Regulatory compliance is an imperative yet difficult nut to crack in the globalized online gaming industry. Remaining compliant with local laws and regulations is essential to maintaining licensure but, with the proliferation of regulated markets in recent years, sourcing and managing this information proves difficult.
What gets even more detailed and potentially difficult to understand is technical compliance requirements and standards for online casino games in individual jurisdictions. Operators and suppliers must be able to quickly ensure that all of their titles for each individual market are compliant with the technical requirements and standards to ensure a broad range of game content is available to players.
This is, of course, a laborious process – trawling through thousands of pages of documents to find these requirements in multiple markets.
That is why Vixio Regulatory Intelligence has launched its newest product – the Vixio Technical Compliance Tool – which compiles all requirements for online casino games with links to each individual source.
The tool, which has been developed by Vixio’s in-house team of technical compliance analysts in consultation with Vixio’s existing clients, aggregates and categorises complex regulatory information from various jurisdictions and covers over 60 key requirements, aiming to make it easier for clients to identify and address compliance obligations.
James Kilsby, Vixio’s chief analyst and vp Americas, told SBC:
“The Technical Compliance Tool breaks down the key technical and product compliance requirements that apply to the development, deployment and certification of online casino games in each of the largest regulated markets in Europe, North America and Latin America.”
Customers who utilize the Technical Compliance Tool can search for specific terms within the platform and access the relevant information for each of the desired jurisdictions, allowing them to easily find and compare information.
The tool aims to provide several benefits to clients, including: analyzing complex requirements; providing access to a multi-jurisdictional view; performing a gap analysis; alerting for new or changing requirements; identifying problematic requirements early, and adequately preparing for game certification.
Kilsby elaborates: “This allows them to come to a one-stop-shop, and they can view the same requirements side by side across each of any combination of those markets so they can easily identify where jurisdictions are similar, where they’re different, where there might be potentially problematic requirements that they’ll need to overcome in order to either get into a new market or maintain their compliance in an existing one.”
The tool utilizes a set of advanced technologies and has been developed by senior analysts to be easy to use and functional. For example, the tool includes translated technical requirements from global jurisdictions which may not have previously been available in English.
“We’ve gathered that information, harmonized it, and categorized it so that you can then retrieve all applicable requirements that apply to specific game features and certification requirements,” Kilsby explains. “Users can find them all in one place and compare them on a like-by-like basis.”
Kilsby notes that Vixio’s “existing and loyal” client base had asked the firm to develop a product following on from Vixio’s core offering that provides detailed information on regulatory compliance and policy risks for the global online gambling industry. .
The development was also inspired by the proliferation of regulated markets appearing across Europe, North America and Latin America.
“Global online casino suppliers and operators may have operated in five or six regulated markets a few years ago but we have seen a continued rollout of regulation on a country by country basis not only in Europe, but also North and Latin America,” he outlines.
“At the same time in Europe, where regulation is most advanced, there’s also been a significant tightening of policies, at different levels, largely with a lens of responsible gaming which has had a technical impact as well. So, European markets have become more complicated at the same time as new jurisdictions are regulating for the first time.
“So when you put that together, the industry faces an ever greater challenge of staying up to speed with technical and product compliance requirements for online gaming.”
As aforementioned, the Technical Compliance tool breaks down over 60 compliance categories for online casino games. Kilsby outlines that these cover more broad categories such as the permitted game types but also delve into much more specific and technical details such as permitted game features and system requirements.
“Due to contrasting technical standards across different jurisdictions, there are various different configurations of the same online casino game for different markets and ultimately, operators and the companies that supply those games need to make sure game features that are not allowed in one jurisdiction are switched off, yet they may be switched on for other jurisdictions.
“The tool gives a full view of other types of products that are allowed, the features that are permitted, and what responsible gambling functionalities and game help requirements need to be built into the game. It also informs users of the cadence of certifications that are required, which is fundamentally important.”
One very specific use case that Vixio has identified for the tool is for those operators and suppliers who are looking to enter new markets. Currently, the online gambling world’s eyes are fixed on Brazil, as the federal framework for regulated sports betting and online casinos is established on Jan. 1, 2025.
Kilsby points out that its clients can quickly access the key regulations for online casino games in Brazil to ensure compliance, but also see where changes need to be made to games that are offered in other jurisdictions.
“Our platform allows users to look at all the technical requirements of Brazil in one go, broken out first in English, then in Portuguese, neatly categorized according to an established framework,” he adds.
“Online game suppliers also will want to compare a new market such as Brazil with different markets because they may already be in the UK, might be in Sweden, might be in Spain. They will want to look side-by-side pairing a jurisdiction they’re already in with the new jurisdiction being considered because they’re looking to identify what level of technical development needs to be done to an existing product.”
Vixio’s Technical Compliance Tool launches on Sept. 18 and will be available to clients from this date. Initially covering 24 jurisdictions, the company seeks to increase this further in the coming months as more markets regulate online casino gaming.
