Italian retail solution provider CMS Group chose MEI products

The success of the Italian VLT market brings new challenges alongside it. The increased stakes and prizes require a much higher amount of cash at the arcades. Security is key and thus smart safe solutions are an optimal choice to protect stored cash. The smart safe products are used in gaming arcades in Italy and in retail operations around the world.  These machines manage the cash deposit from operations, secure the cash, and enable electronic deposit to the bank account.  Thus, smart safes are used for arcade personnel to predominantly enter excess banknotes into a secure system.

Apart from the banknotes then being stored in a secure safe, a further benefit is that the banks usually offer a special agreement as standard. Thus, as soon as the notes are entered into this safe, these are then transferred to the operator bank account, so the liability of the cash transfers to the bank. The time to transfer the cash to the operator bank account is greatly reduced – often from previously three days to then between one day and even right up to real-time transfers. This gives operators a better overview of their accounts, allowing them much quicker access to this money.

The further major benefit is that the banks (or security company depending on the contract) take responsibility for the money stored. The operator no longer is liable for loss in the case of robbery. In essence, arcade operators benefit because their profits are secured, automatically deposited, and managers and staff have more time to serve their clients.

Such secure safe solutions require the implementation of the most secure money handling equipment in the market place. User friendliness is also key. Therefore, operator personnel need to be able to enter a bundle of notes at a time and these have to be individually validated quickly and securely. A major supplier to this market in Italy is the company called CMS Group. Having extensively examined the bill validator choice in the market place, only one company could fulfil their requirements – namely MEI. The Cashflow SC83 is the only bill validator CMS fits in their product range of secure safes.

Giuseppe Storniolo, marketing manager at CMS Group, explains the company choice, “Security is naturally essential for our MoneyGuard products. The bill validator plays an exceptionally important role. It needs to be quick, 100% secure, handle many notes at one time and be ECB certified. Only the MEI SC83 fulfils these requirements. We fit only the MEI Cashflow SC83. This key component plays a major role in our success.”

James Boje, Vice President - EMEA Retail and Gaming at MEI, notes, “This testimonial from CMS Group speaks volumes. CMS has selected MEI because of the need for security, safety, speed, and efficiency within their smart safe solutions. This places us in a unique position in the marketplace. Arcades rely on CMS because they want to better manage their cashflow while having their arcade staff focused on the operations.  Spending time on counting and securing cash is no longer necessary because of the MEI and CMS partnership. Our technology is helping this market for secure safes to grow. Naturally, the CASHFLOW SC83 is a perfect solution for bill validating in the video lottery terminals as well”.