Cash is Dethroned as King at Swedish Casinos

Around the globe, the adage of “Cash is King” has slowly been fading into obscurity thanks to the contact health risks posed by hard currency and the growing obsession with digital currencies.

Casinos have been at the forefront of introducing cashless gambling systems given the logistical and health requirements of handling large volumes of cash from a wide variety of patrons.

 Sweden Leads the Charge

Sweden has been one country that has committed time, money, and additional resources to provide the gambling industry and its fans with the safest and the smoothest experience possible.

The state-owned gambling regulator Svenska Spel initiated a project in 2019 that introduced cashless payment solutions for slot machines located in bars, restaurants, and bingo halls across Sweden.

The project was a huge undertaking for Svenska Spel as it required the integration of mobile payment system Swish and IGT’s IGTPay module which operates on their bespoke INTELLIGEN™ platform. Successful completion of the mammoth project saw the management of several project managers, UIX designers, IT architects, financial sector analysts and business analysts fall to Svenska Spel.

However, with more than 90% of all land-based gambling at Sweden’s licensed venues now being handled without the need for physical cash the project has clearly been a huge success for all concerned.

The UK Raises a Red Flag

The UK Gambling Commission has been researching the long term effects of cashless transactions and gambling behaviours and has brought attention to the dangers of overspending.

In the ongoing debate around the video game industry and its underhanded monetisation programs, the use of token and digital coins such as VBucks (in the case of Fortnite) has been raised several times as a way to disassociate the user from the true value of their purchases.

The Commission has noted a similar dissociative tendency when players begin to shift from making cash payments to digital payments.

As part of their Consumer Voice research campaign, they found the following:

• 85% said contactless payment methods made overspending very easy.
• 13% said cashless purchases meant they spent a lot more than their budgeted amount, compared to 1% when using cash money.
• 77% said this increased spending meant they gambled for longer than intended.
• 68% found it more difficult to keep track of how much was being spent during a session.

One of the simplest solutions in this regard is to follow the example of online casinos and implement a notification system related to gambling transactions. This notification could stack gambling-related transactions in any 24 to 72-hour window giving players a real-time view of their current spending and losses.