What does a regulator do?
It’s a question often asked by disgruntled operators who are not licensed, suppliers seeking approval, and myriad others in the gaming industry.
During Wednesday’s webinar “The Future of Gaming Licensing Management,” Cathy Judd-Stein, former Chair of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission and now a consultant, shed some light on a regulator’s duties.
“Regulators around the world are in a constant state of learning, working to keep up with the gaming industry, which is not only dependent on technical technological changes, but also actually expanding because of technological advancements,” Judd-Stein said.
“We also worked really closely with our technological consultants to help understand if our regulations and licensing requirements were reasonable in scope, or whether they’d be costly, unnecessarily burdensome to the industry.”
Sponsored by Speridian Technologies and hosted by Michaels Strategies’ Founder and Principal Jonathan Michaels, the webinar looked at the evolution and future of gaming licensing, focusing on gaps in processes and the need for modernization.
The gaps, according to Wisconsin Gaming Commission Administrator John Dillet, stem from an influx of applications and a lack of resources.
“We tend to be very top heavy,” Dillet said. “And I think most of us in the industry, for a long time, have been top heavy in licensing, where all the scrutiny is. And we don’t spend a ton of time on the technicians at the bottom of the chain.”
“When you’re talking about igaming and sports,” Dillet added, “and people can log in from all over the world and change lines and bet offerings here in our jurisdiction, I think I see a gap there of where the risk is versus who we’re spending most of our time looking at.”
Ali Hasan, Speridian’s President and CEO, noted other segments of industry, notably finance, business registration, and building and land permits, have modernized by using the technology available to them.
The gaming industry, meanwhile, lags behind.
“We collectively have studied the environment and the ecosystem of gaming,” Hasan said. “We found that there’s a gap, and there’s a lot of new systems out there that the gaming industry could benefit from that would address compliance … that would address, that would streamline the entire licensing process of and renewals, that would protect people’s data, that would allow the right people access to specific kinds of data. There is a lot of opportunity out there.”
One proposal that could make licensing easier is creating a database where information is accessible to regulators.
Dillet said the application process is ripe for improvement, and that a portal for applicants who are filling hundreds of applications yearly, might be helpful.
“The data is maintained there,” Dillet said. “We access the data when we need it. I think that that solves a number of issues, of not only making the process easier, but the data secure too, absolutely.”
“I think as systems evolve, then they can also integrate with other other solutions and other systems,” Hasan added. “Your integration with the DMV can validate that your license is in order, right? And as you integrate with other systems, there’s more validation and simpler validation. A lot of times one agency will spend a lot of time doing manual validation, which just prolongs the entire process.”
