ogether with its local partner, the MEI Cashflow SC83 has become the bill validator of choice for the Portuguese casino market. In early 2007, MEI teamed up with local partner, Trade Game and since then the business relationship has flourished on the combination of service and product performance. Trade Game has over twenty years of experience in the market place and serves as a distributor for major slots manufacturers in Portugal, including Novomatic, Bally, WMS, Unidesa and Orion.
Trade Game represents approximately 65% of machines purchased in Portugal. Therefore, the company has had many years of experience in banknote reader technology and was able to cast not only an expert but also a critical eye on the MEI Cashflow SC83.
Marcos Pinto, Trade Game's International Operations Manager explains, “Representing major slots manufacturers in Portugal means that we have many years of experience with bill readers. We first got to know the MEI Cashflow product back in early 2007. We had heard some very good comments in the market place and wanted to get to know it. More importantly, we wanted to gain our own experience with this product”.
The fundamentally new technology that the MEI Cashflow SC83 offers quickly convinced Trade Game that they were dealing with something special. Trade Game then focused on passing on this information to the local casinos. Convinced of the MEI technology, Trade Game offered all casinos the possibility to get to know it via the VAT process (value-added trial). With such a strong reputation in the market place, casino managers trusted Trade Game and were confident in their newest offering.
Carlos Campos, technical director at Casino Lisboa of the Estoril Sol Group, explained, “MEI was introduced to Casino Lisboa in 2007. Considering the company in question, Casino Lisboa agreed to a trial. The results have been very positive with practically zero rejects of true notes. The reliability of the MEI is very solid. Furthermore, Trade Game offers high quality service to us. Therefore, Casino Lisboa will gladly accept MEI bill acceptors with new slot machine purchases”.
The Soverde casino group gave similar rave reviews. Fernando Fernandes is the General Manager at Casino Espinho and Casino Chaves. He sums up his experience with the MEI Cashflow as follows, “The MEI bill acceptor is of great technical quality associated with its simple operation. Fast note and ticket acceptance with minimal true note rejections provide great game play. We have the trusted technical assistance of Trade Game. These reasons, associated with our past experience with other bill acceptors, determined our choice for MEI. We now choose MEI bill acceptors as our standard equipment for Casino Espinho and Casino Chaves when purchasing machines.” Fernandes went on to give a specific example: “Since the opening of Casino Chaves on the 19th January, of the 296 machines acquired, 188 are equipped with MEI bill acceptors, meaning 64% of the machines purchased. This percentage will continue to grow”.
Mark Greenawalt, MEI's European Gaming Director, comments, “The Portuguese market is of fundamental importance to MEI. With the Cashflow SC83 we know that we were bringing value to the table. The question was to find the right partner. From the start, we knew we had the right partner in Trade Game. Within eighteen months Trade Game has introduced our product to all the casinos and worked with each so they are seeing the benefits. It's a fantastic result to have all of the casinos in Portugal now specifying the MEI Cashflow SC83 in new slots purchases. We are very grateful of the excellent work that Trade Game is doing for us and thank them for their support. Moreover, I would like to thank each of the casino groups for their confidence and support. We appreciate their business”.
