• No other country in Europe uses electronic payments for slot machines: the large markets in Spain, UK and Germany with, like Italy, over 1 million machines, use traditional systems with coins. There must be a good reason for this practice;
• Indeed all market research confirms that players prefer coins: without coins tinkling when you win, slot machines surely lose a good part of their attraction;
• NewSlot players are also and above all occasional players: electronic payments, with the attendant opening of dedicated accounts, the traceability of funds movements and the loss of anonymity, would become a barrier for these players, who are in fact the majority;
• Feeding NewSlot machines with electronic payments is highly dangerous for players, as it opens a bottomless pit for compulsive and addicted players: it is the opposite of "responsible gaming" and is tantamount to the Government launching "irresponsible gaming". We are not in Las Vegas where gaming is possible with credit cards, in addition to traditional systems: after all Las Vegas is the kingdom of perdition, it is not the bar next to your home!
• In Australia, where in some regions the Video Lottery Terminals (VLT) can also be fed with cards, the Gambling Ministry has reversed this practice and has started an experiment that disallows players from gambling again with a card within a specified period of time through the allocation of unique personal codes;
• It has been announced that in Spain, in order to fight against thefts, feasibility studies are being carried out on the use of electronic payments: however regulatory authorities, machine manufacturers and operators have not come to any conclusion on the matter, indeed also because of the reasons indicated above.

• Financial Institutions are obliged to accept payments with coins; naturally it is best to have the coins counted in separate packages;
• Credit cards, prepaid or topped up, are today in Italy devices used in association with gaming accounts, only mandatory for long distance gaming (betting and poker on-line); in any case betting on-line does not exceed 25 % of the total, because players prefer to bet in betting or corner shops without electronic payments, in complete anonymity and without their activities being stored electronically;
• Coin operated slot machines are in favour with the majority of players who naturally do not bet large amounts of money.
• Usually the coins you have in your pocket are enough to satisfy the odd flutter!
• If we were to forcibly replace coins with cards, the occasional player would desert the shops and only hardened gamblers would enter betting: they are used to betting, spending and losing considerable amounts of money; in this way slot machines would lose their typical charm as a means of entertainment and the vast majority of the public would gravitate towards other games. Our market would then be at risk of a severe contraction with a looming crisis and closures, without mentioning the Government who would suffer a large drop in its revenue, nowadays of fundamental importance for the Treasury;
• Not even the idea of a card as a "barrier" against robberies in commercial businesses can be argued on a rational basis. The "cash holding" would only move physically from inside the gaming machines to the "cash desk" of the shopkeeper, who would receive banknotes in exchange for top-up cards. The risk associated with robberies would then be even higher, because the shopkeeper, in possession of large amounts of paper money, would be an easy target for a robbery.
• In conclusion, electronic payments applied to NewSlot machines would create an absurd and conflicting situation in which machines installed in commercial premises would operate with systems of payments and winnings similar to those pertaining to distance betting from home via the internet.

Apart from the collapse of the sector, where slot machines with electronic payments would be exclusively used by gamblers used to spending and losing large sums of money.

Apart from the issues of order and security created in an absurd situation in which the Government would encourage compulsive and "irresponsible" gambling and the spread of gambling addictions.

Apart from the enormous reductions in revenue for the Treasury.

Don't you think that even our role as operators would be at risk?

Don't you think that our professional mission, now that it has at last achieved a clear position in the new AAMS organisation, could even become superfluous or useless?

Don't you think that the major dealers belonging to the major groups could operate the NewSlot machines directly because they would not need us any longer?

I am speaking clearly but without anger on behalf of 700 operators members of the CRIGA Association, as its President: do not listen, despite any justification brought forward, to the cries of alarm by certain individuals regarding non-existing problems or in any case problems that are far less significant than  the damage that would be created for our entire sector should new different solutions be implemented.

I begin to think mischievously that a small group of so called "technical experts", (who from time to time assume for themselves the task not to "propose" but to "decide" on behalf of thousands of operators by issuing legal/technical proposals, luckily never taken into consideration by the relevant authorities who well understand the position) perhaps have been "pushed" by some "interested" party.

Therefore I urge all Italian operators to react and oppose any proposal for the introduction of electronic payments in slot machines, this in order to safeguard the future of our businesses and the growth of our market in which we have invested so much commitment and hard work in order to create it and develop it over the last 4 years.

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