Gaming Partners International Corporation, or GPI, a casino chip and table game equipment provider, and Progressive Gaming, a systems solutions provider, have announced that radio frequency identification, or RFID technology, is growing in demand.
GPI reported in the first half of 2008 that 41 percent of revenue earned in chip sales could be attributed to the sales of chips with RFID embedded, including 40 percent of North American chip sales and 48 percent of Macau chip sales.
In previous years for GPI, RFID chips accounted for 3.4 percent of sales in 2004; 12.7 percent in 2005; 35 percent in 2006; and 26.7 percent in 2007.
“RFID technology applied to gaming chips has demonstrated very fundamental advantages for operators by allowing for the identification of counterfeited chips by systematic mass authentication instead of single analysis and has reliably automated chip accounting with antennas and electronic reading units positioned at various key areas in the casinos such as the cashier’s desk, vault and tables,” said Gerard Charlier, president and chief executive of Gaming Partners International, in a prepared statement.