G2E Preview - Part 4: Everi

If you don’t keep up on the business side of gambling, the mergers and acquisitions and the like, you might think the fourth manufacturer highlighted on these G2E write-ups, Everi, was a new company. And you’d be partly right. Everi, Inc debuted on the world’s stage by ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on August 24, 2015. But while new in name, Everi blends two well-known companies that have been a part of the casino industry for decades — Global Cash Access Inc (GCA) and Multimedia Gaming (MGAM). This year’s G2E 2015 will be Everi’s launch party, and you’re all invited if you’ve signed up for G2E.

Everi

everi.com

G2E Booth #1116

The blending of these two companies, Multimedia and Global Cash Access, seems a strange marriage at first. One is a gaming business and the other is a payments business. As a gambler, you are undoubtedly more familiar with Multimedia. You might not know anything about GCA, so let’s talk a little first about what GCA brings to the union. 

This business part of Everi consists of three parts: payments processing, kiosks, and compliance. The first two ensure easy access to funds, the ability to redeem TITO tickets, a simplified way to break bills. A new term you might hear in connection with the new company is Everi Wallet which is a payment and monetization solution for real online gaming. 

The third part of what GCA provides is more interesting to me because of my tax background. You will have to bear with me…it’s my blog and tax talk is my thing.

Everi is offering the casinos a system called Compliance Manager to ease the reporting requirements imposed on them by the government, particularly reporting required by Title 31.  If you don’t know about Title 31, go back and read my earlier BANK SECRECY ACT blog entry. It’s the section of the Code dealing with money laundering and various reporting requirements usually for cash transactions over $10,000.

Part of the Compliance Manager program is a feature called Title 31 Manager that completes, files, and archives all required forms while tracking cash and check transactions at slots and 3rd party check cashing suppliers. It also consolidates all audits and creates CTRs (currency transaction reports), SARs (suspicious activity reports), W-9s and W-8 forms for electronic filing.The W-9 form is the one you fill out when you get your hand pay to provide your Social Security Number for the W2G form. The W-8 Form is one filed by foreign gamblers to claim exemption from withholding on their winnings or a reduced withholding rate due to treaty status. I won’t repeat what I’ve written before about these forms because you can read my earlier posts if you are interested. Suffice to say Everi is attempting to provide the help the casinos need to file all the forms the government requires.

Besides the Title 31 manager, Compliance Manager also contains a Tax Form Validator which completes, files, and archives W2G’s (for hand pays greater than $1200), 1099-Misc Forms (for prizes and for comps with over $600 value), and 1042-S (for covered expatriates subject to special tax rules.)

Compliance Manager also has a Patron Authenticator function which validates patron address and tax information against US Post Office and IRS databases. This is to reduce the problems caused by winners providing wrong or stolen information for the forms. It also checks various watch lists. You might want to review another earlier post about SELF BANNING from casinos and how these lists are checked before jackpots are payed out. There are other features: which are not as interesting to me: Form Creator, a Chip Log function, and Jackpot X-change Tax Form software.

I’ll bet you didn’t know all this goes on in your local casino, did you?

Now let’s look at the other half of Everi, the slot games you’re all anxious to learn about.  Unfortunately, I have not seen any news releases about new games being unveiled by Everi at G2E. I can list some popular Multimedia titles you have probably played and enjoyed recently, and I can give you a link to Everi where you can see these games and learn more about specific ones - but I don’t know what the next new game will be.

Here are some of my favorite Multimedia — I mean Everi — games. Anthony and Cleopatra, Artemis, Bonnie & Clyde, Carnival in Rio, Ghost in the Machine, Wild Pixies, Wild Tornado, Yard Birds. You’ve probably played a lot of Everi games. This list barely scratches the surface. You’ll find more on the Everi web site. What you’ll notice about them all is the imaginative concepts behind the games and the dynamic artwork. The artists and engineers at Everi’s creative center in Austin, TX, are dedicated to producing unique experiences based on original ideas. These games are usually a lot of fun.

Multimedia primarily produces Class III Vegas style games, but they have branched out and are now developing Class II games for the growing market. You can usually identify a Class II game by the bingo card somewhere on the screen. Multimedia - I mean Everi - has  designed its new Class II slots so the bingo card does not appear until money is fed into the machine. Random $$ Slots has just posted a new Class II game you can link to called Silver Fox. Pay close attention to the video and the explanation he provides. A new feature of the game is the option to play the game in slot mode or bingo mode. If you don’t know what bingo has to do with slots, read the earlier material about Tribal Gaming and Class II Slots.

Here’s your link to Silver Fox:

You probably know about the TournEvent that Multimedia sponsored this year, You may have even seen the big bus at your local casino during the qualifying events.  The million dollar prize will be paid out in 20 annual installments to one of the lucky 200 contestants. It will happen September 30 at XL Night Club. .

Everi (Multimedia) is also hosting the second annual TournEvent of Charities on September 29 during G2E. The event features 24 celebrities who play a TournEvent competition on behalf of their selected charity. Everi will be donating $40,000 total to the celebrity’s charities and another $40,000 to Save a Warrior, the company’s official charity. To watch, come to booth #1116. At 2:30 the celebrities will be introduced, play begins at 3:00, and winners will be announced between 3:30 and 4:30.

More to come of G2E fun in a few days.