[Music] hi joe thanks for joining us today i appreciate it thanks for having me yeah it's our pleasure to have you on we've got plenty to talk about with with payments with results world and gaming in general um a first question for you is how you found your time as a ceo of siteline payments so far and what's it like being away from world pay after so long well i tell you what after 30 years at world pay which provided a great foundation it's been incredibly exciting to be part of this sight line organization when you think about our focus on our people the innovation the the building out the platform in the strategic partnerships we've been established it's been incredibly exciting i mean if you think about it we've we've almost doubled the size of the organization we're leading the digital transformation of the gaming industry we've had a very unique uh strategic acquisition as it related to a mobile platform and we continue to build out uh the strategic partnerships that are incredibly powerful in this industry and more importantly it's building out and having the best talent in the industry on the people's side so it's been fun we've been moving fast and it's it's what we've expected but being able to do so by leveraging and having that entrepreneurial spirit which is you know been the heart of the sightline organization uh everything i've expected and more and we're incredibly bullish about what's ahead uh for the organization we're here in large part to talk about the growth of cashless payments uh sorry um can you can you give us some kind of figures or examples to show how much it has grown in recent times because you know as we all kind of understand it's been quite a large growth yeah but in and if if you think about tim you you have the evolution of this expedited movement uh from a digital perspective with the legalization and permissibility of internet gaming and or sports betting on a jurisdictional basis and when you think about as a result of covid19 which became an accelerator for the movement of cashless as it relates to the integrated casino resort in this digital transformation you have this massive opportunity in the market to truly stitch together the digital side and bring that back down to the integrated casino resorts what we're seeing is if you just look at in-store mobile payments acceptance today that had 29 growth and then when we take back and we look at the recent studies about 60 percent of all casino visitors say they are less likely to use cash and obviously when you think about this digital transformation happening in the gaming industry obviously it's well documented on the growth on the digital side but working through the adoption the education sharing best practices and truly bringing together of two highly complex industries the payment industry and the gaming industry finally converging in the payment industry infiltrating the the land-based casino we are incredibly bullish about that growth so it's still very new you've only had a handful of properties uh start to engage with cashless acceptance you have multiple flavors of cash list that's being introduced in the market and our goal at sightline is to really unpack those different business models and flavors to crystallize that user experience so everyone understands what those cash lists means so when you take a look at just the historical and other vertical markets what mobile has meant we are very excited about the initial trends and the utilization we know we have a lot a lot of work to do from a industry perspective in terms of driving that adoption and that seamless user experience but you know we're very excited about where we're at more importantly where the industry is going you've mentioned a few factors there for kind of this the this rise this this surge how much of it has been down to the covert 19 pandemic recently and how much of it was already on the rise so great question so i would tell you the industry had already been collaborating there are many great companies in the industry that play a key role in the evolution of in the digital transformation the cashless i will tell you conversations had already been ongoing but as a result of the pandemic it became an accelerant for many different reasons that's where you truly started to see alignment with legislation if there was legislative movement needed a movement related to the gaming regulators the key ancillary service providers the operators the networks everyone within the ecosystem started to collaborate about what might be possible to help transform the industry as a result of the pandemic and what we've all learned and we've always knew the gaming industry is very resilient they found a way to continue to reinvent the business models how might it be possible to drive a seamless in a very safe secure environment a seamless experience and cobin became the accelerator of that so conversations had always been ongoing but it was never that catalyst to truly drive the motivation to how might this be possible to get it done and that's what you've seen with you know a number of properties and and obviously with resorts world that became the the first casino to go live where you can conduct and facilitate a financial transaction anywhere on property and do so via cashless absolutely that's the perfect segue into my next question i was going to talk about obviously that the big announcement was recently with the resorts world and it opened um a few weeks ago a couple weeks ago that kind of thing uh and obviously you mentioned via sightlines our play plus solution when did planning for this partnership start oh man the collaboration started you know quite some time ago before the property was even uh being built we knew it was going to be built in in the leadership team of resorts world and all the key providers and ancillary service providers that were going to be a part of this historic event really centered around how can we be the technology leader how can we create a smart casino how can we do things differently that's truly going to provide this safe secure seamless environment and being able to do so that leverages this new technical era that we're in and truly bringing innovation into the gaming industry in all aspects and you know great companies like you know konami nrt join go from a mobile platform of which uh obviously is part of the siteline family via acquisition igt on the digital side with sports betting so there was strong collaboration between the industry that started quite some time ago in terms of how could we aid this smart casino and this innovation that was taking place that i believe will become obviously the accelerator to truly driving cashless throughout the u.s or north american gaming industry was part of the appeal here the fact that resorts world las vegas is a new property and so starting from scratch sort of trumps overturning maybe an existing system that worked with kind of older functions yeah i think i think that's a good point i think having the ability to uh build this from the ground up and understanding and having a key strategy of how would payments or or cashless become part of that strategy and building out the casino property i think obviously helped but what i think it does do is it allows other casino properties or operators whether you're a destination resort a loca in the locals market or a tribal casino or what have you it truly shows the power of innovation and how payments can become the nucleus to provide a seamless experience regardless of the point of interaction whether it's on the digital side whether it's back down in the brick and mortar on the gaming floor on the non-gaming floor and how can i start to drive uh consumer engagement or patreon engagement and being doing so via that mobile device in that mobile app which is part of tim it's part of our everyday life and everything we do that mobile phone and those apps drive engagement and it allowed resorts world sets the stage for the gaming industry to understand what is my digital strategy how can i drive a lifetime player value how can i drive better acquisition what becomes that instrument that constantly gives me a way to engage with the patron or the consumer that's the mobile app and the mobile device and that's what resort world does is to really allow that new era or this new innovation to start to play out and it gives us all the ability to see this being done in a true omni-channel environment at resorts world there's no real overstating this is this is quite a huge uh project can you talk us through the process of kind of making it happen from the development stage to uh very much through to making it a reality yeah i mean again everyone has i think it was the the strong leadership team of resorts world they had great clarity and division they had great clarity in what the strategy would look like they chose breast best and breed partners everyone clearly knew what their role and responsibility and and then the ability to bring that collaboration on literally daily and weekly calls on how might this be possible to stitch all this technology and this innovation together then being able to how can we provide that in a very seamless experience back to the consumer so the process is very simple you have to download the app you enroll in the program the genting's reward you get credentialized and then obviously you can fund the account by opening up the play plus account so it's a very seamless process of download the app enroll you get credentialized and then you have the ability to fund and seamlessly move money in and out of that account whether it's funding a slot machine a table game i want to move winnings back into my financial account and then i want to go use it at retail hospitality maybe at the sports book so really having that clarity and vision and strategy and being able to drive that collaboration obviously is a testament and a compliment to the resort's uh world leadership team and and that's where it all started and a lot of heavy lifting a lot of sweat equity a lot of spirited debates on how might this be possible to create the best user experience that's never been seen before in the gaming industry now one thing i wanted to ask you you touched on this earlier do you see resorts world and this partnership uh transforming the industry as a game changer or will there will there still be an element of a large portion of the audience eventually going back to cash once they kind of gain a sense of i guess you could say normality no i think i think this truly is going to drive the transformation of the industry i mean it's going to take a very disciplined approach it's going to take time there's going to be a lot of thought leadership a lot of education whether it's on the regulatory side or the consumer side there's going to have to be strong collaboration of all the key partners within the industry so it's going to take time to truly get consumers or patrons to understand the value add understand the utility understand the benefits of uh how can i seamlessly move money in and out things of that nature so this isn't like turning on a light switch in the industry changes no different than when the industry went from coin to tito it's going to be a nurturing process and a lot of education but what i will tell you is when everyone starts to understand the benefit about that consumer engagement and the ability to truly provide and create a single player identity regardless of their doing activity online on the gaming floor or off the gaming floor the ability of now to connecting with the consumer or patron is much different than it was before given the anonymous nature of cash the ability of having and conducting and facilitating cashless activity now allows you to have a nice audit trail of every single transaction of the behavior understanding your the the dna of who you are what are your preferences how can i better incentivize you what are your motivations so it truly is going to transform the industry but it's going to take time and it's going to take a very disciplined approach in terms of how we get there and that is what sightline has helped lead amongst with many other great companies that play that unique their unique role in the space but we feel very bullish about the evolution of where this industry is going and you are not going to see a course correction where everything starts to revert back to cash think about our everyday lives in terms of how we conduct and facilitate commerce everything is done via that mobile device or via via done in a cashless environment because you already have inherited consumer protections that already exist within the payment ecosystem now that's obviously being converging with the gaming industry so a lot of movement very exciting but we know there's still a lot of heavy lifting that needs to take place a lot of education and uh we're in it for a long haul so uh we're going to be there absolutely um a final topic i wanted to discuss with you uh joe and and you mentioned the the audit trail just just then i think that i might link to this uh in some way i wanted to bring in kind of responsible gamble because it's obviously it's a topic we cover a lot that's been central to the industry um when it comes to cashless it's been raised a couple of times can digital payments help players gamble more responsibly or you know is there inevitably kind of an added risk of a temptation to to spend more because you say if a player's got chips and and cash you know they might budget for the evening whereas with cassius there might be you know more of a chance to say you know i've gone over my budget i can deposit more yeah i would i would tell you obviously uh we will always keep a mindful eye in regards and in responsible gaming is one of the key pillars at sightline whenever you introduce a new solution new innovation to an industry you want to understand the impact i will tell you the ability to conduct a financial transaction and doing so for a cashless environment provides that audit trail there are inherited velocity and controls that are embedded within the payment ecosystem uh the ability to do self monitoring i can set my own controls i can set my own budget my own limit also what we all have to remember is the financial institution uh whether i'm using a debit card or a credit card in this example the financial institution or my bank actually sets the limits of how much can i use for some type of gaming and or wagering activity so there's already a consumer protection filled in and in that example if i joe papano had a 20 000 open to buy limit on my credit card only a small portion of that would be able to be used in some form of gaming uh and or wagering type activity the way the ecosystem works why we have mcc codes and that could be a whole different discussion but you have all these i call it a belt and suspender approach the self-monitoring you take a look at all the tools and the resources that casinos have had for years in regards to education and awareness but when you have the anonymous nature of cash and now you have the ability to audit the activity of what joe papano is doing on multiple different cards at multiple different properties and being able to aggregate that up creates a much different what we believe a much more responsible way to conduct any form of gaming and or wagering activity with the automation or uh providing a digital uh cashless type environment based on a lot of the controls that already exist well joe thank you very much for your time answers and analysis and good luck at sightline and with the resource world project as well much appreciated thanks for having me and good luck and talk to you soon you