Kirk Sanford News

Can gambling guarantee you millions of dollars? Kirk Sanford, CEO of Global Cash Access, has proven that it does! Sanford’s company upgraded cash access systems at over one thousand casinos in 1999 in a $5 million project. In an article that appeared in Business Solutions in May 1999, Jim Roddy covered the various aspects of Global Cash Access’ technological advances and the business models it had successfully implemented. The article included  an interview with Sanford. Read about it here.

This potential product may be termed and marketed as a “home ATM and smart card” or a “global debit card,” which might pique any banker’s interest. However, this refers to the Internet gambling business.

Many companies have found ways to let people wager on-line. The firms work through banks and computer servers in other countries — many in the Caribbean — and get foreign merchant processors to help them accept MasterCard and Visa payments. The U.S. residents might be given a free bank account in the host country, which can be funded with a debit card or credit card cash advance, and then used online. Internet gambling is a “gray area we would rather not get into at this point,” said Kirk Sanford, chief executive officer of Global Cash Access. ” U.S. banks and processors do not regard gambling as inherently taboo. The lion’s share of merchant processing for the traditional, physical-world gambling industry is handled by Global Cash Access, a joint venture of First Data Corp., BankAmerica Corp.’s BA Merchant Services subsidiary, and USA Processing. See more on this topic in an article from American Banker.

First Data Corp., Bank America Corp.’s BA Merchant Services Inc. and USA Processing individually provide credit card, debit card, automated teller machine (ATM), check cashing, and Western Union (WU) money transfer services across a total of 1,200 gambling properties in the U.S. Now, they are seeking regulatory approval for a new joint venture in these spheres that are traditionally their fields of competition. Under the joint venture, these various financial services  would join the 1,200 casinos across the U.S. under the one joint company. Read more on this venture here.