Gold Country Inn & Casino in Elko, Nevada is getting ready to launch a trial of a new gambling machine ticket technology, developed by Acres Technology. The system, called “ticket in, bonus out,” or TIBO, is being hyped as a way to generate more revenue for casinos.
With the traditional “ticket in, ticket out” (TITO), a customer puts money into a machine and received a ticket upon cash out that can be put into another machine or redeemed at the cage. With TIBO, the system predicts when the customer is close to the end of their session and then prints a ticket that gives them bonus spins.
Amazon knows my preferences, Netflix knows my preferences. The gaming floor should be the same.”
“It’s real-time personalization,” Noah Acres, COO of Acres Technology and the son of its founder, John, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “Amazon knows my preferences, Netflix knows my preferences. The gaming floor should be the same.”
John and Noah Acres say TIBO can be personalized in any way a casino sees fit to offer all sorts of rewards and play incentives.
Not everyone thinks TIBO is a great idea, though. Amanda Blackford, Director of Operations and Problem Gambling Services at the Ohio Casino Control Commission, recently said that systems that extend play are “one of the big risk factors” for potential problem gamblers.
“If they get a bonus, that could be incredibly damaging because they think there’s something special about them…” she told a reporter at the National Council of Legislators from Gaming States in Denver last month, “…they think they’re super lucky, they deserve this, and that can send them into a real tailspin, so that is concerning to me.”