Information note - Gambling Commission's testing strategy

Date: 24 August 2007

A recent press release by eCOGRA on 21 August 2007 includes some misunderstandings about the testing required for remote gambling operators licensed by the Gambling Commission. This information note clarifies the position in relation to the Commission’s remote testing strategy which was published on 27 July 2007. 

The Commission has taken a risk based approach when producing the testing strategy to ensure the approach is proportionate yet still meets our licensing objectives. 

Importantly the testing strategy provides for various methods of testing.  In many cases, output based testing alone will not provide the required degree of confidence that the product fully meets the technical standards.

For certain high risk areas like the systems that produce the results of a game, third party testing of games will need to be conducted by an approved test house before they are released. The Commission has provisionally approved eight test houses to test compliance against the Commission’s technical standards.

Licensed operators will need to contract with test houses and agree on the scope of testing.  This scope must be sufficient to ensure that testing adequately covers the Commission’s technical standards.

eCOGRA is not a Commission approved test house.