In addition, with a lower tax rate (thus a better channelling effect) - considerably less enforcement will be required. Te higher the channelling rate, the more players will be playing on the licensed sites. Tis, in turn, will free up the resources of the regulator to dedicate the focus on the illegal/unlicensed operators.
It is also vital that regulators take clear action in order to protect licensed operators who would have invested in acquiring a license within that particular jurisdiction as well as exposing themselves to certain risks. Hence, it is a must that efficient enforcement action is taken by the regulators against unlicensed operators.
Belonging to a group such as NOVOMATIC, is there a higher benchmark for the level of compliance expected of Greentube - and is being a subsidiary of NOVOMATIC make things much easier or more difficult in ensuring that those standards are met?
Both NOVOMATIC - as well as Greentube itself - take compliance very seriously. Te NOVOMATIC Group is licensed in a multitude of jurisdictions and in order to ensure full compliance with the licensing requirements within said jurisdictions - a high standard has been set internally within the Group. Said standards are applicable across all the distribution channels – be it land-based or online.
Tis set of standards applies across the board within the different group companies - including Greentube. We understand the importance of each and every license we have in our hands and always seek to maintain these. One’s reputation takes years to build but seconds to destroy and therefore, we strive to ensure compliance in all the jurisdictions within which we operate.
Speaking to game developers - they see compliance as the department that “crushes their ambitions and says no to their best ideas.” Is compliance just a ‘necessary evil’ or is there a more useful and important role that compliance plays in the development cycle of the game? I fully understand this sentiment and agree that
Licensed operators need to be given the best possible tools to compete against illegal operators. Although, the best case scenario would be to build a regulatory environment where illegal operators don’t even arise in the first place.
in certain instances compliance requirements tend to limit or let’s say reduce the flexibility on the game developer’s end. It can be very challenging to structure the game math around a maximum hourly loss with a set band of minimum and maximum bets and with a limited amount of spins.
Tis is why it is important to educate all the stakeholders involved in the sector, in particular, the regulators and the politicians who draft the law on how games actually work. Tis is an important step to be taken, to have a regulation which makes legal, fiscal, political and commercial sense.
It is important to take note that the randomness principle is applied within all our real-money gaming products and this is based on the vast experience acquired by the entire Group, across all verticals.
How much do you rely on your in-house knowledge when it comes to compliance, as opposed to leaning on the help provided by external companies, such as GLI or PwC?
Being part of NOVOMATIC means there is a wealth of experience and knowledge that one can rely on. Tis ensures that should any queries arise, there is a centralized source of information which a company such as Greentube can count on. However, it is also ideal to have people on board that have good local
knowledge. Tis allows us to make the adequate decisions.
Why have the costs of compliance increased and is this an area that can be tackled in such a way as to reduce the burden on companies in this sector?
As stated earlier, the ever-changing regulatory landscape has led operators to require multiple licenses in different jurisdictions in order to operate. Tis resulted in an increase of compliance costs, including the need to have more people in the team. In our opinion, one of the best ways to reduce the cost would be that the controls and checks done in one jurisdiction can be migrated to other jurisdictions - on the basis of the non-duplication of controls- principle - as far as those aspects are similar. A good place to start would be at game testing.
How onerous are the compliance demands of having so many European jurisdictions in regulating and taxing online gaming?
Te NOVOMATIC Group is used to working in a fragmented land-based market in Europe. We have seen an evolution whereby one finds individual regulation is found not only in the different member states but also within the different regions or provinces. Tis leads to thousands of software versions which have to be developed keeping the compliance requirements in mind.
Te online regulatory landscape appears to be following the same route and uses different licensing structures in various member states, all of which have their own particularities. Tis is a huge burden on operators, both financially, as explained above, and also at the administrative level. Furthermore, by having little or no common features, keeping up to date with the different requirements such as reporting makes things complicated. All this often leads to the potential of mistakes being made. As a result, it is important that the regulator fully understands where its licensees are coming from and to always have an open channel of communication. Dialogue goes a long way in avoiding misunderstandings.
NEWSWIRE / INTERACTIVE /
247.COM P57
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