Trustly Live: Bringing instant cashless payments to land-based gaming

Land-based casinos can now offer cashless payments for casino chips in under a minute through Trustly Live, a brand new solution for land-based operators launched at this week’s Global Gaming Expo (G2E) in Las Vegas. We spoke to Samuel Barrett, Trustly’s Director of Gaming, to find out more. 

SBC Can you give us a brief bit of history behind the development of Trustly Live?

SB: At Trustly, we have — for more than a decade now — been developing innovative products that make it fast, simple and secure to pay online.

Still, despite its significant size, the online sector is some way short of its land-based counterpart for total revenues. It is this scale of opportunity, combined with increased levels of consolidation and a slowdown of new gaming licences issued on the online side, that has inspired our own interest in the land-based gaming business. 

The result is Trustly Live, our brand new solution bringing instant cashless payments to land-based gaming.

SBC: Can you walk us through the process of depositing through Trustly Live?

SB: When you pull out your mobile phone, you open your camera and hold it over a static QR code; this could be on a casino membership card, cashier desk or even printed on to the blackjack or roulette table. 

This then launches the browser on your phone, where you are asked to log into your online bank via a secure connection and complete a deposit using Trustly’s standard flow. At this point, you generate your own code, which effectively becomes your voucher for the casino chips.

You then tell the croupier or cashier that you’ve made a deposit and they will ask you to confirm your code and deposit amount, before giving you the chips. All of this can be done in under a minute.

It’s important to note that when the croupier or cashier clicks on your name to check your deposit, they will be able to see all your relevant KYC information. They will even see a ‘red flag’ if you have self-excluded from gambling and return your money instantly. 

It’s just as simple when it comes to withdrawals, too. Confirm your code, one click and your winnings are back in your account, with no payout limits. No app and no credit cards, either; all you need is your mobile phone and access to your online bank.

SBC: Why is now the right time to make your move in the land-based gaming space?

SB: Increasingly, consumers are using less cash in their everyday lives, and Trustly Live is our innovation to help land-based operators keep up with this changing consumer behaviour. On top of that, it helps the industry move towards a more omnichannel experience in which players move seamlessly from offline to online or vice versa.

Up until now, much of the focus has been on e-wallets. The issue is, though, once you have spent all the money in your wallet, you still have to go through the process of topping up.

This is where Trustly Live comes in; it lets players make instant deposits and withdrawals directly from their online bank account in a land-based establishment, meaning they don’t need to constantly top up accounts, carry wads of cash, or play on credit. For operators, our cashless solution limits anti-money laundering (AML) risk, improves compliance with KYC regulations and delivers an omnichannel view of each player for the operator.

SBC: Are there any companies that have tried something similar?

SB: One of the most prominent examples is International Game Technology (IGT) launching its bluetooth-driven Cardless Connect technology, which allows players to tap their smartphones on a slot machine card reader. The phone then connects the player just as a physical loyalty card would. The Trustly solution takes this further by removing the need to download an app, and by extending the QR code technology across the whole casino floor.

SBC: What are the key advantages of going ‘cashless’ for the casino?

SB: Credit cards, debit cards, e-wallets, invoices and cash-on-delivery are all middlemen levying fees, debt and interest for the simple task of moving money from one person to another. For example, cash handling, which should be a free commodity to receive, can typically cost up to 5% for a business. 

Trustly Live, by contrast, takes away these ‘middlemen,’ easing the hit on the casino’s bottom line. It also gives them money that is digitally tracked and from a clear source of funds so no illegal cash flow can be laundered through the casino. 

SBC: How can you use your existing relationships to strike the right deals?

SB: We are approaching this more as an exciting way to extend our client pool and reach even more markets. But, obviously, if we’ve done a good job online, our payment methods will be more easily adopted for the offline environment. We have seen this with partnerships like Cherry who work with us across Sweden in online and land-based. 

It’s also true that in many markets, you need a land-based presence to get an online licence. So there is a clear cross-sell opportunity for us given the success of our online products.

An example of a new partnership we’ve done on the offline side is with CountR, one of the leading developers for cash handling and cash management for casinos worldwide.

We have, therefore, developed a second QR code for the deposit process detailed above — one for the tables and cash desk and the other for gaming machines in the casino. The only difference is that the machine itself uses the individual code provided by the player to pull up the relevant KYC checks before authorising the funds. By integrating with TITO and CRT Terminals we can give players the opportunity to fund slots machines digitally.

SBC: Finally, how easy is the integration process for the casino?

SB: The beauty of this is that no real integration is required from a technical perspective. All that the operator needs is an app from Trustly to access the code details/KYC checks to verify a player’s source of funds.

Trustly Live also has less concerns from a responsible gambling point of view, given the reduced AML risk, the connection to self-exclusion registries and the tools to send unclaimed money back after 20 hours, in case a player has generated a code but has not been into the casino. 

Although this is fairly low tech when it comes to integration, the real work from the operator will be in the implementation across their current processes and policies to ensure they can maximise the great features the product delivers.

If you’re interested in learning how your casino can go cashless with Trustly Live, don’t hesitate to reach out!