GGRAsia – GLI has role in China’s first gaming tech standards

GLI has role in China’s first gaming tech standards

Sep 30, 2016 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck

Gaming-testing specialist and technical consultancy Gaming Laboratories International LLC (GLI) says it has had “successful involvement” in the development of mainland China’s first gaming technical standards related to lottery games.

GLI was contracted by an entity called China Lottery Online (CLO) to work on “Technical Gaming Standards for Online Lottery Systems and Betting Terminals”. The gaming-testing specialist said the standard was recently made public.

“Gaming Laboratories International is proud to assist CLO in developing the first [China] lottery system standard,” said Espee de Robillard, GLI’s chief operating officer, in a statement on Wednesday confirming GLI’s involvement in the project.

“GLI and CLO staff worked diligently together to deliver the new… English and Mandarin… technical standard that will drive CLO’s system and game content development into the future. GLI acknowledges the participation and efforts of all those involved,” added the executive.

“With the public release of its first technical standard, CLO achieves a major milestone by establishing a world-class framework for local and international developers to supply betting terminals, games and other lottery system components,” said Mr de Robillard.

GLI further noted in its statement: “The release of this standard is extremely important because it demonstrates commitment to the People’s Republic of China by ensuring that gaming products meet international standard, follow best-practice guidelines and remain secure, fair and auditable.”

A suspension of online lottery sales in mainland China was confirmed in April last year by the authorities and described at the time as “temporary”. Reasons given were the need to streamline government supervision and to curb fraud by unlicensed sellers.

A report published in April this year by Chinese business newspaper the Economic Observer said the Chinese authorities were mulling partially lifting the current ban regarding online lottery sales. The news outlet cited a source for the information, but didn’t name the source. Its report also stated that Chinese officials planned to launch pilot programmes later this year to resume online lottery sales.