Consultants’ doubts over AGA digital payments plan

A report released by consultancy Eilers & Krejcik, who specialise in gambling-related topics, has criticised the American Gaming Association’s stance on permitting digital payments at land-based casinos.

The AGA had last week released its Principles For Casino Gaming Payments Modernization, the result of an 18-month investigation. It was designed to offer a plan for regulatory flexibility, leading to digital payments at casinos.

The principles behind the plan were explored by the consultancy and it concludes that the plans lay the industry open to fraud.

Eilers & Krejcik say that the limits for deposits session times and betting are “well developed” but will have limited impact because of the continued presence of anonymity of cash.

“We believe that the empowerment of self-monitoring could be valuable for the willing customers. In addition to customer imposed alerts, we suggest that anomalous betting or payment patterns alert the player so that they can be aware that they may want to consider adjusting their behaviour,” the company stated.

The consultants also raise the dangers of adding convenience that may also add opportunities for problem gambling. New payment options, it warns, bring fraud opportunities that do not currently exist on the casino floor.

“Converting stolen cards to cash is one of several vulnerabilities that will present themselves. The innovation of cashless options far outweighs the issues but we need to have mitigating controls to offset the risk.”