“G2E is the perfect opportunity for our global offices to collaborate for the benefit of our clients”

What is your assessment on the presentation of the company in this edition of G2E?

We had an extremely successful show, and attendees were very interested in our certification services and our cybersecurity offerings. Of particular note this year was the collaboration between GLI’s global resources to help our clients succeed, especially between our Europe and LatAm groups. We brought key team members to the show so that we were able to provide accurate and meaningful information to our supplier, operator, and regulator clients who took part of their valuable time to visit and meet with us during the show. Conversations with LatAm and Caribbean clients focused primarily on online gaming and sports betting opportunities and land-based representation was consistent with what we had seen prior years. We are also pleased to share our insights on various panels in the education section on the panels “The Power of Tech I: Suppliers’ Perspectives in Leveraging Technology to Bring Added Value to Your Customers”; IAGA Regional Roundup; IMGL Masterclass “Can Responsible Gaming Regulation Keep Pace with Advancements in Gaming”; and “Sports Betting in Latin America.” We were also honored to receive two awards for our new Testing Automation, which was voted “Best Innovation” in Gaming & Leisure Magazine’s “2018 Gaming and Hospitality Industry Awards” and named the Gold Award winner for Best Productivity-Enhancement Technologyin GGB Magazine’s “Gaming and Technology Awards.”

What does G2E mean for the company?

G2E is the perfect opportunity for our global offices to collaborate for the benefit of our clients. Each of our experts in our regional labs provides local insights which benefits our clients by providing an understanding of local requirements that help to make our clients successful in every single jurisdiction they decide to enter. Because the show has such high visitation from many places around the world, it was also a very busy week at the Las Vegas laboratory, because we were able to provide an opportunity to our clients to take a tour and receive demonstrations that illustrate how we continue to improve our process to speed time to market at a less cost.

For example, at the lab we demonstrated our new Testing Automation process. Our engineers developed the process over the last four years working closely with suppliers across the world. Testing Automation further increases testing quality, performs even better tests, and further reduces time-to-market. Supplier feedback has been very positive, and the process is already proving to be a valuable tool for testing increasingly complex and sophisticated gaming devices more thoroughly, efficiently, and accurately.

What plans does the company have for the remainder of this year?

We will continue to roll out and solidify our new GLI-33 Event Wagering Systems standard to global markets and respond to supplier and operators demand for certification services related to this new standard. We will also work with our clients to better understand their priorities as we enter for 2019.

In which markets does the company develop?

GLI is the one and only global consultancy and certification entity recognized in every jurisdiction that requires certification as part of their compliance process. GLI is  the only laboratory recognized by every regulator that accepts private test lab results and we are the one and only laboratory that can take suppliers everywhere in the world.

What are the next shows for the company?

We are excited to participate in a wide variety of events throughout Latin America and the Caribbean over the coming months including Gaming Market Colombia, Gol Cartagena, World Lottery Summit conference in Buenos Aires, Dominican Republic Gaming Summit.

Sports betting is currently a central issue in the United States. What is your opinion about it?

If we can learn anything from jurisdictions outside of the U.S., it is that sports betting can be properly regulated and operated and can enhance the player’s entertainment experience. After the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on PASPA, jurisdictions across the U.S. immediately began to consider how to deploy sports betting, just as countless jurisdictions worldwide have already done. The good news for regulators, legislators, and operators in the U.S. is there is a world of previous experience on which to draw that will help streamline the process and help to avoid any pitfalls. To further help, GLI created the standard, “GLI-33: Event Wagering Systems.” The standard represents the most highly developed set of technical requirements and practices available for sports wagering systems from around the world. As soon as it was released, several regulatory bodies and industry experts adopted and/or endorsed it, including the Choctaw Gaming Commission of Choctaw Mississippi, the West Virginia Lottery, Cherokee Tribal Gaming Commission of North Carolina, and Global Market Advisors. We continue to work with regulators across the U.S. to help them make sense of the PASPA ruling and how GLI-33, along with previous experience, can help them properly bring sports betting to their jurisdictions.

Do you think that online games are complementary or competition of land-based games?

Whether or not they are complementary, or competition is a question better posed to analysts; however, as an independent test lab we can say that when properly tested, certified, and deployed, online games and land-based games bring great entertainment value to players and help the casino industry compete against other industries in the larger entertainment enterprise.

Millennials are the players of the present and the future, how does the company adapt to them?

As a test lab, our challenge is to be ready to audit and test all the variety of products and new technologies that suppliers and operators must offer to fill the demands of the new generations.   We are lucky to see the innovative creations of suppliers worldwide come to our labs, and the products they are making to appeal to millennials are fun and interesting, and our testing experts work hard to ensure they are properly testing and certified. We also keep GLI Standards updated to reflect these new technologies so our clients can continue to rely on them.