Testing starting ‘pretty soon’ for video gambling machines
By Steve Metsch smetsch@southtownstar.com September 7, 2012 4:52PM
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Updated: October 10, 2012 6:17AM
The Illinois Gaming Board will begin testing video gambling machines at locations statewide “pretty soon,” a board spokesman said.
“I can’t be more specific,” gaming board spokesman Gene O’Shea said Thursday.
When gamblers win money on the machines, they will get vouchers that can be inserted into redemption devices that will pay out cash, he said.
“Some will be in a standalone kiosk. Others will be in what’s called ‘the vault,’ where you give the ticket to someone behind the bar, maybe the bartender, and the bartender puts it into (a redemption device) which reads it and pays out the money,” O’Shea said.
Testing of the video gambling system can’t start until the redemption devices are approved by an independent company, O’Shea said.
“It’s like every machine in a casino. Each one is tested. Those redemption devices all have to be certified as being OK,” O’Shea said.
The redemption devices have to be installed before they can be tested because they’re tied into a central computer that keeps track of what is won and what is paid out, he said.
Once the redemption devices are approved, gambling machines will be tested at selected sites statewide.
“We don’t know how many sites will be tested. We’re looking for a geographical mix and we’re looking for different machines from different manufacturers. We want to get a good mix of what they’ll see when everybody is up and running,” O’Shea said.
