In the hustle and bustle of Las Vegas or Atlantic City, it’s quite easy to forget the basic principles that make the big casinos tick. We’re talking about cash access and how, amongst all of the gaming, few of us quite comprehend how so much money enters these facilities.

There are actually few companies responsible for the billions of dollars that goes in and out of these doors. One of the big players who have been involved in the game for the last few years have been Everi Holdings. They operate the majority of cash access terminals through the casinos and were served for a long time by Ram Chary.

Of course, it’s not by luck that they are the market leader in this space. Chary has commented on several occasions that Everi’s grip on the market wasn’t necessarily due to them throwing obscene amounts of money at casinos, but rather due to the fact that they could offer competitive edges in other forms.

Let’s take a look at some of the ways in which they managed to do this.

Reliability

With so few companies responsible for cash access systems, the consequences of systems going down are unthinkable. In other words, they simply must be reliable and up every second of the day.

This is where the infrastructure of the company really comes into play. If these systems are struck down, casinos can potentially lose hundreds of thousands of dollars with their patrons unable to access cash.

It means that there are a whole host of infrastructure considerations; ranging from the amount of storage space that their systems have, right the way down to backup systems in case the original falls.

Due to the vast scale of the operation, all sorts of other considerations come into play such as the cooling costs and other issues which can impact the bottom line.

If a company can prove that their systems will never fall – it’s one of the biggest assurances that a casino can hear.

Security

This is one of those factors that probably goes without saying. Again, we’ll reference the “billions of dollars” line that can be frequently used in any article that mentions casinos.

With so much money involved in these cash access systems, it means security has to be the best in the business. If patrons experience any security concerns whatsoever, the casino in question will be targeted immediately. Their reputation will be tarnished and again, this means that security is another huge assurance factor when these cash access companies approach casinos.

Efficiency

Even if a system incorporates both reliability and security, if it takes an age to process each request it’s not going to do any favors to the casino’s bottom line.

Patrons need access to money in record speeds; it’s what makes the gambling industry spin around. If they are having to wait, there’s a good chance that the urge to spend will soon evaporate, or they will merely go to a different establishment.

Again, it’s further proof that having deep pockets isn’t necessarily going to give a cash access company a contract with casinos – there are plenty of other issues that can provide that elusive competitive advantage.