Interview with Tim von Toerne – General Manager of the Edict company

Reinhold Schmitt
ISA-GUIDE Chefredakteur (V.i.S.d.P.)
E-Mail: info@isa-guide.de


We are speaking with Managers, Directors, Shareholders and Personalities from the Gaming- and Casino-sector. ISA-CASINOS is questioning current issues and interesting news for you. Today we are talking with Mister Tim von Toerne, Chief executive of the company Edict – that authoritatively contributes to the development of the Online Roulette Casino of Hamburg.

ISA-CASINOS, Editor of Chief, Reinhold Schmitt: Could you tell us anything about the company EDICT and its cooperation with the casinos and whom they are subjugated?

Tim von Toerne<br>Chief executive of the Edict GmbHTim von Toerne: EDICT is an independent Software company that develops software and distributes it. I am in the position of the executive manager, graduated Business Economist. The technical head manager is Ingo Freund, graduated Information Technologist, who has for many years long experience in his profession in this sector. We have a development team of 10 persons. We work externally only together with a advertising company, who is doing our graphical interfaces, as well as another software company that provides us with additional capacities. The casino itself works with an appropriate with a credit card service company and a bank together.

ISA-CASINOS: What does Mister Jahr have to do with your company?

von Toerne: The firm EDICT is at 100 % in possession of the Jahr + Achterfeld Holding Ltd Partnership, hence we belong to Mister Jahr, but legally disconnected of the Casino Spielbank Hamburg.

ISA-CASINOS: How is the cooperation with the company EDICT and the Casino Hamburg and the enterpreneur Mister Jahr?

von Toerne: The cooperation is very harmonious and we have been able to develop over the years a very convenient, yes almost friendly working atmosphere. One of our advantages is that we are not regarded as an external supplier of the industry, in spite of that as part of the sector.

ISA-CASINOS: Mister Toerne, you have been authoritatively contributing in developing the Live Online Roulette Game of the Casino Hamburg.

von Toerne: The entire idea began already since 1997, as Mister Achterfeld and Mister Jahr did have the idea to say: “What is the next step, how can and should it go on for a classical Casino?”. And with it the idea was born. Mister Achterfeld and Mister Jahr took themselves then consultants to them, in order of being able to discuss and consult to each other, what would be possible to implement on the interesting and new market Internet. It was also being talked with the authorities in charge, who clearly said: No to gambles with chance i.e. accident generators. There would be concrete games possible, but no virtual ones. But these weren’t available on the entire market yet. Then it was decided to develop these on ourselves.

ISA-CASINOS: So you have been following with the development the classical Roulette of the casinos and you have been developing this software also for it?

von Toerne: Exactly! The idea by all this steps is always to programming possibly an absolutely exact illustration or a 1:1 exact kind of game of the Roulette, how it is played also within the casinos.

ISA-CASINOS: The user is however at home at his computer playing the exact Roulette Game as live in the Casino?

von Toerne: Yes! He plays the same game with other players together, who are playing live at the place in the casino at the same table.

ISA-CASINOS: Does the virtual guest recognise it? Is there any kind of chatroom or any other possibilities?

von Toerne: No, he of course doesn’t recognise it, as there it is not permitted to broadcast guests in picture and tone. But he sees live, how the Croupier tosses the ball and can follow the game, until the Roulette-ball falls and the figure is displayed. He sees hence the entire Live Game, as well as the course of it.

ISA-CASINOS: What kind of security measurements did you build in your program?

von Toerne: Well, first of all there is the normal connection, that the user is building up to us, in this moment, in that he says: “I want to go in the domain of Online Game Casino”, the data transfer with 128 Bit is encoded, a so called SSL-Connection.

ISA-CASINOS: Is that the highest security performance that is available on the market?

von Toerne: That is right. further more it is so that our computer centre itself, also the shielding from it with firewalls, and a shrewd communication’s architecture hence is shielded, so that there could not anyone unauthorised get access to our computers.

ISA-CASINOS: What do you do in case of power failure that could also happen?

von Toerne: We have in our computer centre that has all important and necessary security measurements, also an emergency power supply. So it is very safe. Access-control, different sources of current, air-conditioning and extinguishing device is granted – everything is available. For the case of the cases anyway that everything should once be “down”, the game will be interrupted, the last game that has been played is stored valid as of status and bids, that should have been set afterwards, will be booked back and credited to the account. It can not happen that any bid would have been gone lost, even if the computer centre should, contrary to expectations burn down, because we have some hundred meters apart a second archive and any step is written in protocols. No one at all could though loose his bid, everything is to reconstruct and this has also been confirmed by the examining society to us.

ISA-CASINOS: When does the Live-Game for the user begin and from where does he know, when the live-broadcast would begin and when would be stopped?

von Toerne: It is played daily from 15.00 to 03.00 (i.e. 3.00 p.m. -3.00 a.m.) o’clock. On the homepage of the casino there is shown additionally a clock, displaying when it begins and when the last game would be following.

ISA-CASINOS: So is the live broadcast to be understood as the real time?

von Toerne: There are actually no delays of the signals, of when the figure has been tossed and also video pictures are permanently up-to-date, i.e. in real-time. We don’t use “Streaming”, because of in our opinion the pictures would be too un-sharp. We use a sequence of sole-pictures, that effects that one could see precisely into which compartment the ball is fallen, unfortunately the pictures are by that a bit „un-smooth“, as one know them from the television-screen.

ISA-CASINOS: How are the User/appliance preconditions of the guest and what does he have to do with that?

von Toerne: The first step for the user is the registration. He gives in his data-entry at ours on our website, this are eventually effective the same data that he would be making at a regular casino visit. He prints out then the stated data together in his equipped gaming contract and sends it with a copy of his identity card back by mail.

ISA-CASINOS: Who else gets access to the gamblers‘ data?

von Toerne: The personal data is seen by the Reception desk, because of the factoring purposes the accounts department, as well as the ordered „Supervisor“.

ISA-CASINOS: Are the data also to be forwarded to the fiscal office?

von Toerne: Of course not, absolutely any data at all from the casino are forwarded to anybody, apart from the gross-game-revenue in total, i.e. the tax office has no insight into who plays at ours and how much he might be winning.

ISA-CASINOS: How is the revenge system regulated? Are fixed amounts or limits stipulated?

von Toerne: Basically there are no bid-limits stipulated. Mostly it is also that the credit cards have already inside fixed limits, at the customer’s disposal. At present we have launched the credit card also as the unique payment system. Payments’ transfer would be also in particular not working, as we pay-out daily the winnings and their profit is going to be credited back again to the winners favour. This would be hardly to manage by a transfer system. But we are working on it to introduce new alternatives.

ISA-CASINOS: But, does this system not cost the user the daily charges due to it.

von Toerne: All pay-in-s’ and pay-off-s’ fees at all, that are effected by covers the casino.

ISA-CASINOS: What kind of age restrictions do you have for the players, who are attending at the Live Roulette Game?

von Toerne: We do feel obliged to keep up here as well to our gaming order of the casino Spielbank Hamburg, i.e. from 18 years on one may gamble as long as one is not been spaced out in any German Casino because of financial reasons.

ISA-CASINOS:Do you cooperate also with Casinos from a foreign country?

von Toerne: We will be working cooperatively in the first step with German casinos. Of course we will also see to it, depending on the market acceptance and the market penetration, how far we’ll be cooperating with other Casinos and how far we could. Of course only with casinos that possess a concession regulated by the state in fully regulated countries.

ISA-CASINOS: With whom else are you working within the casino industry together?

von Toerne: We have of course been working close together with „Novomatic“ for modifying the „Novomatic“-Table. This is however not a long-term “partnership”, because it was just for this project a good cooperation. We will be in future, if it would be suitable and it appears to make sense, collaborate with other partners.

ISA-CASINOS: Are you intending, in case your project occurs to be successful, to introduce it on the abroad market?

von Toerne: Of course. As long the applicant, who we are providing hence will keep the gaming order, how it is also with the German Casinos, i.e. not there where it is legally forbidden. At the beginning we will be restricting us to the German market. Because we believe here that we are able to set up an offer for casinos in the combination of Software and in running of this software that no one else has. That means that we are not only in Germany having concessions-worthy products, but also that we are able to assure the concern with German personnel in Germany and carrying out over German Banks.

ISA-CASINOS: Does your software comply with the international standard?

von Toerne: In terms of the technique we are supposing that we are of equals. We have also skills in it that are concerning the German market that others don’t have yet; e.g. a complete book-keeping-system after GOBS Standard and Software testing of German accountants. What refers to the amount of games, we are limited. We will offer in short period of time the new version of the Roulette that is going to be also appearing optics a beautiful event. From 2D to 3D and very realistic imitation look alike the gambling-table in Hamburg.

ISA-CASINOS: Do you intend sometime in future to develop and offer other games?

von Toerne: Not in the far future, in close future. This is already in development, as it is requested. We hope that we will be offering it also in the long-term. We only offer Roulette in Hamburg, as here is just one concession there for the Roulette.

ISA-CASINOS: What games are you planning though?

von Toerne: Of course the classical games as Black Jack, Video Pokergames, Multiplayer Poker variants and also Slots. There have not been set any frontiers. But it will be always leaned on the classical Gaming of the Casinos.

ISA-CASINOS: Do you have already any business-relations with other casinos, except in Hamburg?

von Toerne: It is not any secret that we are collaborating with Wiesbaden and we are also with other casinos in conversations.

ISA-CASINOS: But there is something planned with Wiesbaden?

von Toerne: At any rate.

ISA-CASINOS: What are you doing against the gambling addiction?

von Toerne: The casino Spielbank Hamburg is the first casino in Germany, who lists the “20 Questions” of the anonymous Player on the Website. This is a test for self-examination, developed by the “Gamblers Anonymous”, who later hence has been translated by the “Anonyme Spieler” into German. These are 20 questions who each and every casino visitor ought to ask their himself and where he sees how far one is endangered. Answering too many questions positively, one should go and let himself be advised. Where? Of course we are telling this, too. This should also be seen by everyone who visits a normal casino. Each gambler can in our software then from the start stipulate limits on bids and if he once would exceed above the limit, he is first of all warned and if he himself wants then to go above it, he is automatically applied. We have built in such safeties for the gambler and will also keep on working on it, to integrate further gambler-security-measurements in our solution. The casino Spielbank Hamburg works in this affair also very tight with the office for addictiion-prevention together over here in Hamburg.

ISA-CASINOS: What is the personal objective of Tim von Toerne?

von Toerne: Well, my personal aim is to establish the EDICT as the service provider in Germany, with whom one should talk in any case, if one plans any Online Casino Project. We can offer an strong level of performance in the package of Software AND business-services to the applicant. Out of it occurs an interesting gaming-experience of most variant casino games, a reliable customer-service and for the casino proprietor a reasonable, cost-optimised operational business-form, in that we are anxious to do as much as possible work for him.

ISA-CASINOS: I am grateful for this conversation and wish you and your house all the best. Thank you for the interview.