Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/709569
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 31 JULY 2016 X Gaming Turnkey compliance in gaming Can you give us a brief rundown on NMI Gaming? NMi is a globally reputed compliance testing and auditing lab with more than 40 years of experience in the gaming industry. We proudly offer an established infrastructure in regulated jurisdictions worldwide, with labs in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Italy and Canada, plus representatives in all key areas. We offer a full turnkey compliance service across the diverse landscape of emerging and evolv- ing regulated markets for the gaming industry. NMi is involved in other sectors, besides gaming. What does NMI bring to the gaming industry? Correct, NMi provides assurance in almost any sector where governments want to protect the consumer. From ensuring weighing scales, taxi meters and speed cameras are accurate to certifying controlled manufacturing processes, and the calibration and cer- tification of retail and wholesale oil, gas and electricity metering systems, as well as data protection and information system security auditing. It is interest- ing to note that all these industries are subject to stringent certification requirements and this is not an area where the iGaming industry is subject to special scrutiny. This diversity exposes NMi to wider industry standards and best practice, while ensuring NMi's independence from the gaming industry. NMi Gaming, with its headquarters in the UK, is one of the largest divisions of NMi with the majority of the team focused on iGaming in existing and emerging markets. Being very proud of our position in the online gambling sphere, we not only offer online gambling compliance, in terms of technical slots and online table games, but also in terms of live gaming and land based certification. Partnering with some of the biggest suppliers and operators in the industry, we gear our approach and lead times to meet the needs of our customers, completing the certification process as quickly as possible, and supplying a full compliance service on a world wide scale. What pressing issues is the gam- ing industry facing at the moment? Naturally looking at it from a compli- ance perspective, the most pressing issue our customers face is how to take advantage of opportunities in new markets, and react to changes in existing ones, while remaining compli- ant with the ever increasing number of laws and rules applicable to them. With more than 20 regulated iGam- ing jurisdictions available, each with unique requirements, being a Compli- ance Manager is a challenging proposi- tion. The standard RNG and game test now sits alongside new priorities such as information security, performance monitoring, change management, re- sponsible gaming, anti-money launder- ing and development practices. Add that to the maturing industry's decreas- ing appetite for risk and your modern Compliance Manager really has their work cut out for them. In a complex, high growth environ- ment it is easy to inadvertently get things wrong. And a small mistake can lead to huge losses for gaming opera- tors, and career damaging impacts for individuals. At NMi we support our customers, ensuring they can continue on their multi-jurisdictional journey with mini- mal risk. There was a clear focus on Portugal and Romania recently, and we now expect similar requirements to emerge for the Czech Republic, along with Colombia and Panama in the coming months. We are fortunate that we are the sort of company that can move quickly and meet the financial investments required to enter the most challenging jurisdictions. We keep an eye on the hot markets, and when operators and suppliers need to move into these new markets working with NMi ensures that they don't get stuck with a test lab that doesn't match their global ambitions. How do you see the gaming in- dustry developing in the coming 10 years? We expect to see more of the same, increasing regulation and an ever decreasing appetite for risk from the corporations that are consolidating the industry. Modern day iGaming opera- tions already run on complex financial software and that complexity is sure to continue to grow. For regulators that means an increasing challenge in understanding what goes on "under the hood" and for NMi it means continu- ous investment in our people and tools to ensure we are up to the task, and corresponding investment in the ac- creditations that demonstrate to those regulators, and our customers, that we are qualified to do this work. As an operator in the gaming industry, with interest in online gaming, land-based gaming and lotteries, how important is the social aspect of gaming for you? Do you promote responsible gaming, even though this could affect your bot- tom line with regards to income and profits? Of course responsible gaming is very important to us, and the industry. We all know today that it's no longer sufficient to just meet the technical standards required for testing, in fact in most parts of the world the gam- bling industry is required, or urged, to develop responsible gaming programs to minimise the impact of gambling abuse. We see clear demands from regulators to the effect that 'technical' law must also translate into a social responsibility concept. In close cooperation with authorities and experts in the field NMi carries out audits against important international responsible gaming standards. We are proud to offer a solid and reliable control mechanism on which regula- tors, operators, suppliers and players can rely. What is multi-jurisdictional testing and auditing? What would it mean for operators holding licenses in a particular jurisdiction to not have to double its compliance efforts if operating in another jurisdiction? A strong Compliance Manager and team, with policies and procedures in place making them compliant in one highly regulated jurisdiction, will prob- ably find that they are largely compliant in most other jurisdictions, even if the reporting requirements are different. We continually support operators in their need to reduce duplication in test- ing. NMi has been operating in highly- regulated jurisdictions for years now, with the corresponding investment costs. For operators not having to du- plicate compliance efforts for multiple jurisdictions is an attractive proposi- tion, saving them time and money. We have invested significantly in staffing, and we know our customers appreciate the level of service that we offer. Being able to offer Transfers of Approval for our customers into global jurisdictions means that we are able to take our customers to a global market, quickly and efficiently, with an eye on costs and timings at the heart of the increase in demand. The widespread adoption of ISO 27001 as a universal security standard is another example of auditing efforts being transferable across borders. After some initial work in aligning the time frames, it would not be unreason- able for an operator to expect a single annual audit to cover the requirements for all jurisdictions in which they oper- ate and full ISO 27001 certification would mitigate the need for any addi- tional reporting to many regulators. It is given that operators will stand to benefit from such multi-jurisdic- tional streamlining. Will the consum- er see any benefit? Operators will indeed see the benefit of the multi-jurisdictional streamlining obtained from Transfers of Approval, and from a consumer perspective the benefit is one of choice and timing, with a wider variety of products avail- able and released across multiple jurisdictions simultaneously. Legisla- tion however dictates what can and can't be put on the market, meaning that our customers may have to be innovative as they adapt their product to the law within differing jurisdictions. All the countries that have regulated online gaming have produced their own regulations, and being approved to pro- vide testing and certification in all 14 EU member states that have regulated means that NMi can facilitate a timely move into new markets. For multi-jurisdictional testing and auditing to work, one would assume countries would need to streamline their regulations, or at least some of them. Are countries open to this? Regulations are designed to address the risks identified by governments in culturally and economically unique en- vironments, so it is not surprising that countries wish to produce their own regulations and that those regulations vary considerably. However many of the core elements have similarities and labs are able to re-use many test re- sults across borders to provide certifi- cations with significantly reduced effort, subject to the correct accreditation. We are pleased to be able to test and provide reports for Europe, as well as covering jurisdictions in Canada, South America, the Caribbean, and Asia. In 2016 we expect to also see approval gained for the Czech Republic, Colom- bia and Panama. What jurisdictions would you say are ready and best suited for such cooperation? Most regulators are aware of the issues and have no desire to place unnecessarily onerous requirements on gaming operators or suppliers. The International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR) is currently con- sidering this area and NMi have been working closely with them. Continues on page XII Andrew Rosewarne