Don’t Leave Your Banking to Chance: Four Questions You Should Be Asking Your Banker

Like many industries, some aspects of the gaming business evolve regularly. New technologies now provide increasingly efficient accounting procedures offering banking details when clients need them. Automated investment sweep services are helping gaming clients get the most from their money by taking advantage of current interest rates — without staff needing to monitor and execute transactions. To further protect the integrity of all accounts from fraudulent tactics - a concern for any industry - services like Check Positive Pay¹ ensure you only pay the person and the amount you intended. 

The Western Alliance Bank Gaming group offers the experience and knowledge that helps gaming companies navigate the challenges of a highly regulated sector. Our team is available to gaming businesses in any part of the country.

Here are four questions to help kickstart these important discussions with your banker:

We’re looking to streamline our accounting practices and hope to gain access to more real-time financial reporting. Are there tools we should be considering?

An Application Programming Interface (API) can significantly benefit gaming clients. An API allows a bank to seamlessly communicate with clients’ accounting systems so that all banking details are available when needed. APIs eliminate the need to log in to an online banking system to monitor transactions. With an API, the information exchange is near real-time utilizing Secure File Transport Protocol (SFTP), making the entire process seamless. The advanced technology can help clients better predict cash flow, plan budgets, prevent funding gaps and improve liquidity. Since most gaming companies have five, ten or more separate bank accounts, APIs make posting and reporting for each account much more straightforward, more efficient and could save on labor costs.

We need our deposit accounts to earn as much as possible, but we can’t sacrifice our company’s liquidity. What options are available?

In the current interest rate environment, casinos may want to consider options that allow them to earn higher rates on their accounts. A Money Market Fund investment sweep is an efficient way to achieve these goals. After choosing a target balance for a funding account, any funds over that amount are automatically swept into a Money Market Fund, where they earn a higher interest rate. Excess funds are transferred daily or as often as needed to maintain the target balance of the funding account. The funds are always available to the business which helps maintain liquidity, but eliminates the need for staff to monitor, handle and execute transactions. 

Our team has limited the number of payments made by paper checks to reduce potential fraudulent access. Are there additional steps we should take? 

An area of concern for any business, including gaming clients, is the growing incidence of fraud often initiated through mail theft. Paper checks that include routing and account numbers allow thieves to utilize practices such as check-washing to alter payee information and the amount of the check itself. Jackpot payouts, payroll or vendor checks can all be targeted. Check Positive Pay prevents this type of fraud. Before any check is paid from a gaming client’s account, the bank ensures the check number and amount match what the client issued.

Many gaming entities have reduced check fraud risk by utilizing a business credit card. A Visa commercial credit card allows invoices to be paid electronically, reducing the need to write checks and the expense of sending them. A company credit card also eliminates manual expense reporting as all card activity is automatically uploaded into your company’s expense management system. Administrators have full access to manage all cardholders and spending limits and can add or delete cardholders when needed.

We’re currently using a courier service to deposit check payments. Is there a quicker option to get these funds deposited?

Gaming clients can accelerate the process of depositing checks into their account using a convenient service call Remote Deposit Capture (RDC)². RDC lets you deposit checks from your office using an electronic check scanner - 24/7/365. RDC eliminates the cost of couriers or other deposit methods and provides a complete audit trail of deposit activity. 

For clients seeking cash deposit solutions, a service known as Smart Safe can dramatically increase the efficiency and safety of processing currency. When a cash deposit is made in the Smart Safe located within your office, deposits receive next-day provisional credit in your accounts. The Smart Safe adds convenience, safety and efficiency to cash deposits and may reduce armored courier costs.

The Western Alliance Bank Gaming group provides experience and solutions for all gaming segments, including middle-market, Native American, hotel, riverboat and racetrack casinos. Reach out to one of our bankers to learn how they can help provide the services and technologies that help you achieve a business win in casino gaming.