Progressive Gaming International Corporation (NASDAQ: PGIC) (“Progressive Gaming”), a leading provider of diversified technology and system solutions used in the gaming industry worldwide, and Gaming Partners International Corporation (NASDAQ: GPIC) (“GPI”), a leading provider of casino currency and table game equipment, announced today an RFID technology agreement for the development and integration of various 13.56 MHz PJM (Phase Jitter Modulation) RFID enabled products and systems. The agreement enables Progressive Gaming and GPI to leverage their extensive combined experience with 13.56 MHz PJM High Frequency RFID technology to quickly bring to market additional RFID enabled readers and gaming software, providing a convenient entry point for casino operators looking to adopt Progressive Gaming’s RFID hardware, player tracking and table management systems technology.
The first readers are expected to be commercially available in May 2008. Prototypes of the chip tray, chip bank and vault readers were recently showcased in the GPI exhibit booth at the International Casino Exhibition (ICE) 2008 in London and garnered favorable initial responses from the international casino operators in attendance. The parties intend to be able to release additional readers in the near future for products such as, cage readers, tip boxes, roulette float, etc.
Bodo Ischebeck, Vice President RFID and Table Management Systems for Progressive Gaming, commented, “13.56 MHz PJM technology is well on its way to establishing itself as the gaming industry reference for speed, security and integrity and we are very excited about the opportunity to further strengthen our long-standing relationship with GPI to facilitate the adoption of this RFID technology. The ease and accuracy with which the 13.56 MHz PJM technology operates affords our customers the ability to greatly improve their performance in mission critical areas such as game speed, security, accountability and tracking. We look forward to working with GPI to expand upon our Chip Inventory System and RFID enabled player tracking product offering to operators worldwide.”
Gerard Charlier, President and CEO of Gaming Partners International, commented, “13.56 MHz PJM technology keeps gaining momentum with operators in the US and abroad, and GPI is excited to enter into this agreement to help further advance the deployment of this technology. This agreement extends our existing relationship with Progressive Gaming and its partner, Magellan Technology, to optimize the use of GPI chips embedded with high-frequency 13.56 MHz PJM RFID. We are in the process of creating a line of 13.56 MHz readers similar to our well established 125 KHz RFID readers so that casinos interested in RFID have the possibility to first start with simple chip tracking hardware and applications compatible with Progressive Gaming systems and then move smoothly into much more powerful Progressive Gaming integrated Chip Inventory or Table Management Systems”.
The 13.56 MHz PJM RFID technology is licensed exclusively by Progressive Gaming through its strategic partnership with Magellan Technology, the providers of the RFID products and the PJM protocol used for item level identification systems that provide reliable high speed processing of items including stacked gaming chips.
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