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Guidance

Guidance to licensing authorities

The Gambling Commission's guidance for licensing authorities.

Published
1 April 2021

Last updated
27 July 2023 - Changes

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Contents

3 - Electronic device and server based system requirements - Casino equipment technical requirements

General requirements

3.1 The following must apply:

a. any server used in the gaming process must be housed securely
b. an audit trail for all financial transactions, errors and significant events must be maintained either on the electronic device, on the server, or by some other secure means, such that it can be accessed for compliance audit purposes
c. data must be regularly backed-up and the back-up stored in a secure location.

Errors and significant events and the methods of dealing with them are listed in section 4.

Service interruption and resumption

3.2 Operators must take all reasonable steps to ensure that their policies for dealing with service interruptions are fair and do not systematically disadvantage customers.

The system must not be adversely affected by the simultaneous or sequential activation of any inputs and outputs, such as 'play buttons', which might, whether intentionally or not, cause malfunctions or invalid results.

Where a peripheral device such as a note acceptor (accepting a note) or printer (printing a ticket or credit note) is in operation during a power failure it must, where practicable, on resumption of the power either complete or restart the task successfully or display an error message indicating that such a fault has occurred. The error message must remain until the fault has been resolved by either the automatic operation of the device or by the operator. In all circumstances the metering or audit controls must be able to identify any accounting anomalies for dispute resolution purposes.

Previous game recall on electronic gaming devices

3.3 Information about the current game and previous games played must always be available to view for dispute and, or as well as, complaint resolution purposes on the operation of a suitable external key-switch, or other secure method that is not available to the player. Last play information must provide all information required to fully reconstruct the game play. All values must be displayed, including the initial credits, credits bet, credits won, and credits paid.

The information must include the final game outcome, including all player choices and game features.

Historic game data must be stored such that it can be called upon for evidential purposes in the event of a dispute and, or as well as, complaint. If the data is required to resolve a continuing dispute or complaint and the system is incapable of continuing to operate without overwriting or losing that historic data, then the pertinent data must be stored ‘offline’ until the dispute and, or as well as, complaint is satisfactorily resolved.

System clocks

3.4 The following must apply:

a. gambling devices or systems used in a casino which incorporate an internal clock must use the time to provide an accurate time stamp of all financial transactions, errors and significant events
b.all clocks or clock systems related to gambling within a casino that can be adjusted shall be set to the correct time.

Cashless play

3.5 Where a gaming device has the facility to accept a stake or participation fee from, and make payment of a prize to, the same medium of cashless payment, for example a smart card (‘the medium’), then the requirements of this section must be complied with. For the avoidance of doubt, neither ticket in and out (TITO) systems nor tokens are required to comply with this section. For the purposes of this section a 'token' is an object with a fixed monetary value (whether or not exchangeable for cash) that may be used for the purpose of paying a stake or participation fee or crediting a gaming device.

The following will also apply:

a. a secure player account database must be held within the system
b. the system must allow the player to retrieve their funds at any reasonable time when the venue is open
c. a facility must be available on the premises which will show the player their current monetary balance held on the medium without the requirement to transfer funds or a game having to be played. Such a facility must not offer any inducements to the player to commit money for play or further play
d. a gaming device must have the facility to enable it to be rendered incapable of accepting funds from the medium at any time when the account holder has entered a self-exclusion agreement in respect of the premises where the device is sited. Activation and de-activation of such facility must require action by the site operator
e. the players must have the facility to track and, or as well as, limit the amount of money they are able to deposit into the medium over a given period of time. The limit that the individual chooses to impose may only be set or modified once in any 24 hour period.

Printers

3.6 If a gaming device is equipped with a printer that is used to make payments, it must be located in a locked or otherwise secure area of the gaming device (for example, require opening of the main door to access).

The printed ticket, voucher or hand pay receipt (‘the ticket’) must display sufficient information to allow the following to be determined:
a. details of where and when the ticket originated
b. details of the transaction type, for example, cash out ticket, hand pay receipt
c. value of the ticket
d. unique ticket identifier, for example barcode and validation number.

This data must be stored such that it is available for audit or dispute resolution purposes.

Ticket validation

3.7 Payment by ticket printer as a method of credit redemption is only permissible when there is an independent means to validate the printed ticket, voucher or hand pay receipt prior to any credit or other type of redemption. The validation system must be able to identify duplicate tickets to prevent fraud by reprinting and redeeming a ticket that was previously issued.

This data must be stored such that it is available for audit or dispute resolution purposes.
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