The gaming company International Game Technology PLC (IGT) yesterday received a patent for a technology that will allow its customers to pay with cryptocurrencies at slot machines in the future. This means that the conventional payment options in casinos and arcades could soon be supplemented by Bitcoin, Ether and Co.
As from that filed in the United States Patent and Trademark Office Patent [Seite auf Englisch] shows, the system enables the transfer of cryptocurrencies between the player account and an external cryptocurrency account. Thus, players could move currencies such as Bitcoin, Ether or Tether from their smartphones to their virtual wallets on a slot machine.
IGT company spokesman Phil O’Shaughnessy told Bloomberg:
IGT secured this patent to strengthen its industry-leading patent portfolio in anticipation of a possible future direction of regulated gaming with cryptocurrency.
The patent is not just limited to slot machines. With it, cryptocurrencies could also be used for other games of chance, such as sports betting and lottery games, in the future.
According to industry analysts at Bloomberg, paying with cryptocurrencies for gambling is especially attractive for younger players. The Covid-19 pandemic caused growing interest in Bitcoin, especially among Generation Y. 44% of them planned to acquire this cryptocurrency within the next five years. This is of crucial importance for gambling companies because, for example, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, a third of the guests are between 21 and 40 years old.
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“New Era” of cashless gaming
The patenting of payment technology for Kypto currencies is only one step towards cashless payments in gambling establishments. Yesterday, IGT also announced that the Nevada Gaming Authority is introducing the cashless payment system Resort Wallet have approved. This marked the beginning of a “new era” in cashless gaming.
With their resort wallet card, players could transfer cash between the casino cash register or a slot machine with a resort wallet card module and their digital wallet, according to yesterday’s press release from IGT.
Other gambling operators are already relying on such cashless payment systems. The casino operator Boyd Gaming announced in October that it would have one on its slot machines Resort Wallet to have installed.
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