Kirk Sanford News

Kirk Sanford serves as CEO of Sightline Acquisition Corp. After 14 years heading Global Cash Access Inc. (GCA), a subsidiary of Global Cash Access Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: GCA), Kirk Sanford resigned as CEO in November 2007.

GCA is a provider of cash access products and services to more than 1,100 clients across the globe. These clients include gaming concerns where GCA provides the patrons cash access via various methods including ATM withdrawals, debit and credit card transactions as well as check verification and money transfers.

GCA maintains a proprietary database of gaming patron transaction data and credit history spanning millions of gaming patrons worldwide. This aids GCA in developing and deploying technologies and strategies to increase client profitability and efficiency.

Kirk Sanford has over 15 years of high level financial and economic leadership experience behind him.

Sanford served as CEO and also Chairman of the Board of Global Cash Access Inc. (GCA) for 14 years, retiring from this position in November, 2007. Sanford and GCA achieved over $1.5 billion in valuation during this time, as well as annual revenue of $600 million and an employee base of over 400 employees across the world.

Running a casino is a complex endeavor composed of a myriad of discreet constituent parts which must come together to form an intimately well functioning whole. It is certainly no secret that one of the crucial factors contributing to a well run casino is the ease of use and quality of its cash access machines. Global Cash Access is without a doubt one of the most trusted provider of cash access products and other related services for the gaming industry; not only in the United States but all over the world. GCA provides products and services to more than 1,100 gaming facilities internationally, including North America, Latin America, Europe, the United Kingdom and Asia. In the year 2007 more than $21 billion in cash in over 80 million transactions were processed.

Kirk Sanford, CEO of Global Cash Access of Sunnyvale, California has refrained from getting involved in the internet gambling industry. Although his company, GCA, services the vast majority of casinos in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean with point-of-sale terminals for easy and fast cash access for customers, Sanford believes gambling on the internet is another kettle of fish altogether.

“Internet gambling is a gray area we would rather not get into at this point. There is probably a lot of money that can be made, but for us it just doesn’t weigh against the risks associated with it.”

In the year 1998 the on-line version of gambling did $651 million worth of business, and was projected to earn at least $811 million in 1999. The prediction for the year 2001 was estimated to be about $2.3 billion.

Global Cash Access (GCA) received the 2003 Top 20 Most Innovative New Gaming Products Award from Casino Journal for its cash services product QuickJack Plus. QuickJack Plus is GCA’s highly user-friendly interface located in the casinos, and it allows the patrons to cash in a variety of the tickets and vouchers they receive, as well as perform all the required ATM, debit and credit card, and players’ club cash activities. Furthermore, QuickJack Plus can be augmented with many other functions that each gaming property may require. Joining together with NRT Technology Corporation for the QuickJack Plus interface, Global Cash Access was able to increase its tally of Casino Journal awards to five. Kirk Sanford, chief executive officer of GCA was “thrilled,” to quote him, to be honored once again. During Sanford’s tenure as CEO, GCA has been at the forefront of the gaming technologies.

Casino Journal has, for 7 years, awarded its Top 20 Most Innovative New Gaming Products Awards to each year’s most innovative gaming products. In 2003, Global Cash Access (GCA) was included among the winners of the Top 20 Most Innovative New Gaming Products Awards of 2003 for two of GCA’s products. These two awards join the previous three awards that GCA has received for its products in the past. In awarding GCA these awards, Casino Journal recognizes the innovation and great potential of  two new products, QuickJack Plus and Plus QuikCash Plus (QCP) Web. In 2003 when the awards were made, QCP Web, had been installed at 124 casinos on 1,200 terminals. QCP Web is a full-service transaction processing system, and QuickJack Plus is a user-friendly interface for many of the various gaming patron activities while at the casinos. Kirk Sanford, CEO of GCA, said that the awards marked GCA’s efforts to “deliver forward-thinking products that improve operations, increase revenues and enhance the gaming experience.”

Kirk Sanford was thrilled once again by the recognition his company, Global Cash Access (GCA) received from the gaming community. In 2003, GCA was awarded two prizes for two of its individual products that were recognized as being among the Top 20 Most Innovative Gaming Products of 2003. Casino Journal has made these awards since 1996, acknowledging GCA’s two products QCP Web and QuickJack Plus. Visit our “In The Public Eye” page for this and other news.

Atreva and Cash Center Devices Added to Network

SANTA CLARA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Aug. 2, 2000–Global Cash Access (GCA), a supplier of cash access, financial management and customer relationship marketing technologies to the gaming industry, today announced it has reached an agreement to purchase the Entertainment Business assets of InnoVentry Corp. Under the agreement, GCA will acquire InnoVentry’s Atreva All-in-One(TM), Atreva Express(TM) and Cash Center(TM) ATM’s and Atreva(TM) Credit Card Cash Access line of products and services at more than 60 gaming establishments throughout the country. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. ”GCA is focused solely on providing the gaming industry with leading edge technology and unsurpassed service. This acquisition is an extension of our commitment to build and maintain the single most comprehensive financial resource for casinos for the new economy,” said Kirk Sanford, GCA’s chief executive officer. ”The GCA network is more than 1,200 locations strong and provides casinos with access to the most gaming patron data available anywhere. The addition of the Atreva and Cash Center lines further enhances the power of our network and what it can achieve for casino management.” The InnoVentry Atreva line of cash access devices was launched in May of 1998. ”Our Atreva and Cash Center products are proven performers in the marketplace. While these assets are very viable, they require technology resources and ongoing capital investments that do not support our core business focus. In contrast, GCA already possesses the gaming industry’s most powerful cash access and information network, which allows casinos to fully integrate their cash access functions with finance, marketing and operations. This transaction provides significant value for both companies and will provide improved service for InnoVentry’s customers,” said Frank Petro, chairman and CEO of InnoVentry. Global Cash Access was formed in 1998 through a joint venture of Bank of America, First Data Corp., and USA Processing, Inc. Providing access to the gaming industry’s largest patron database, GCA uses Internet technologies to deliver funds transfer, financial management and customer relationship marketing services to more than 1,200 gaming properties nationwide. InnoVentry, a San Francisco-based company jointly owned by the wholesale bank of Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE:WFC - news) and Cash America International, Inc. (NYSE:PWN - news), is a deployer of a multifunction platform integrating financial service transaction capability, media distribution, facial recognition technology and centralized credit-checking. InnoVentry’s revolutionary RPM® Cash Management Machine offers self-service check-cashing, ATM, money transfer, bill payment and other financial services to the self-banked.

You might think the phrase “responsible gambling” is an oxymoron, but at casinos in Detroit they are about to enter into the second phase of a two phase program to promote just that: Responsible Gambling.

Kirk Sanford of Global Cash Access in partnership with the National Council on Problem Gambling is making a huge effort to educate and counsel the public so that an enjoyable hobby or pastime does not turn into an addictive problem.

Accounting for approximately 95% of all cash access machines at casinos, all GCA machines will have Point-of-Decision messages printed on sticker and receipts, and 60% of the machines will also have telephone handsets which connect to a 24-hour “help-line” service center. Using the code word ‘think’ will signal to the service representative to automatically connect the customer to the National Council on Problem Gambling Hotline.

In addition, the program to promote responsible gambling also allows customers to exempt their credit cards so that if a request is made by the customer to withdraw more than a set amount of money, the withdrawal will be denied.

To learn more about this service you can see our page “Casino Cash Machines Offer Exclusion.”

SUNNYVALE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Aug. 11, 1999–Six Mandalay Resort Group properties, amongst them the new Motor City Casino in Detroit, and 6 other gaming properties have recently signed contracts to utilize the services and products of Global Cash Access (GCA). GCA is the largest provider of cash access services to the  industry. View this Business Wire notice here, and other press releases here.