Insight
GLI EUROPE INTERVIEW Dennis Byram
the next, despite the efforts the European Union has made in trying to harmonise these types of gaming practices,” states Dennis. “Te EU is seeking to establish universal principles, but it’s a very long process and from my understanding the EU is not going to force its will on member states, but rather individual states can adopt the guidelines. It would be an amazing achievement for everybody to share the same view of what gaming is and what’s required, but right now they don’t and I personally don’t think they ever will. Tere are too many people with divergent ideas of how to manage their business, whether it be a government business, the regulator, operators or suppliers - everybody’s doing things differently and that’s where the complexity gets built into the process.”
it’s not! If anything it’s more intensive than it is for a slot machine. And more so because you have to deal with so many security investigations, background checks, penetration tests and vulnerability tests. Another misconception is that developing an online game is cheaper than creating a land-based product - which isn’t true either.”
Speaking recently to Karen Sierra-Hughes, GLI’s Latin American Director of business development, she explained that jurisdictions don’t set out to create complexity and difference with their gaming regulations, but that this is forced upon them when adhering to existing national laws and applying gaming principles to them. Harmonisation of gaming regulations in a market such as Europe would be an ideal benchmark to strive towards, saving the industry millions in duplicate certification and country-by-country time, effort and expense - but we’re never going to see that kind of shift as so much regulation is determined by national legislation, which is individual to each state. “Tere are huge swings from one jurisdiction to
One of the things GLI prides itself upon is being able to supply its clients with accurate data about upcoming jurisdictions, with Romania just another example of where the company is able to provide upfront intel. To be forewarned is to be forearmed, and in this case being ready for the testing process means that time to market and cost of compliance is greatly reduced. “A supplier might have their certificate from us for Bulgaria or Italy, or Alderney, or UK, but they’re still going to need another certificate for Romania, which means there’s going to be a different set of standards and different test criteria,” explains Dennis. “We really pride ourselves on being able to recognise that our clients need that information upfront to make the process easier. Once we have internalised the requirements, we’re sending out notifications to our clients that this process is ongoing and we will often send out draft guidelines in relation to the criteria we’re going to be testing. We ensure that are clients have the information they need at their finger tips, so that they don’t need to hire their own group of compliance people. We can do that for them - so they don’t have to invest huge sums in compliance departments. Tey can use GLI instead.”
As a repository of compliance information, the human brain can only hold so much incredibly specific and volumous information. Te GLI team is highly knowledgeable, but they’re not walking encyclopaedias spouting gaming legislation at will. Sharing information and making sure that the global team has access to it is foremost in the day-to-day activities of Dennis and his team. “You have to conduct brain dumps,” confirms Dennis. “So that you can share your knowledge with everyone else in GLI. It’s really important, when we receive clarification from a regulator, when we translate a document from Romania, Italian or Portuguese into English that we house that information for everyone in the company to be able to access.”
Te compliance department constantly maintains this regulatory library, a repository that houses every document relating to every technical standard, with updates and
“I see technology as increasing the
need for people and the demand for an independent lab. A lot of people thought Internet gaming would simplify things, taking away the
hardware and just concentrating on the software - but it’s not! If
anything it’s more intensive than it is for a slot machine. And more so because you have to deal with so many security investigations,
background checks, penetration tests and vulnerability tests.”
clarifications from regulators from around the world. It’s an internal database with permission required to distribute information to different channels. Te idea that such a database on gaming exists makes us want to be hackers (though there’s little chance we could get past Marco and his team!). Te only way to gain access to the database is to join GLI and become one of the team updating the library as part of the global infrastructure of the company. However, even with such a hugely valuable resource as the regulatory library to call upon, there’s still so much interpretation involved in the compliance process that such knowledge without application is practically useless.
“A typical request from the development team goes like this,” outlines Dennis. “Tey have product specifications for a client looking to send their game into Slovenia. I’ll take a look and we’ll create a general overview of the product so that we can draw guidelines to see if there are any ‘show-stoppers,’ anything that will stop the product in its tracks. If I don’t see any show stoppers, I’ll look to see where the product fits into the current market and fine tune our tests to check if it complies. In the meantime, we can supply the client with the guideline of what’s going to be tested, so there are no surprises at the client end. Tey know what the rules are going to be for Slovenia, which we can supply upfront, so they know what’s going to be tested. Tis results in a nice clean product which is easier for them because, if it comes in nice and clean, guess what? It speeds right through the process.”
Of course, there are products that don’t speed through. Software bugs slow the process, while cutting edge technology not only breaks new ground for the product, but also for compliance too, generating multiple unanswered questions. It’s at this stage that GLI’s breadth of experience and relationship with the regulators pays dividends, as calls to the regulator about specific products helps to unstopper the show-stopper. “We have a relationship with the regulator that
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