In an attempt to diversify its business base away from casinos, money-handling machines innovator Japan Cash Machine Company Limited is reportedly eager to begin selling more currency-checking technology in emerging markets for non-gaming uses such as foreign exchange.
According to a report from the Nikkei Asian Review newspaper, the Osaka-based firm is hoping to achieve approximately $44.5 million in overseas non-gaming sales by 2019, which is roughly 40% above current levels, and is targeting Thailand as a major source of new revenues.
The newspaper reported that Japan Cash Machine Company Limited’s currency validators can detect counterfeit cash and count money and the firm it intends to begin selling these units to currency-exchange machine manufacturers in Thailand by March of next year.
The Nikkei Asian Review reported that most foreign currency exchange in Thailand is still done by hand but the Japanese company is to promote automation by offering its technology to money-changing machine manufacturers and provide them with the ability to safely and efficiently convert roughly 13 foreign currencies including the United States dollar, the Euro and the Chinese yuan into the Thai baht. These units may then be utilized in electronic money-changers placed in airports, train stations and hotels as tourism to the south-east Asian nation country continues to rise.
The newspaper reported that Japan Cash Machine Company Limited intends to produce the coin-handling components for its Thailand-bound validators at a facility in Japan’s Shiga Prefecture while all bill conversion components are to be manufactured at its factory in Guangdong Province in China.
The Nikkei Asian Review also reported that Japan Cash Machine Company Limited is keen to begin selling its validator technology for use in automated teller machines (ATMs) in Russia and intends to utilize existing casino equipment sales agents in the country, including two based in Moscow, to get a leg up on the competition. It moreover intends to offer maintenance services with all of its Russia-bound technology set to be manufactured at its plant in China.
The newspaper reported that Japan Cash Machine Company Limited holds around a 60% global market share in currency detectors for slot machines while sales into the gaming segment, which includes casino equipment, accounted over half of the firm’s revenues for the year to the end of March.
However, the Nikkei Asian Review reported that Japan Cash Machine Company Limited is not abandoning the gaming segment altogether despite its view that traditional markets including Macau and Las Vegas may have reached saturation. The firm recently revealed that it expects to report a 1% increase year-on-year in validator sales to western casinos for the current fiscal year to about $264.7 million while there is also a chance that legalized casino gambling in its home nation may help to significantly boost overall revenues.