I'm preparing to leave for Las Vegas this weekend to attend RFID World 2008 and I came across an interesting press release that just crossed the wire. It seems that RFID is becoming widely accepted by casinos worldwide.
About 41%, $8.6 million, of the revenue generated worldwide by Gaming Partners International (GPI), a manufacturer and supplier of gaming chips, in the first half of 2008 came from chips with embedded RFID. The breakout of chip sales follows: 40% in North America, and 48% in Macau.
RFID chips accounted for 3.4% of GPI's sales in 2004, 12.7% in 2005, 35% in 2006, and 26.7% in 2007, according to the company.
Since January 2006 GPI and Progressive Gaming, supplier of integrated casino and jackpot management systems, have entered into various RFID technology agreements to leverage their intellectual property and experience with 13.56 MHz PJM RFID technology. Since then, GPI's RFID chips and Progressive Gaming's systems have been deployed by 25 casinos in 11 jurisdictions across North America, including Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut, as well as at three leading Macau casinos, Wynn Macau, Crown Macau and Galaxy StarWorld Casino.
Since we are in Las Vegas next week, the first person to find and bring me a casino chip with an embedded RFID chip wins a prize (the prize to be determined at a later time).
