The place is closed now which makes this whole thing funny.
LETS FOLLOW THE LINKERY TO THE NEW WAY!
I bet when this got instituted this place financially was on the ropes so the owner thought he could get some attention to his place (mission accomplished) with this system conveniently showing it off as his idea and also being able to tout it was a great success.
I imagine this system allowed the place to get by longer because they had more money in house to float to give them flexibility to keep things going. The discussion on the pros and cons of tipping is an interesting one but I really have a lot of skepticism in regards to the true motivation of the owner.