Konami Gaming’s anti-money-laundering Title 31 system has been in strong demand since its launch in January 2021.
Jeff George, Konami’s senior director of software engineering, said the company has built the new application onto a solid and successful casino-management system, SYNKROS, that serves more than 400 venues across the globe. Casino companies wanted to add anti-money laundering support, which prompted Konami to build an all-inclusive and standalone AML product from the ground up.
“We wanted to create an AML Title 31 system that was focused on efficiency, speed, consistency and scalability,” George said. “That’s what we’ve done.”
Konami launched the project by hiring a team of AML experts and assembled a focus group of casino operators, developers, and engineers. Through a series of discovery sessions, they identified not only the basic requirements for the AML and Title 31 process, but the gaps the top competing products had at the time.
“This process formed a very clear picture of what casino operators needed and how we could fill the gaps and make their processes more efficient,” George said. “We were able to identify some of our differentiators that makes our product stand out.”
John Shipley, a senior AML specialist with Konami, said other systems store information such as reports, attachments, timestamp notes, and filed documents in various locations. That requires going to different places to pull the information.
“One of the big things is Konami’s SYNK 31 stores the information for each patron within a case,” Shipley said. “We have one log in and one area to do everything. What we found is some places use multiple products, because maybe one didn’t do everything they needed to do. So our goal, and what we achieved, was making all of those transaction recording requirements within our system without having to maneuver over to a different system.”
Konami has a direct API or data-polling options that it can connect with hospitality and point-of-sale systems to integrate the data from multiple and mixed sources, Shipley said.
“If you use a third party for transaction recordings, we can provide that direct API or data-polling option to them to work with the third party and pull in that information automatically,” Shipley said. “That was a big key for me working in the industry as an AML-compliance person for years – alleviating as much of the manual processes as we could. Recording transactions are time-consuming. You’re busy on the floor of the casino and being able to do the majority of those transitions, if not all, come over automatically certainly makes it better for the customer and their customers as well.”
George said they plan to offer the ability to connect to non-SYNKROS management systems, like they do for third-party cash-management systems. A multisite-lite version will be rolling out in September as well.
“There are some other prospects for not only supporting the United States AML and Title 31 processing, but also the immediate need for Canada and Australia,” George said.
Konami launched at Jamul Casino in San Diego in January 2021, Shipley said. They’re set to launch this fall with Casino Queen Holding in the Midwest and South. The input and improvements never stop, he said.
“We continue to reach out to customers and get feedback on how we can improve this even more and give them something better,” Shipley said.
George said they also have two large casinos, one in California with 6,000 slot machines and another in Nevada with 3,000 slots. Those three properties provide a diverse mix of transactions that go through the Title 31 and AML system.
“What we noticed in those three casinos is that it’s a game-changer in their processes,” George said. “We eliminated a lot of spreadsheets and other mix-and-matching that they would need to report their compliance properly, accurately, and on time. We’re seeing not only a reduction in manpower needed to operate, but an increase in accuracy and speed in the whole AML and Title 31 process.”
When properties need to research a patron about security or other issues, with one click, the staff can see the case-management system within SYNK 31, George said. This reduces the risk on the compliance department.
Historically, it’s been difficult to get the information in a real-time format, Shipley said. Sometimes it would come later in the day or not be accessible to the following day and that plays into reporting.
“One of the things we tried to address with SYNKROS and when we go to other casino-management systems and API is the ability to pull that information in a real time,” Shipley said. “There might be a minute or two when you do the transaction and when it shows up within SYNK 31, but they get a true picture of what’s going on with the patron, instead of having to wait until later in the day or next day. There are a lot of alerts through SYNK 31, whether they’re notifications or emails, that make people aware of situations.”
Shipley said the federal requirement to file those documents and track that information may not seem important. Compliance is not a revenue generator, but good compliance can save that property a lot of money in fines, sanctions, and other penalties from a gaming commission or the U.S. Treasury Department. Tracking money laundering is a must-priority for properties, he said.
“I’m proud of our slot machine bill-stuffing (tracking),” Shipley said. “For years, regulators have wanted to track money people were putting into machines. In the past, if they were putting in a lot and cashing out without playing, it was difficult to track that. Maybe you’d get a report the next day. With our system, it triggers immediately. It can alert surveillance and compliance, which makes for a much quicker response time and a better chance to gather information and video. That makes for better reporting for them.”
