MEI exhibited at this year’s IMA in D¸sseldorf with a whole range of solutions for note and coin handling.

The change in German law brought about a change in money handling in AWP’s. With higher stakes and payouts available, manufacturers found the necessity to look beyond the traditional coin validator with tube payout system. The popularity of the new multi-game AWP’s has been aided with increased player payment options. A banknote reader integrated in AWP’s has become commonplace and the technology of the MEI Cashflow SC83 banknote reader is making strong progress in Germany. Operators are seeing real advantages in using this product. But let’s look back to how MEI developed this product. Its origins are in the casino industry and MEI spent considerable time researching the market for product improvements. Fitting into the industry standard mechanical dimensions, the SC83 Cashflow offers unique features to the market. These have been developed to provide optimal performance, customer satisfaction and the highest levels of security against frauds and manipulation.

MEI has sold over 500,000 of the Cashflow SC series around the world with major casino operators specifying it. Operators in casinos are invited to trial the product. This value-added trial (VAT) allows the end user to quickly become acquainted with the benefits this product offers. The German market has been introduced to the Cashflow SC83 with very positive feedback. Mikjail Abasow, MEI’s Sales Manager in Germany stated, “The feedback from the IMA has been very positive. We had several operators visit us stating their appreciation of the product. We are bringing real advantages to the German AWP market with our Cashflow SC83. One of its main advantages is the highest level of security against manipulation which is clearly a top requirement for the German AWP market.
With the knowledge of having over half a million units working around the globe, we are very confident in the long-term acceptance of the Cashflow SC83 here in Germany”.
 
At the IMA MEI introduced two completely new products to the market – a bank note recycler and a coin changer.

As we know, the change in the German AWP law has brought about many positive changes. The increase of the game cycle, coupled with higher stakes, has lead to the quick acceptance of the banknote readers. Indeed, the challenge today is ensuring players receive their winnings in full each and every time without service personnel having to partially pay the winnings. Coin hopper payout has increased the number of coins available for pay-out. Nevertheless, coin starvation is a serious subject for operators and manual coin refills are time-consuming and player-unfriendly. The Banknote Recycler - BNR - from MEI solves this issue. With the BNR the operator has up to 460 notes that can be recycled. The cashbox itself can stack up to 600 notes. The BNR can recycle 4 separate note denominations. MEI’s market research has introduced a solution for note starvation. What does this mean? Well, note recyclers can only pay back notes that have been entered. Market research underlines that players like to keep the larger notes won. Thus, operators would like to pay out winnings in smaller notes, preferably EUR 5 notes. However, if players play predominantly with EUR 10 notes and higher, then a EUR 5 note starvation could prevail. The loader module of the BNR is the solution. Approximately 300 notes can be stored in the loader that can de used as a reservoir for paying out the winnings in the note denomination that operators wish for.

The increased interest in bank note recyclers raises the question of the necessity for large coin payout units for future AWP requirements. The Cashflow CF7900 from MEI integrates the coin validator and tube system in one unit. Indeed, the CF7900 has its origins in the vending market and vending machine operators have had years of experience with this product. The CF7900 integrates five pay-out tubes that can be simply adjusted for differing coin payout requirements. For example, up to 75 EUR 2 coins can be stored in one tube. For a configuration of two payout tubes for EUR2, two for EUR 1 and 1 for EUR 0.20, the operator can store just over EUR 450 in coin value. The AWP manufacturer has the advantage that the dimensions of the CF7900 are more compact than the standard solutions. The CF7900 itself is simple to use and incorporates a whole range of features.