When you think of the Olympics, your first thoughts are probably not of ATMs and POS devices. But when millions of visitors, most of whom are nowhere near their local banks, descend on Olympic Park for the two-week long Games, their need for cash quickly becomes a primary focus.

That's why Visa International spends a lot of time before each Olympics planning and setting up a network of ATMs and POS terminals for the events. Michael Sherman, vice president of global corporate relations for Visa International, said three to four years of planning is not unusual.

Visa has been working in Salt Lake City, Utah for a couple of years in preparation for the 2002 Winter Games, and it just started its preliminary work in Athens for the 2004 Summer Games, he said.

Visa first meets with an Olympic organizing committee to determine plans for ATMs, such as where to put them and how many will be needed. Visa designs the machines, determines how they will operate, puts wiring down, connects the machines and maintains them. The company subcontracts for some of this work.

"It's a considerable investment of time and money," Sherman said. Although he declined to disclose Visa's revenues from any of the Olympics, he said that it was well worth it for Visa and the company's 21,000 member banks.

The 720 POS terminals used by 35 vendors during the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney transferred a total of  $6 million through 300,000 transactions. Twenty-two ATMs dispensed $14 million in 50,000 transactions.

Two ATMs ran out of cash in one day, said Simon Greig, Visa's project manager for the Sydney Olympics. "(The ATMs had) double the average transaction amount that normally occurs," he said.

Sydney's Olympic Park consisted of 30 venues spread over 12 geographic locations. Greig described the task of setting up Visa's network and devices over such a wide area as "pretty hard work," saying it required about "25 hours a day."

The NCR ATMs ran on an NT-based platform, which Greig said was a first in Australia. They individually drove most of the visuals and graphics displayed on their screens.

The machines offered directions in six languages and were decorated in the Olympic color scheme. They also had maps to direct patrons to other machines in case one ran out of money, broke down or the line was too long, Greig said.

Visa located ATMs in all of the major venues, such as the media village, Olympic village and the aquatic center. Greig said they were placed with cherry pickers in locations of "maximum visibility" that had been approved by the Olympic Committee. This was a challenge considering that "every square meter (was) crammed with humanity," he said.

One machine near the swimming pool in the aquatic center was out of commission for a time when a cleaning crew hosed it off the night before the Games started. "It's like chucking your laptop in a bath," Greig said. "It's not a good long-term plan."

During the games, a handful of Visa staff maintained the ATMs. They worked on rotating shifts to clean them off (no hoses) and keep them functioning. This sometimes involved removing soft drink cans and other items from the machines.

"It's amazing what people shove up ATMs," Greig said.

Visa also had a phone center to accept calls about broken or dysfunctional machines. Most of those calls were about POS terminals, Greig said. Visa used heat sensitive paper in the terminals, he said, and some of the POS operators "had the things cooking at about 5,000 degrees on a benchtop."

Needless to say, he said, these problems were easily resolved. The staff simply advised operators to move the devices to the shade.

"We actually didn't have any down time," Greig said.

As for keeping the ATMs stocked with cash, Visa hired a company to come in and replenish the machines each night at 3 a.m. Regular, late-night runs were scheduled to avoid having armed security guards with bags of money wandering around Olympic Park during the day.

Overall, Greig said, he was pleased with Visa's effort. "As it turned out, it was a smacking success."