An information management and entertainment system (1) comprises user terminals (2), and a switching system (5, 40-43) having interfaces (21, 23, 31) for receiving media streams and for routing the streams to the terminals. The system (1) comprises at least one management server (15) for routing control signals to components of the system. The server (15) and the terminals (2) execute a middleware engine (65, 70) for communication within the system. The middleware engine comprises a services processor (65) executing on a server (15) and functions executing on the terminals (2) for controlling provision of information management and entertainment services to users via the terminals (2). The system further comprises at least one vending machine (16) for vending user cards for usage of services. The vending machine (16) writes a unique user identifier to each card, each terminal comprises a card reader, and the terminal (2) middleware functions receive and validate a card and allow provision of services upon validation of a card. The terminal middleware functions allow provision of services up to a limit set by a credit amount read from a card. The vending machine (16) writes the user identifier comprising a component having a card factory-set identifier and a component freshly-generated upon issuance of the card. The freshly-generated component is a value which is incremented from a previous value, and said value is not used again by the system.