Gaming & Slot Machines
Use this page to record cash hand-pays against each gaming machine at the register, and see what each machine paid out.
Quick steps
To set it up (admin):
- Go to Settings > Edit Settings, open the Operations tab and find POS Payouts.
- Tick Enable Payouts and Enable Slot Machine Payouts, then click Update Settings.
- Open the Gaming card on the Reports page (or Promo Games > Slot Machines). Add your machines one at a time with Add a single machine, or paste a whole list into Bulk add (paste labels) and click Add all.
To pay out a machine (at the register):
- Tap the Cash Drop button (down arrow) in the top bar.
- Choose Machine Payout and pick the machine from the Machine list.
- Enter the amount and tap Record Cash Drop.
Common questions
Machine Payout isn't on the Cash Drop screen. Both Enable Payouts and Enable Slot Machine Payouts must be ticked. Turning Payouts off turns machine payouts off too.
A machine is missing from the register's list. Only active machines show. Check it isn't paused (Inactive) or archived.
Where do I pay a supplier from the till? Use the Supplier reason, not Machine Payout, so your machine totals stay accurate.
How do I see what each machine paid out? The Slot Machines page lists each machine's payouts for today and for the dates you pick. Click Export CSV to download it.
More detail: how it works and turning it on
The Gaming feature lets venues with a gaming floor record cash payouts against individual machines. When a clerk hand-pays a winner at the register, they choose Machine Payout on the POS Cash Drop screen and pick the machine. Those payouts roll up into per-machine totals, a date-range report, and a CSV export, so you can reconcile each machine's cash.
How It Works
Turning on gaming adds three payout reasons to the register's Cash Drop screen:
| Reason | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Machine Payout | Paying out a gaming machine. The clerk must pick which machine it came from. |
| Lottery Payout | Paying out a lottery win. No machine to pick. |
| Progressive Payout | Paying out a progressive jackpot. No machine to pick. |
All three count as gaming payouts. Like any payout, they take cash out of the till and are subtracted from the expected cash when the drawer is closed. A machine payout also carries the machine, so the cash can be reported per machine.
Paying a supplier out of the same till is recorded under the separate Supplier reason, not as a gaming payout. On each cash drawer session page and on Daily Close, machine, lottery, progressive and supplier payouts are each totalled on their own, so the machine payout total means machines only. See Cash Drops & Payouts (Admin).
Machine payout tracking is built on the cash payouts feature. If Enable Payouts is turned off, Enable Slot Machine Payouts is switched off along with it. Enable both together.
Enabling the Feature
Slot machine tracking is off until an admin switches it on.
- Go to Settings > Edit Settings, open the Operations tab and find the POS Payouts section.
- Make sure Enable Payouts is checked.
- Check Enable Slot Machine Payouts.
- Click Update Settings.
Once enabled:
- Lottery Payout, Machine Payout and Progressive Payout appear on the POS Cash Drop screen, with a machine picker for machine payouts.
- A Slot Machines tab is added under Promo Games in the admin.
- A Gaming card appears on the Reports page.
- The payouts table on each cash drawer session gets a Machine column.
The Promo Games menu item only shows when Promo Games is turned on for your store. Without it, reach the Slot Machines page from the Gaming card on the Reports page.
More detail: adding and managing machines
Managing Machines
Manage your gaming floor inventory from Admin > Promo Games > Slot Machines.
Machine Fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Label | The machine's name as shown to clerks in the POS machine picker. Must be unique (case-insensitive), max 60 characters. |
| Active | Whether the machine appears in the POS picker. Inactive machines are hidden from the register but keep their history. |
Adding Machines
There are two ways to add machines from the Slot Machines page:
- Add a single machine — Expand the panel, enter a label, and click Add.
- Bulk add (paste labels) — Expand the panel, paste one label per line, and click Add all. This is all-or-nothing: if any line conflicts with an existing label, nothing is saved.
Editing, Deactivating, and Archiving
Each machine row in the table offers:
- Pause / Play — Toggle the machine between Active and Inactive. Inactive machines stay in your history but are removed from the POS picker.
- Edit — Change the label or active state.
- Archive — Removes the machine from the POS picker for good. Historical payouts keep their machine (the label shows "(archived)").
An archived machine drops off the Slot Machines table, but its past payouts stay attributed to it: they still show on the cash drawer session pages (the label marked "(archived)") and in the CSV export (with an "Archived" status), so your reconciliation history stays intact.
More detail: recording machine payouts at the register
Recording Machine Payouts (at the Register)
Clerks record machine payouts from the POS register, not the admin:
- Tap the Cash Drop button (down arrow) in the register's header bar — or Settings > Quick Actions > Cash Drop on a small screen.
- Choose Machine Payout.
- Pick the machine the cash came from in the Machine list.
- Enter the payout amount — by tapping the keypad or typing it on a keyboard — and tap Record Cash Drop.
The payout is logged against the selected machine and subtracted from the drawer's expected cash. If a receipt is printed, it shows the reason as Machine Payout and a Machine: line with the machine's label, on a standard receipt printer and on a Star printer alike. Only active machines appear in the list, and a machine must be chosen for the payout to save.
A Machine Payout with no active machine selected is refused. The other reasons — Lottery Payout, Progressive Payout, Supplier, Pay Out — never carry a machine.
The register remembers the machine list from the last time it was online, so clerks can still record a machine payout during a connection drop. The payout is saved on the device and sent, with its machine, once the connection is back. The list only comes up empty offline if that register has never loaded it.
Machine payouts also appear on each cash drawer session in the admin panel: the Payouts table has a Machine column, and the Payouts by Type card shows the session's Machine Payout total on its own. See Cash Drawer Sessions.
More detail: per-machine totals, date ranges and export
Viewing in Reports
Gaming Card
When slot machine tracking is enabled, a Gaming card appears on the main Reports index. It links to the per-machine payout report.
Per-Machine Totals
The Slot Machines page (Admin > Promo Games > Slot Machines) is also the report. Only machine payouts are counted here. It shows a table of every machine with:
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Label | The machine name. Click it to drill into that machine's payout history. |
| Status | Active or Inactive. |
| Today's Payouts | Total cash paid out on this machine today. |
| Range Payouts | Total cash paid out within the selected date range. |
| # Payouts (range) | Count of payout transactions in the range. |
A Totals row at the bottom sums today's payouts, range payouts, and payout counts across all machines.
Date Range and Presets
Use the From / To date fields and click Apply to set a custom range. Quick presets are available: Today, Yesterday, This week, Last 7 days, and This month. By default the report covers the current week through today.
Per-Machine Drilldown
Click a machine's label to open its detail page, which lists every individual payout in the selected range with date, time, clerk, the cash drawer session (linked), amount, and notes — plus the total and payout count for the range.
CSV Export
Click Export CSV on the Slot Machines page to download a per-machine summary for the selected date range. The export includes archived machines (marked "Archived") and contains: Label, Status, number of payouts, and total payout dollars. The filename includes the date range, e.g. slot-payouts-2026-05-01-to-2026-05-31.csv.
More detail: troubleshooting and good habits
Troubleshooting
| Issue | Solution |
|---|---|
| No Machine Payout reason on the Cash Drop screen | Confirm both Enable Payouts and Enable Slot Machine Payouts are checked in Settings. Machine payouts are switched off whenever Payouts is off. |
| Slot Machines tab missing under Promo Games | Enable Slot Machine Payouts is off, or Enable Payouts is off (which switches it off). Turn both on in Settings. |
| Gaming card not on the Reports index | The card only appears when slot machine tracking is enabled. |
| A machine doesn't appear in the POS list | Only Active machines show. Check the machine isn't paused (Inactive) or archived. |
| The machine list is empty on the register | If the register is offline and has never loaded the list, it has nothing to show — reconnect and try again. Otherwise, add machines under Admin > Promo Games > Slot Machines. |
| Machine payout won't save | A valid active machine must be selected. Pick a machine in the list before recording. |
| Can't add a machine | Labels must be unique per store (case-insensitive) and 60 characters or fewer. Check for a duplicate. |
| Bulk add saved nothing | Bulk add is all-or-nothing. If any pasted label conflicts with an existing one, the whole batch is rejected — remove the duplicate and try again. |
| Archived machine still shows on a session or in the CSV | Expected. Historical payouts keep their machine: the session page shows the label as "(archived)" and the CSV export marks it "Archived", so totals stay accurate. It no longer appears in the Slot Machines table. |
| Totals look low | Check the date range. The report defaults to the current week. Use the presets or set custom From/To dates. |
| Machine payout total looks high on a session | Check the payouts table for vendor payments recorded as Machine Payout by mistake. Vendor payments belong under Supplier. |
Best Practices
- Label machines clearly — Use the same labels clerks see on the physical floor (e.g. "Slot 01", "VLT 3") so payouts get tagged to the right machine.
- Bulk add at setup — When first enabling the feature, paste your whole floor inventory into the bulk-add box rather than adding machines one at a time.
- Deactivate, don't archive, for short outages — If a machine goes offline temporarily, deactivate it to remove it from the POS list; archive only when a machine leaves the floor for good.
- Pay vendors under Supplier — Keeps your gaming payout figures clean. Set up the vendors you pay from the till as suppliers so clerks can pick them.
- Reconcile daily — Review the "Today's Payouts" column at close to confirm tagged payouts match each machine's hand-pay log.
- Export monthly for records — Use the CSV export at month-end to keep a per-machine payout record alongside your other gaming paperwork.
- Keep Payouts enabled — Turning Payouts off also turns machine payouts off, hiding them from the register and the admin tab.
What's Next?
- Cash Drops & Payouts — The payouts flow machine payouts are built on, including supplier payouts.
- Cash Drops & Payouts (POS) — How clerks record payouts at the register.
- Sales Reports — Review overall store sales and revenue trends.
- Promo Games — The Slot Machines tab lives alongside the other Promo Games tools.