Club Pierre Charron's SMART RFID technology ensures that cash-game players enjoy a smooth game and a top-quality playing environment. Interviews with Christophe Leparoux, Executive Vice President, Sales & Marketing at GPI, a CPC partner, and Ziad Farhoud, Operations Manager in charge of technology at Club Pierre Charron.
What does GPI do?
Christophe Leparoux : Since 1925, GPI (then Bourgogne & Grasset) has been producing and marketing chips and plaques for casinos worldwide. From the very beginning, the innovative technologies developed by the company have enabled it to manufacture high-security products guaranteeing casinos optimum protection against the risk of counterfeiting. Chips and plaques are the "currency" of gaming establishments, and protecting their integrity is essential.
Over the decades, in addition to its confidential and intrinsically highly secure manufacturing process, GPI has developed a variety of security features incorporated into its products: UV inks, infrared marking, holograms, secret inks and more. More recently, GPI has reinforced its position as world leader with the integration of RFID technology, which has become a standard in the table games industry.
What is SMART RFID?
CL : SMART RFID involves integrating a 13.56 Mhz RFID chip or tag inside the chip, without altering its characteristics or performance. Each chip then has its own identity in the form of a unique, forgery-proof and non-reproducible serial number, protected by various coding and data encryption methods.
In addition, a wide range of readers enables the technology to be deployed in different forms, anywhere in the casino, while a software suite developed by GPI enables tags to be authenticated and validated, and chip flows to be monitored and controlled.
When chips are placed on an antenna concealed under the table carpet, in a cash box, at the cash desk or in the reserve, they are recognized and identified in the club/casino's dedicated database. The number and total value of chips read are instantly displayed, along with a breakdown by value. The RFID technology used by GPI enables instant 3D reading of several thousand chips at a time.
The data collected at various points in the casino (tables, cash registers, storerooms, vaults, etc.) enables chip authentication, real-time inventory, tracking of transactions, table performance and games, and provides statistical tools previously unavailable to traditional table games.
In which areas does RFID technology play a role for Club Charron?
CL : Several Parisian clubs have adopted our SMART RFID technology, including Club Circus and Paris Élysées Club, but Club Pierre Charron was a real precursor, mainly with the Poker-RFID application. Right from the start of the project, the management team fully understood the benefits of integrating RFID into its chip allocation, and we developed a real partnership to deploy this technology not only at the cash desks, but also on all the cash-game and traditional gaming tables.
Club Pierre Charron is undoubtedly one of Europe's most advanced RFID facilities.
How does GPI's technological contribution improve the cash-game experience at a club like Charron?
Ziad Farhoud : The contribution of SMART RFID technology to cash-game poker is undeniable, with automatic and continuous reading of the pot, as well as automatic calculation of the payout.
Today, the results are more than convincing, with a tenfold increase in the number of hands per hour, and a real enthusiasm among players for this innovative technology, which helps to speed up play and avoid the risk of error associated with manual counting, while improving user-friendliness by displaying amounts and statistical data for pots, withdrawals and winnings.
At the cash desks, RFID technology greatly enhances transaction security. This technology is part of a complete digital circuit, operated exclusively by Club Pierre Charron.
In this way, the entire poker management process is simplified, offering customers a "seamless" experience. From entering the establishment to registering at the table or changing seats, via the cashier and chip banking.
