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Abstract

Laundry facility management system comprises a laundry service device, controlled by an operating control; and a local controller connected to the service device and a central controller, connected together for the transfer of information between them. The local controller stores a current device rate, representing current cost of service provided by the connected service device, and reads a card identifier provided on and uniquely identifying a presented service card Local controller requestor derives from a read card identifier and from the current device rate an authorization request, and transmits it to the central controller. The central controller receives an account balance payment message providing a particular card identifier and a payment value, and stores account balance signals for at least one account, each account being uniquely indexed by a particular card identifier. Account manager responds to a received authorization request to update the account balance indexed by the card identifier of the authorization request by the current device rate value of the authorization request, and transmits an authorization message to the local controller. The local controller responds to a received authorization message to output a control signal on the control output to control the service device operating control to provide the requested service. The account manager responds to a received account balance payment message to credit the stored account balance indexed by the particular card identifier by the payment value of the received account balance message.

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