´COVID brought an unexpected demand for new technology solutions´

What can you evaluate about the current situation of the sector, one year after the beginning of the pandemic?

Looking back over the past year, one thing that stands out is the resiliency of the global gaming industry. It was remarkable to see the way the entire industry adapted during the pandemic to support local communities with food banks, vaccination sites, and community support projects; while at the same time remaining open, where jurisdictional restrictions allowed, or quickly adopting health and safety protocols to get casino operations open again and help put people back to work to provide for their families. The creativity, ingenuity, and resoluteness continue to be inspiring.

What challenges have you had to face as a company?

The biggest challenge for JCM as a global company was having to face the variety of COVID-related challenges with our employees and their families on the six different continents where we operate. Each region has experienced both similar and different social and community-specific factors. These required our company to adapt to support our team members in the best ways we could, whether it was work from home, hybrid work schedules, or flexible work schedules so team members could take care of their families.

In what issue have you managed to have results beyond your expectations within the current situation? Have you had an unexpected opportunity?

COVID brought an unexpected demand for new technology solutions related to health and safety products, such as table game chip and currency disinfection products as well as an impressive surge of interest in alternate non-contact payment technologies. It was inspiring to see gaming regulators move so quickly to allow multiple non-contact payment technologies on the gaming floor, helping the industry cope and adapt.

How could you describe the profile of the average player nowadays? Which are the average tastes and demands?

Players continue to adapt to new technology and the changing economic conditions affecting our world. Most players already use a variety of payment methods in their daily lives and being able to do so in a casino is no different. Today, there are several new non-contact payment technologies being rolled out across the casino floor from eMarkers, to debit card readers at table games, to mobile device modules on their favorite game allowing players to make their choice on how to fund their wagers.

Which are the latest trends regarding technology, games and habits that arrived to stay?

What’s here to stay is player choice and convenience. That has taken several forms, such as giving players the choice of how to move money toward their gaming experience and afterwards out of it without confining them to just coins, tokens, currency, or tickets. The future will be filled with creative and secure ways of providing players easy and simplified access to their funding method of choice, while also giving them the tools to responsibly game and protect themselves.

Which are the most important markets for the company at present?

The global land-based casino and lottery markets are JCM’s primary focus, and we continue to see impressive growth around the world (even during the pandemic) with new properties opening on multiple continents throughout this year and the next. Gaming is still expanding and growing at a consistent rate, and there are many new and untapped markets that will open in the next five years at a global level.