In today’s top news, U.S. casinos are moving toward cashless gambling, and Visa and Mastercard lost their bid to assess fees on retailers in the United Kingdom. Plus, Google has launched “Promoted” pins to highlight small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) on Google Maps.
US Casinos To Go Cashless, Citing Pandemic Fears
U.S. casinos are moving toward cashless gambling to protect customers and staff from the pandemic. The American Gaming Association (AGA), the Washington, D.C.-based trade group for the $261 billion sector, has issued “Payments Modernization Policy Principles” that it said will guide the industry into ePayments.
Mastercard And Visa Lose Legal Round In The UK Over Swipe Fees
Britain’s Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. to assess fees on retailers, affirming a lower court ruling that the mandated payments restricted competition, the court announced Wednesday (June 17).
Google Launches New ‘Promoted’ Pins To Boost SMB Visibility
Google has added square-shaped “Promoted” pins to its Maps app, denoting SMBs, to help businesses attract users browsing the map. The icons will also denote whether the SMB represented is a restaurant, hotel or other type of business.
China Proposes East-Asian Digital Currency
Chinese officials are mulling developing an “East Asia digital currency,” backed by a basket consisting of the Chinese yuan, Japanese yen, Hong Kong dollar and the South Korean won.
NEW REPORT: Restaurant Re-Openings And The Guest Recovery Challenge
Bringing back guests who’ve had a less-than-satisfactory restaurant experience has taken on a whole new level of importance during the COVID-19 outbreak. In this month’s Order To Eat Tracker, Ray Wiley, CEO of Mexican food chain Hot Head Burritos, discusses how collecting and analyzing customer feedback from a range of online channels is key to getting more customers to return to his chain’s 78 locations as they reopen and recover.
NEW DATA: A 20-Step Guide To Boosting Cross-Border Conversion
Finding digital products and services online is easier than ever but paying for purchases from international websites is far from friction-free. How can merchants localize their checkouts for global audiences? In our Cross-Border Merchant Friction Index, PYMNTS analyzed checkout processes at 266 leading international eCommerce sites to come up with 20 steps merchants must take to boost cross-border conversion.
Uber’s SaaS Push Shows Flexibility Of Platform Model
Ride-hailing giant Uber Technologies is branching out into software-as-a-service (SaaS), offering its programming and analytics to outside entities, beginning with transit agencies.