A gaming voucher is printed with first and second machine readable indicia. The first machine readable indicia represents a unique gaming voucher number. The monetary value of the gaming voucher and additional information about the gaming voucher is stored in a database remote from the gaming machine in association with the unique gaming voucher number. The second machine readable indicia represents the asset number of the gaming machine that produced the gaming voucher, the value of the gaming voucher, and a portion of the unique gaming voucher number. The gaming voucher is self-validating during a counting process in a count room, and thus no access to the remote database is required to initially verify the authenticity of the gaming voucher. The information encoded in the first and second machine readable indicia may also be used in conjunction with the data in the remote database during a voucher redemption process to verify the authenticity of the gaming voucher.