The second talk held in the first day of ey!08 Encuentro Yogonet Panama, was “Online Connection, The model for Panama?”. In this opportunity, Karen Sierra-Hughes (GLI) and Dario Piccirilli (University of La Plata, Argentina) commented their knowledge to the public present.
To start the talk, Karen Sierra-Hughes brought an overview on GLI functions, in which he commented that the lab performs tests since 1989 in more than 400 jurisdictions worldwide, with services available 24 hours and more than 400 employees in 11 labs worldwide. Besides, he talked about the training in the field and in the laboratory, on GLI technical standards, the performance of round tables of regulators, in which they explain all the new technologies and which are the means to keep control. He also commented that field inspections are performed, and there are specialized technology groups, and to see if all the labs are accredited under the ISO 17020 and 17025 standards. That’s why more than 75,000 certifications have been issued to regulators of gambling equipments annually. And commented which are the steps that GLI performs to carry out its task and how the regulator may be benefited with this tool.
“It is necessary to establish a clear regulation and to perform studies in those systems, so it reduces the risks that may happen”, concluded Sierra-Hughes. Then, Darío Piccirilli commented the experience that is being developed in the province of Buenos Aires within the agreement with University of La Plata for more than five years now.
“The model has four components: the online control system (machines, devices, servers and systems), that reports online how is every machine operating. The second module is the unified box system (money control); another one is the alarm and monitoring system; and the last one is the environmental control system (cameras, devices, servers and systems)”, explained Piccirilli.
He commented: “At the University there are two labs; one is in charge of the field audit, the technical audit, which concludes with the online control. The second is in charge of the hardware and software homologation, and is the guarantee for machines and systems to work properly. And the other stage is to verify that these standards are complied. If there is any anomaly, it will be immediately reported”.
“Experience also says that there has been an impact in the employment rate, because there was a professionalization of the jobs in the gambling venues”, assured Piccirilli. After the talk of operators, Antonio Alfaro, president of Asaja, asked about the situation in Panama on the matter. Karen Sierra-Hughes commented the project that GLI took up again so the online control is possible in Panama.
“When we work with regulators, we are not trying to impose a model that will not work in a specific jurisdiction. There is a will to carry on with this control project but considering the investment that the regulator has already made. I think this is a situation in which an agreement will be reached. We are currently working on that. The time will depend on the cooperation of operators because we have to work with the operator to understand the functions of its systems and so reach a model to be functional for the country. Before online control, it should start with the regulation, which does not exist in this sense”.