“Customers are paying for food and beverages with their credit and debit cards, and it’s only natural that they would expect to pay the same way for countertop games, or music on jukeboxes,” said Mike Lawlor, USA Technologies’ vice-president of sales and business development.
“We are finalizing relationships to handle cashless technology and card processing services for countertop games, [other] amusement machines and jukeboxes with a number of leaders in the field,” he added.
The self-serve retail industry is looking beyond just swipe cards, considering consumer trends to contactless cards and mobile payment using cellular phones, the USAT vice-president pointed out. Global giants including PayPal, Google, AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile are fast moving into the mobile commerce space, and when combined with the significant ramp-up of NFC-enabled cellphones (Near Field Communications), all indications point to enormous growth in mobile commerce in 2011, 2012 and beyond.
USA Technologies Applies Unattended Payments to Amusements and Entertainment
Interior Of Coffee Shop With Customers Using Digital Devices
AMI Entertainment Network operates networks of jukeboxes and gaming systems in bars, restaurants, and nightclubs. It’s even put out iPhone apps for its Megatouch and Prize Farm games. But its music and game playing customers are getting tired of hauling quarters and dollar bills around to play those games. They expect to pay with plastic. So, AMI has chosen to work with unattended payments company USA Technologies and integrate USA Technologies’ software development kit into its systems. These systems go after low-value cash transactions. Micropayments at the POS have come of age.