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    1. Alarms & Monitoring
    2. Asset and GPS Tracking

    Using RFID to Track Casino Slot Machine Keys in Mississippi

    July 28, 2005
    AXCESS RFID program used at Sam's Town casino to avoid costly shutdowns

    DALLAS -- AXCESS International Inc., a leading provider of Active Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems today announced that one of the Boyd Gaming properties, Sam's Town Hotel & Gambling Hall, located in Tunica, MI has integrated AXCESS' ActiveTag system to monitor over 100 slot machine keys, reducing the potential that a key is lost during daily operations. A lost key could cost a casino up to $25,000 due to the state laws which mandate a costly shutdown of slot machine operations following the loss of even a single key. This installation marks the seventh casino to use AXCESS' active RFID to avoid these costly shutdowns and re-keying.

    "We recently had incidents where employees accidentally walked out of the casino with the slot machine keys, with each occurrence leading to the required shutting down of the slot machines until a costly re-keying could be undertaken," commented Mary Davenport, Engineering Technician of the project at Boyd Gaming. "The revenue lost during these shutdowns is significant, hence we had to ensure such an incident did not occur again. Since installing the AXCESS system, the slot machine keys are more secure and we have not had any additional revenue loss due to the misplaced keys."

    AXCESS' active RFID tags are affixed to the keys, which would then by identified at casino access points by activation and receiver hardware, which prevents the keys from being accidentally removed from the casino. This is an important example of how use of RFID within casinos is a growing trend, and AXCESS is poised to capitalize on this growing vertical industry opportunity.

    "This marks our seventh installation within a casino to track slot machine keys and we continue to see significant potential within the sector for our Active RFID solution," commented Ben Donohue, VP of Business Development for AXCESS. "The superior range and reliability of the AXCESS active RFID system sounds an alarm before the employee walks out of the casino, saving the casino the cost of any lost revenue, re-keying the machines and possible state fines. Our proven solution makes casinos a more secure and cost effective business organization."

    AXCESS' patented ActiveTag RFID product uses small, battery powered tags (generically called "active" tags) that when automatically activated, transmit a wireless message typically 30 to 100 feet to hidden palm size receivers. The receivers are connected via an industry standard interface to existing security alarm equipment or networked on the existing corporate network. Optionally, the tag system can also be used to trigger security video recording and live remote video transmission. The tags are used for a variety of security applications including automatic personnel access to facilities, automatic vehicle access to parking areas and yards, corporate asset tracking and protection, as well as special purpose sensing. Automatic email alerting and paging is offered for rapid response to security incidents.