “It really gives the operator a new media to take data from and do the various massaging and manipulations of data for their own purposes without the hard copy.”

According to Sanford, operators using the Internet reporting service are not able to alter information, but they are able to copy it for their own use. In addition, he says Global Cash Access has implemented safeguards to ensure that users only access their own property’s reports, rather than information generated elsewhere.

With all its varying components and service offerings, Sanford and Maskatiya agree that this new venture is sure to provide an answer wherever there’s a financial service question. In effect, the merger brings a host of technology and synergy into one place, which means operators never have to go very far for the solutions they need.

“The advantage of technology is that it allows us to provide newer, better solutions that work better, more efficiently and benefit the property and its patrons,” Sanford says.