Centralizing licensing and compliance data has huge benefits for both gaming regulators and license holders, according to OneComply’s CEO Cameron Conn.
Speaking to SBC Americas, Conn explained that OneComply’s compliance & licensing management platform allowed companies to centralize 200,000 data points to cut down on the work required to apply for and renew licenses.
Rather than having to compile information from paper documents, PDFs, and emails every time an operator wants to enter a new market or renew a license, the OneComply platform means all the relevant data can be found in one place. This capability helped a number of companies with the application process for Ohio’s soon-to-open market.
“All of our clients say ‘how do we get in the market quicker’,” Conn said. “Look at a state like Ohio, they gave you a month, and I think there were a lot of companies that said, ‘Oh my God, a month. How are we going to do this in a month?’
“Because of our product! I think we had 12 clients who applied to Ohio and they did it in the first week because that data was readily available and that removed a lot of that stress.”
It is not only operators who have benefitted from this approach, as a number of regulators have also been attracted by the platform’s potential for reducing bureaucracy and increasing the accuracy of the submissions they receive.
“We’ve always known that OneComply as a byproduct has a lot of value to regulators,” said Conn. “When I talked about the centralization of all of this data and these documents, we now have nine regulatory boards that are actually coming into OneComply to access information.
“So traditionally, we have one state that accepts initial submissions. So [operators] sign their documents, they have fingerprint cards, they’ve centralized everything in OneComply and allowed those regulators to access those documents on initial submission
“We then have another eight jurisdictions that are accessing through OneComply all of those follow-up documents that happen post that submission. So we knew it was a byproduct for regulators, but now we’re seeing that regulators want better solutions.”
A number of US states now allow digital submissions of information for parts of the license application process, but the lack of a system designed specifically for gaming means regulators have been unable to make the whole process digital. However, Conn is optimistic that will change as regulators use OneComply and become familiar with the idea that doing things digitally can reduce time and costs.
He said: “I think there’s the opportunity of saying, ‘you should use one system and it shouldn’t just be for licensing’, because all of the data submitted on licensing is all the connected data tissue that is for operational compliance. So I think that’s where the opportunity is.”
Storing and updating license and compliance data within a secure online portal also has huge benefits for an operator’s management team. The centralized data source can provide them with the big picture on all the issues that directly influence ongoing compliance and their company’s potential to secure license renewals.
“I think we’ve always looked at compliance in the gaming industry as being bifurcated, as having silos. So AML sits in one bucket, and then you have legal, and then you have finance, and then you have HR, and then you have dedicated licensing teams. They really should all be one from an optical standpoint because they all have the same impact to your license,” Conn said.
“I think what is a little bit different is getting the industry to realize that every single one of your employees has an impact on compliance, which means you should have visibility on every single employee in regards to their impact to your licensing.”
He added that OneComply wanted to ensure that the industry saw it as more than just a licensing tool, as it offers real benefits for ongoing compliance. The traditional approach has involved companies hiring employees who specialize in particular areas and keep their records in spreadsheets, but Conn believes that has to change as the online betting and gaming industry grows and the multi-state compliance burden becomes greater.
Conn said: “We can’t continue to throw FTEs at it. There’s too much intellectual property at risk because any time there’s turnover, are the skeletons going with the person that just left, where they know where the files are and what they need to do every single month?
“We need a little bit of risk mitigation. Centralizing that, providing that accountability in one system, allows you to be protected even if someone leaves your organization.”
Watch the full interview here