My cashout suggestions, continued form the other day.  (And it's about time too, because something about the armpit photo from the last post is really disturbing).

One of the things you learn in the first semester of business school is the idea of process management.  For anyone interested, The Goal is a pretty good book on some of the thought processes involved. It's a little hokey, but it helps you to think outside the box.

Cashouts are a process management issue.  They obviously have capacity constraints on OUTFLOW - it's not easy finding ways to process a bunch of payments.  So if you are having problems with outflow, doesn't it make sense to try and alleviate some of the INFLOW?  That is, reduce the number of cashouts that are required.  How can the Merge network alleviate cashouts?  Rather than having a us vs them attitude between the skins and players, why not work together?  I have THREE thoughts on how to do this:

1) Cashouts don't have to be MONEY.  Offer other forms of "cashouts" - like maybe a (somewhat discounted) store.  It probably costs them like 15% or so (my guess) to process a cashout.  So you can offer products at a 5-10% discount and still be making money.  Players are paying 15% vig to get money off.  There's plenty of room there for a win-win situation.  Maybe something we can all use, like Apple products?  If given a choice between a full loaded ipad for $675 ($699 retail) or waiting 3-6 weeks for a cashout, I'll take an ipad.  Shoot - I may even get extra ones as gifts to my family.  I'm also in the market for a high end computer and a 50+" TV.  You get the idea.  Dealers get margin off of the retail price (Merge makes margin AND saves on processing cash) and players get stuff they want asap without paying vig.  Win and win.  Merge doesn't even need to set up any infrastructure - just work with the existing vendor or manufacturer to drop-ship items.  But please don't be busto like the FT store used to be - send stuff right away, instead of in 4-8 weeks.

And I have TWO more ideas, that I think are just as good (to be continued)