Casino Enterprise Management

In 1998, Slot-Tickets’ founders, husband-wife duo Tom Mitchell and Susan Mitchell, waited by the phone, hoping it would ring and someone would place an order for tickets. Today, the company serves customers worldwide and has produced billions of tickets.

“The first million-ticket order was a big deal—it still is today,” said Managing Director of Special Projects Tom Mitchell.

Slot-Tickets’ founding in 1998 was a response from FutureLogic to provide International Game Technology (IGT) with its first ticket-in/ticket-out (TITO) paper. IGT’s EZ Pay® TITO technology with Slot-Tickets’ tickets debuted in 2000. In the beginning, Tom Mitchell says, it was difficult to make tickets work with printers.

“Our goal was to invent that production process. Many a night was spent designing and testing what was to become the now-common slot ticket industry,” he said. “Little did we know that millions would actually become billions, but we were ready.”

Jerry Roed, the then-slot director at Fiesta Henderson Casino Hotel, assured Tom Mitchell that ticketing was the future of slot gaming—and he couldn’t have been more correct. Today, Slot-Tickets has more than 1,000 customers worldwide.

In 2006, Slot-Tickets was sold to WS Packaging Group Inc. (WSPG), the largest privately owned tag, ticket and label producer in North America. Slot-Tickets is now a vertical sales canal within WSPG. Tom Mitchell adds that WSPG and the Slot-Ticket group are constantly on the quest for the latest technology, and many times, are at the test facility trying out new ideas.

“We have all of the most modern technology of our industry at our fingertips and huge purchasing power. We love challenges!” Tom Mitchell remarked.

Challenges in the ticketing industry include responding to paper jams, ensuring tickets arrive at casinos when they need them, and keeping tickets consistently as near as possible to perfect.

Paper jams, which are common in colder climates, are difficult to remedy because they are sporadic, and often the root of the problem is hard to identify. Tom Mitchell says Slot-Tickets works closely with printer OEMs and paper suppliers to eliminate the cause. He says major progress has been made to understanding paper jams.

Casinos simply running out of tickets is another common challenge in the industry. Often times around holidays, the inventory person at a casino will realize they’re almost out of tickets and need them on a just-in-time basis.

“Because tickets are a basic commodity of the casino, it many times gets forgotten that they have to be manufactured, normally with a casino logo, and shipped by truck or by sea,” Tom Mitchell said. 

One time, a Slot-Tickets plant general manager in Phoenix had to load his car with hot-off-the-press tickets and drive through the night to get them to a southern California casino that had run out.

“We are definitely super busy every day taking care of our customers’ needs worldwide. Every day presents its challenges,” Tom Mitchell said.
 
Managing Director of Worldwide Sales Susan Mitchell added, “Our sales approach is to cement a long-lasting relationship with our customers, providing their property and their gaming customers our high-quality, defect-free product.”

Keeping each ticket as close to perfect as possible is especially challenging because unlike electronic products, tickets are made from paper—a natural, living thing.

“It is all but impossible to explain the transition of our product from trees in the forests, to going through an enormous paper mill, to thermal chemistry coating and the final printing of the casino logo on that little ticket in their hands. We marvel at it ourselves,” Tom Mitchell said.

The Slot-Tickets team has seen major advancements in their company and in the industry. Slot-Tickets expanded to Phoenix from its original facility in Green Bay, Wis., in 2004. The expansion helped the company to better serve its worldwide market and offered a backup facility.

In the gaming industry, the most significant trend Slot-Tickets has witnessed was the rapid worldwide growth of ticketing that occurred after the Native American gaming explosion. Tom Mitchell credits Native American gaming with cementing tickets as the standard payout system.
“Indian gaming was basically our beginning and we owe a lot to those who were brave enough to design casinos that used no coins,” he said.

Innovations for Slot-Tickets include the new on-demand pull tab the company showed at G2E this year.

“We have the initial feeling that this segment will grow over time as systems and machines incorporate the concept in their business development plans,” Tom Mitchell said.

Production of Slot-Tickets tickets is a proprietary operation and aspects are protected by four patents. Products go through intense post-testing by a full-time quality assurance staff at the company’s lab in Memphis, Tenn. Production occurs in a facility that is shared with hundreds of presses that produce everything from food labels to rental car receipts.

The sales offices are separate from production and, Tom Mitchell says, “There is no one like the customer-focused” Slot-Tickets sales staff. Sales are headed by Susan Mitchell, who has worked in printing and graphic design for 30 years.

“Her personal business ethic and quality demands permeate the environment,” Tom Mitchell said. “Susan is the recognized leader of the Slot-Ticket group.”

Susan Mitchell says she enjoys the customer base of repeat buyers. “I get an opportunity to get to know some wonderful people. I absolutely love meeting these long-distance friends at the gaming trade shows,” she said. “It's all about a great product and wonderful customers.”

Now in its 12th year, the Slot-Tickets group sees ticketing as a stable industry that will evolve. An example of this evolution was shown at G2E 2011. FutureLogic introduced a gray-scale printer utilizing Slot-Tickets’ tickets. The printer allows for more detailed and aesthetically pleasing promotional tickets.

“We are always on the lookout to be the ‘next, next thing’ that replaces our current product. Tickets are very cost effective, perform with an almost zero-defect reliability and have a worldwide acceptance,” Tom Mitchell explained. “But, one can never, ever be comfortable in the fast-moving gaming arena.”

Four years ago, Slot-Tickets worked with IGT’s R&D team to design a player card system that would eventually replace the ticket and combine it with the player loyalty card. Tom Mitchell says it is a “grand concept of chemistry and engineering.” Few people ever saw the actual finished project, code-named RDC for recycled data card. The actual card was dispensed by a machine, similar to today’s ticket. The machine mechanism had the ability to rewrite the cashout over and over, on the same card.

“It was a very advanced form of the current chemistry used on tickets today but could be erased and rewritten hundreds of times,” Tom Mitchell said. “JCM worked with us to perfect the printer and card-handling mechanism. The recession killed the project just as it was about to be introduced. Maybe someday it will return.”

In the year ahead, Tom Mitchell is excited for continued international expansion. The company plans to retool its entire production system and will soon open a new production location. Slot-Tickets will have a presence in 2012 at many of the industry’s major trade shows, including ICE, NIGA, G2E Asia, OIGA, the Australia Gaming Show, Southern Gaming and G2E.

“We love this industry!” Tom Mitchell said. “We celebrate every day and are very thankful to be part of this invigorating industry.”

Susan Mitchell says that she, too, is eager to continue to see the growth of the company, adding that the industry is great and she looks forward to working with new and old customers.

Just like the side of Slot-Tickets’ shipping boxes say, “Call Susan Mitchell”—she’ll be waiting by the phone.


Slot-Tickets Fast Facts
Number of Employees: 25
Number of Engineers: 2
Year Founded: 1998
Mission Statement: To be the best of the best
Motto: Zero defects!
Office Locations: Memphis, Tenn., Green Bay, Wis., and Phoenix
International Sales Offices: London, Sydney, Macau, Singapore and Puerto Rico
Key Executives: Susan Mitchell and Tom Mitchell
Website: www.slot-tickets.com


Anna G. Larson is an Associate Editor for Casino Enterprise Management. She can be reached at (701) 293-7775 or editor6[at]aceme.org.