Slots, cash and change at the ATM

When it comes to the best-laid plans of mice or men, or something similar … I came down with a bad case of the flu in the days just before the start of the ATMIA 2018 US Conference and had to bail.

It was the first time in a very long time, and I was only recently recalling that the only other time I missed a scheduled event was in 2007. I flew from Sweden to Paris for a long weekend prior to the event, and became very sick with the flu on the flight to Paris. Ever been to The City of Light when all you saw was the cloudy view from your hotel window?

Vegas, on the other hand, is a city of sound. When you attend an event in Vegas, there is always the constant background cacophony from the aisles of slot machines.

There was a time not so long ago when real quarters and real dollar coins would routinely pour into trays beneath the machine, but now it is all simulation. A virtual world where any association with cash has long since been abandoned in favor of cards, tokens and paper receipts!

On the casino floors of cruise ships today, all you need is your room key. I have to wonder. Did I miss something? Is there now an app that lets you gamble in this manner? Wasn't there once something called My Vegas that supported such an interaction?

It begs the question: When will we see ATMs become slot machines? Why can't creative souls replace scratch lotto, even Powerball and Mega Millions in real time — not to mention games of chance typically found in casinos — with apps on an ATM?

There's got to be a market for such a capability, surely? If it's OK to anchor ATMs around the casino, why can't they do double duty as slot machines?

I come from Australia, where we grew up with slot machines, or "pokies" as we called them. In order to survive, clubs were allowed to introduce pokies so the members could have a flutter any time they entered the premises.

These clubs could be anything from football and rugby clubs to rowing clubs to those premises supporting returned servicemen and even the local gentry who prefer to play at lawn bowling.

Overnight, there was hardly a club across Australia that didn't have pokies tempting you to give it a go. In time, the well-managed clubs raked in truckloads of cash — metaphorically and literally.

At a time when the tech industry is caught up with talk of virtualization, containerization, hybrid IT and the like, surely it must be attracting adherents within the ATM industry.

After all, ATMs are pretty secure and now supporting some pretty impressive video interfaces. Legislation and regulation aside, are we missing out on a whole new hybrid industry? The ATM that dispenses cash and then takes it all back? For a fee, of course!

Now, before you get too angry with me, there is a semblance of tongue-firmly-in-cheek here, but there is a more serious side, as well. So, is it OK for me to continue? …

A major exhibitor at the ATMIA 2018 US Conference told me that despite all the IT talk surrounding modernization, virtualization, DevOps, and serverless computing, for the bulk of participants it was very much a case of same-old, same-old.

In other words, according to this exhibitor, "With all the talk this year about the pace of change and the need for next-generation thinking, I was somewhat surprised by all the last generation behavior from even the biggest of financial institutions."

On the other hand, the idea that "change will continue to accelerate," was central to his comments:

I have heard several senior industry resources say that they have never seen this much change taking place at one time. The Next Generation ATM initiative sponsored by ATMIA is a direct response to the increasing rate of change and the need to make fundamental changes in order to ensure that the ATM channel remains relevant and profitable.

And yet, Windows 10 is going to be painful and lot of work for little forward motion. Even as they acknowledge the pain, it seems like most folks at the conference know that this technology change is looming, but have not yet begun to build detailed migration plans.

We all talk about change, and we almost always combine that with talk about disruption and innovation. Perhaps the hybrid ATM-slot machine is just too far out there, but I am becoming more convinced that the future of the ATM lies in its ability to keep redefining itself to meet changing user expectations.

We supported stamps. We supported coupons. We made it easy to move seamlessly between channels so that a transaction could be initiated on a smartphone, continued on our laptop and finished up at an ATM. But we need to consider a lot more. Think in terms of Amazon bringing out its own ATM — how disruptive could that be?

Ultimately innovation needs creativity. Hearing that so much of our behavior is "last generation" is a huge concern. And let's get really serious: Cash is not only going to be digital and virtual, it's also still going to need a safe place to carry out a transaction.

Welcome to the age of ultimate disruption; welcome to the age of the AI-empowered ATM that will know who we are, what we want, and the only key on the machine will be, "OK to continue!"