GGRAsia – GSA Europe chief leads EU online gaming standard work

GSA Europe chief leads EU online gaming standard work

Jan 16, 2019 Newsdesk Latest News, Trends & Tech, World

The European Committee for Standardisation has turned to Mark Pace, managing director of the European branch of the Gaming Standards Association (GSA), to lead the creation of a set of standards for reporting online gaming activity in the European Union.

The GSA issued a written statement on Tuesday saying the Comité Européen de Normalisation or CEN, as the committee for standardisation is known in French, had formed what is known as Technical Committee 456 to establish standards for the supervision of online gambling.

The GSA says the technical committee has a mandate that is in line with work GSA Europe is already doing to compile a single set of data elements and a standard method for data to be supplied to regulators in each EU country.

GSA Europe has offered its draft regulatory data set and regulatory reporting interface for the committee’s use. The regulatory data set is a draft data dictionary, listing all the data elements that online gambling systems generate. The draft regulatory reporting interface is a protocol that defines how each of the data elements is exposed to support real-time, near real-time and periodic reporting.

“Being elected to act as a co-project leader of the technical committee is a huge honour,” the press release quoted Mr Pace as saying.

“I am deeply appreciative for the votes of so many member states and will work earnestly to help deliver a sound technical solution that will benefit regulators as well as online gambling operators and suppliers,” he noted.

The statement also quotes GSA president Peter DeRaedt as saying: “Joining CEN’s Technical Committee 456 as a liaison organisation, and now having GSA Europe’s managing director elected to lead its efforts, is a significant recognition of GSA’s 20-plus year commitment to creating gaming industry standards”.

The GSA is an active participant in testing new technological approaches to gaming business. Last February, the GSA announced it had established a blockchain technical committee to evaluate the creation of a gaming industry standard. The association says blockchain technology will revolutionise data sharing, security and improve transparency in the gaming sector. The inaugural head of the relevant GSA committee was announced in April.

In November, the GSA said it would run on a trial basis a risk-assessment framework for blockchain technology created by risk assessors BlockRe. The framework is said to offer technical guidance, risk mitigation strategies and to conform to relevant regulatory regimes.

Global Gaming Expo (G2E) Asia, a casino industry trade show and conference held annually in Macau, announced on Tuesday a new show segment on financial technology or “fintech” for the 2019 edition. It will be organised alongside a partner specialising in blockchain technology.