COMPLETE
COMPLIANCE
The advent of legal sports betting and online gaming has challenged online gaming operators , iGaming suppliers and regulators to understand the new rules of the road
BY ROGER GROS
Online gaming became legal in New Jersey in 2013 . It quickly became apparent that existing rules and regulations covering landbased gaming needed to be updated and adjusted .
And then with the launch of legalized sports betting in 2018 and subsequent spread to more than 40 states and jurisdictions across the United States and its territories , the regulatory models in all those regions were given a wake-up call .
For the in-house compliance officers and the outside attorneys participating in this process , it ’ s been a long , yet often satisfying , road as cooperation between them and the regulators overseeing this process has , in most cases , provided a transparent process that stresses integrity .
But the road wasn ’ t always so smooth . First , trust had to be established .
CHANGING FORTUNES
Tommaso Di Chio is the chief legal and compliance officer for Bragg Gaming Group , an industry supplier of systems and content . He says the goals always remained the same .
“ The overriding themes of compliance , adhering to a specific set of rules to protect both your customers and those businesses operating in the sector , haven ’ t changed with the advent of online sports betting and iGaming ,” he says .
“ What has changed is the way that those standards are enforced , and the environment itself . Online gambling is an environment where millions of players interact with an operator / supplier in an environment where there are millions of decisions and transactions taking place , often in real time . This sort of environment necessitates a need to be compliant , to effectively be breach-proof , an environment companies like Bragg are working towards and are achieving , on balance .”
Stephen Schrier , a partner and co-chair of BlankRome ’ s Gaming Group , says no one in the U . S . was up to speed before 2013 , when New Jersey first launched iGaming .
“ First , online gaming provides significantly more information about customers ,” he says . “ For compliance , that can be both a blessing and a curse . It is a blessing because the information necessary for compliance to do its job is readily available .
“ It can be a curse , however , if the system or the staff are not able to properly process that additional information because a company may be charged with knowledge of what is in its database ( even if not processed or reviewed ) and fail to act on that information as required .
“ Second , the spread of online sports betting and iGaming presents challenges because of the different rules and requirements in different jurisdictions . Even if compliance staff are well-versed in all of the different rules , it is easy to mix them up when working at a fast pace , and difficult to stay on top of the traders , risk managers , game developers , customer
“ Do your homework ! Don ’ t try to enter every market , whether it ’ s a state or tribal jurisdiction .”
— Heidi McNeil Staudenmaier , Senior Partner , Snell & Wilmer LLP
32 Global Gaming Business OCTOBER 2024