The first casinos offering digital cashless advances through Marker Trax are enjoying double-digit increases in return visits and theoretical win, Melissa Lambson says.
Among the properties currently offering Moolah Play advances and sharing data with the Las Vegas provider, “the total impact has been a greater than 40 percent increase,” said Lambson, chief financial and credit officer for Marker Trax. Players using Moolah Play visit the casino 20 percent to 30 percent more often than they did before enrolling for the advances, she said, while the operator’s average daily theoretical win from those players has risen by 10 percent to 15 percent.
“Operators can see how Moolah Play has impacted behavior,” she said. “We can assign a true value to what our product brings to the table.”
Moolah Play allows players to get a digital cash advance that can be transferred directly from the app to credits on a slot machine. The operator sets the maximum amount of an advance, and the proceeds can be used only at the casino issuing it; based on regulatory approval, operators with multiple casinos within a jurisdiction can allow the advance to be accessed at all of them.
Lambson said Marker Trax technology integrates with the operator’s casino management system. When the operator agrees to share data with Marker Trax, the company can provide a trove of details, including:
- How often a player uses the credit advance.
- Payment frequency and method, whether through a slot machine, cash payment at the cage, debit card transfer, ACH transaction, or payment from a jackpot.
- How often a Marker Trax user plays with and without accessing an advance, plus comparing the amount of play pre-Marker Trax and post-Marker Trax.
“The operators want to understand whether a player becomes a more loyal customer because they have a digital marker,” Lambson said. “Do they have more visits to the property and a higher ADT because of this product? I say yes, our product is driving loyalty and potentially stealing trips from other properties, because they’d rather play at Casino A, where they have a digital marker, versus Casino B, where they don’t.”
Moolah Play 3.0, to be released soon, will enable players to use their digital advances at table games as well. Lambson said existing customers will migrate to the new app upon its release and any new properties will use the Moolah Play 3.0 platform from the start.
Marker Trax has contracted with more than 150 properties to offer Moolah Play, Lambson said.
“Approved in multiple states, our goal is to onboard at least 50 casinos next year,” she added.
The Marker Trax platform collects payments, keeps balances, and tracks all transactions, freeing the casino cage of those responsibilities. Lambson described the Moolah Play advance as a line of credit rather than a traditional marker, meaning a player has the full amount available to use as soon as the initial advance is repaid. A typical repayment period is 22 days, but operators can set their own schedule.
With traditional markers typically involving five- or six-figure transactions for table-game players, Lambson said digital advances to slot players open a new market. With digital advances, players don’t have to carry cash.
“Moolah Play is more of a loyalty product than it is a credit product,” Lambson said. “We make sure players have a decent credit score. We make sure they have the right loyalty and enough income to do this. We don’t want to give it to every player; when we give it to the good customers, we are seeing more loyalty at that property by those customers.”