Our Executive Team
Edward Nigro
CEO & Founder
Edward M. Nigro, the Founder and CEO of BankCard Services LLC has been in the financial and banking business since 1994. Mr. Nigro is currently the Executive Chairman of GBank Financial Holdings Inc. (GBFH) and the G-Bank. Mr. Nigro served as a Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee of Western Alliance Bank Corporation (WAL) and BankWest of Nevada from their inception until his departure in 2006 to form G-Bank.
Mr. Nigro’s hotel/gaming career in Las Vegas began with Howard Hughes followed by 9 years with Del Webb Hotels International becoming the CEO of the Sahara Hotel and Chief Operations Officer and Director for Del Webb’s six Nevada hotel-casino properties. Mr. Nigro licensed Nigro Associates, his construction firm, in 1984 and developed and constructed commercial, medical, and residential projects in Nevada, Arizona, Louisiana, Oregon, and California. Mr. Nigro was the co-founded and CEO of Prime Health of Nevada, which at the time was the largest private PPO and primary care clinic operations in Nevada.
In 2014, following Sightline Payments receipt of its Nevada gaming license to provide Play+ cashless gaming solutions, Mr. Nigro formed BCS, recognizing this as a true game changer for the gaming industry, which has always been a cash business.
Mr. Nigro has been active in numerous philanthropic organizations in Monterey County, including Chairman of the Audit Committee for the Monterey Peninsula Foundation (AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am Tournament), Vice Chairman of the Future Citizens Foundation (First Tee of Monterey County), and the Chairman of the Pay it Forward College Scholarship Committee. Mr. Nigro served his Las Vegas community with the Advisory Board of Habitat for Humanity, the Boy Scouts of America Annual Campaign, the United Way Casino Campaign Division (as its Chairman), the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce (as its Vice President and Board of Directors member), the Nevada Resort Association (as a Director and a member of its Executive Committee), the Variety Club of Las Vegas (as its Chairman), and the National Board of Directors for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
Mr. Nigro is a graduate of Holy Cross College. Captain Nigro also served as a Commissioned Officer with the United States Air Force, where he was awarded, among others, the Air Medal for Combat Missions in Vietnam, two commendation medals for Meritorious Service, the Vietnam Campaign Medal (4 campaigns) and the Vietnam Service Medal.
Hanan Sabri
President & Co-Founder
Hanan Sabri, the Co-Founder and President/ COO of BankCard Services is a payments expert with over 20 years in the banking industry with a specialty in gaming payments for the last ten years. Ms. Sabri provided expertise in developing emerging technologies for banks that assisted the National Bank of California to be one of the very first to launch remote deposit capture. Ms. Sabri employed these same skills to assist Zions Bancorporation with building a suite of cashless Treasury Management products.
Ms. Sabri joined the Bank of George in 2013 to develop new fee income fintech products for the bank. Ms. Sabri joined Mr. Nigro at BCS in 2014 as President and Chief Operations Officer and has been instrumental in the growth of BCS. BCS entered into a key agreements in 2014 with Sightline Payments Play+ to provide BCS/Sightline clients the banking solution for player account management; and, with i2c to provide Processor services. Following Play+, in 2018, BCS entered into an agreement with Sightline Payments to provide the Oregon State Lottery Sports Betting Program with the banking solution to manage player accounts – the Player Information Management System (“PIMS” patent pending system).
Ms. Sabri has applied her passion for problem-solving to make a difference in her community as an advocate for helping children in the foster care system by fundraising and volunteering for St. Jude's Ranch for kids.
James Russell
Chief Compliance Officer
James D. Russell, Chief Compliance Officer, joined BankCard Services in 2015. Mr. Russell started his banking career with the FDIC for ten years progressing to Senior Bank Examiner. Following his FDIC career, he launched his own firm which specialized in banking internal controls, consumer compliance, AML/BSA, and credit risk. Post FDIC, he was again hired by the regulatory community to develop examination programs, to serve as CFO for a bank in conservatorship, and to liquidate a failed bank. Mr. Russell served first as BSA officer of a $5+ billion bank and then as Chief Compliance Officer of that bank.
Mr. Russell’s introduction to the debit/credit/payments industry came in 2013 when he was hired as Chief Compliance Officer and, BSA Officer of Achieve Financial Services with the expressed goal of getting a Consent Order lifted. The Consent Order was removed within 24 months thus allowing Achieve to sell. During his time at Achieve, he was invited to speak at several payment’s conferences specializing in consumer compliance, AML/BSA/OFAC/Fraud, and Regulation E Disputes.
In 2015, Mr. Russell was speaking at a conference attended by BCS and was shortly engaged by BCS. After joining BCS, BCS and a partner bank, G-Bank, decided that Mr. Russell could be most beneficial as a G-Bank employee until such time as his banking and payment’s expertise was needed back at BCS. Mr. Russell formally returned to BCS in 2021.
Mr. Russell is a CPA (Texas), has his CAMS (Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist), and has his CRCM (Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager).
When not working, James enjoys his family, scouting, church, and duplicate bridge.
Our Story
BankCard Services, LLC (BCS) was formed in 2014 when Sightline payments was licensed by the State of Nevada Gaming Commission to utilize its proprietary “Span Network” to transfer individuals funds “cashlessly’’ to/from gaming company wagering accounts.
BCS would enter into an agreement with Sightline Payments to provide the bank necessary, G-Bank, to issue the Discover General Reloadable Prepaid card, branded for each of Sightline Distributors (Casinos), to their customers (we now have 37 Distributors at Bank of George).
BCS entered into a contract with Sightline Payments in 2014 to provide a sponsored bank for Sightline’s clients. The first sponsored bank for Sightline service is Bank of George, a state-chartered bank in Nevada. BCS developed the policies, procedures, and programs to enable Bank of George to issue Sightline’s PlayPlus general-purpose reloadable prepaid Discover card.
Over these past 6 years increased efforts to convert gaming to cashless have emerged; and the change in laws (PASPA), and the COVID Pandemic have put even new emphasis.
Not only has this imbedded Discover card grown, but also new payments challenges have emerged that require additional solutions – such as the Oregon State Lottery (OSL) that wanted Sports Wagering but did not have State Licensed Casinos to hold and settle wagering accounts– thus needed a new process.
BCS developed a proprietary solution to manage their player account and helped them go live in 5 months.