Cashless Play — Digital Wallet

Project

Cashless Play is a digital wallet within the Star App — enabling patrons to manage, transfer, and use funds across gaming machines and table games, with responsible gambling safeguards built in.

Role

UX Research
Product Design
Stakeholder Engagement

Platform

iOS & Android
Mobile App

Deliverables

UX Strategy
Wireframes & IA
User Journeys
High-Fidelity POC

Challenge

Design a secure cashless gaming experience that customers could understand and trust, in an environment where cash is king — while meeting strict payment, regulatory and responsible gaming requirements.

Key Insight

Customers would be more willing to adopt Cashless Play if it behaved and looked like the familiar banking experiences they already used every day.

Design Response

I designed Cashless Play around digital banking patterns, clear transaction states and familiar wallet interactions to make transferring and managing funds feel intuitive — with responsible gaming safeguards built in, linked to the gaming limits engine with a delay on money transfers.

Outcome

Initial trials showed that once customers began using Cashless Play, they quickly understood its convenience and recognised that it worked much like the digital payment systems already embedded in their everyday lives — while providing additional guardrails that cash could not offer.

UX Workshops & Discovery

Workshops with compliance, gaming, and third-party payments teams defined key constraints and behavioural goals — with spending controls and responsible gaming guardrails central to every design decision from the outset.

Phase 01

Compliance Mapping

Defined regulatory constraints and responsible gambling requirements upfront.

Phase 02

Behavioural Research

Identified high-risk transactional moments through customer experience mapping across digital and physical environments.

Phase 03

Comparative Analysis

Researched leading banking and fintech apps to identify the common interaction patterns.

Phase 04

Third-Party Integration

Analysis and understanding of the constraints and capabilities of the third-party payments supplier.

Journey Mapping & Comparative Assessments

Whiteboard workshops mapped the end-to-end player journey, while a comparative assessment of leading banking and fintech apps benchmarked balance visibility, transfers, and account navigation patterns.

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Iterative Design Process

Multiple design approaches were tested and validated through wireframes and low-fidelity POCs — iterating toward a wallet experience that felt both trusted and familiar.

UX Flows

User flows mapped the full wallet experience across key tasks: adding a bank card, topping up, withdrawing funds, and transferring to gameplay — with responsible gambling checkpoints embedded at high-risk moments.

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Clickable POC in Figma

The high-fidelity prototype demonstrated key journeys, including contextual onboarding, fund transfers, and transaction history, within a fully navigable Figma POC ready for stakeholder review.

Setting up Star Account, Adding Debit Card & First Top Up

Delay on Money Transfer, Withdraw & Funds Transfer Break

High-Fidelity Screens

Final UI across the core wallet experience — card management, contextual onboarding, fund transfer flows, and responsible gaming limit integration — all within a banking-inspired design system.

The Impact

↑ Introduced

Adoption of Cashless Play

Initial hesitancy gave way to growing uptake as members recognised the convenience and control the digital wallet offered.

↑ Introduced

Behavioural Intervention

Delay on Transfers created a deliberate pause at the highest-risk transactional time — giving members a moment to reconsider.

↑ Delivered

Seamless Payment Experience

Members who had never used a digital wallet were soon completing transfers and playing cashlessly with confidence — a banking-inspired UX making the transition feel natural.

↑ Connected

Physical–Digital Experience

Bridged digital wallet functionality with in-venue gameplay, allowing members to move seamlessly between app-based fund management and live gaming across the casino floor.