BMM Testlabs congratulates Frank Fahrenkopf as 2014 Fall Resident Fellow, Harvard

BMM Testlabs is pleased to congratulate Frank Fahrenkopf on his selection as a Resident Fall Fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics, Cambridge, MA. Frank Fahrenkopf, a Non-Executive Director to BMM and a member of BMM’s Global Compliance Committee will join other Fall Fellows to lead weekly study groups and interact in the intellectual life of Harvard Community. A representative from Harvard commented “The 2014 Fellows roster reflects expertise in opinion research, state government, health policy and advocacy, national party leadership, campaign management and strategy, journalism and broadcast media and private sector leadership.” Frank Fahrenkopf brings a wealth of experience to the Harvard Institute of Politics with a political career spanning Co-Chairman, Commission on Presidential Debates; former President and CEO, American Gaming Association and Chairman, Republican National Committee (1983-89). Fahrenkopf commented “It is an honor and a privilege to be invited to join Harvard’s IOP as a Fall Resident Fellow. I am very much looking forward to meeting and interacting with the students, and look forward to working with the revered group of Resident Fellows.” BMM looks forward to a continued productive and engaging working relationship with Frank Fahrenkopf, and would like to congratulate all six invited Harvard Institute of Politics Fall 2014 Fellows: Kristen Soltis Anderson, Frank Fahrenkopf, Christine Gregoire, Anton J. Gunn, Phil Kent and Valerie Biden...

BMM Testlabs announce successful relocation of Austrian Test Lab to Vienna

BMM Testlabs is pleased to announce it has successfully relocated its Austrian Testing Laboratory to Vienna. Kirk White, Executive Vice President & General Manager, stated “BMM is very pleased with our Test Lab relocation from Graz to Vienna and the opportunities we now have to grow our business. The combination of BMM’s global Technical Services initiatives, excellent technical staff and the increased lab space has enhanced our capabilities for supporting both existing and new customers. White went on to say “It was great to be able to relocate some of our best senior staff to Vienna, but it’s also exciting that we have been able to recruit a number of local technical staff, with more coming in the next several months.” White further added, “Our Vienna Lab is now receiving the benefit of BMM’s new ‘International Resource Program’ where BMM is relocating experienced internationally skilled testers to Vienna on a full and part-time basis. This ensures that we have both local European knowledge onsite, as well as extensive experience in testing for global gaming markets outside of Europe, including the Americas and Asia Pacific.” Alex Haberl, Director Business Development Europe, commented “BMM is committed to the European gambling market as customers continue to seek our testing services for compliance, pre-compliance and QA testing, as well as our product technical consulting services. BMM is experienced in tailoring testing strategies and solutions to meet our customers overall testing requirements. As such, BMM is setting a higher customer engagement and service delivery standard for testing laboratories around Europe.” BMM’s continued growth in Europe is a direct result of the increased demand for services coming from both terrestrial and online gambling companies as they realize the additional business benefits BMM is providing to customers locally and around the world. ...

BMM Testlabs and Gaming Informatics announce deployment of open standard to increase exchange of critical data

BMM Testlabs is pleased to announce it has collaborated with Gaming Informatics to develop and implement the GD-API – the first open standard to enable electronic exchange of gaming-related certification information between any two organizations. The use of an open standard will ensure ultimate flexibility for regulators, operators and manufacturers. All parties will be able to utilize their own systems or 3rd party systems to aggregate data from all testing laboratories. Thus creating the ability to use one database to manage certifications. Travis Foley, BMM Americas EVP Operations commented “BMM is the first major organization to roll out a web service using the GD-API, making our certification data downloadable by any  client software that also implements the GD-API.” Grant Stousland, President of Gaming Informatics stated “Gaming Informatics is excited to announce the addition of BMM data to its IRIS (ERP) platform and its newly released ECT (asset tracking) app. The GD-API defines a standard way of organizing, requesting, and providing gaming data. By creating this standard and making it freely available, Gaming Informatics has moved the industry forward. The GD-API reduces the cost and increases the efficiency of exchanging critical gaming information.” Foley concluded “BMM applauds the Gaming Informatics implementation of the GD-API and more importantly their desire to make the API open and available to all.” For more information on Gaming Informatics please contact Grant Stousland 608-204-9581 Pictured; Travis Foley , EVP Operations – Americas BMM Testlabs – Grant Stousland, President – Gaming Informatics...

“Casino Openings” – By Richard H. Williamson, BMM SVP Regulatory Education

In many jurisdictions a casino opening includes not only the casino itself but also restaurants and often a hotel. Opening a new restaurant and a hotel are challenging in their own right but they have no comparison to the rigors of opening a casino. As a gaming regulator for over two decades, I have been intimately involved in about a dozen casino openings and many major casino expansions which also have stress levels similarly associated with casino openings. All industries have certain rules with which to comply, e.g., building and health codes, but gambling is unique. Stemming from a beginning that historically involved organized crime figures, gambling has been permitted to flourish in the United States by being harnessed with the implementation of strict licensing and operational controls to eliminate or prevent any criminal element from the casino operations as well as from the ancillary industries. The unique challenges of casino openings stem from the overlay of these strict regulatory rules that govern every element of gaming operations. This meticulous oversight begins long before any of the equipment arrives at the new facility. As a rule, gambling is illegal in every state except where there exists statutory adoptions by which very specific conditions are described for the governance of gambling. In jurisdictions with legalized gambling, the regulations address every aspect of establishing and operating a gambling facility beginning with licensing the operators and casino service industry companies, ending with mandated audits of the gaming operation, and overseeing every operational phase in between. It is a massive undertaking by both regulators and operators with potentially serious consequences for non-compliance. Over the years, I have seen employees implode under the stress of pre-opening activities and make critical life-changing mistakes, some of which resulted in permanent bans from the industry. The physical facility of a casino has to be approved to ensure that it possesses the accumulation of features found to represent best practices in the casino industry and which have been documented as minimum regulatory expectations for a casino design. These approvals begin with blueprint reviews long before a shovel is put in the ground. These physical property design reviews do not involve the ambiance of the casino but rather what you would call the “back of the house” features. For example, casinos have armored car areas that are physically secured and have surveillance cameras to prevent robberies when money is being moved to or from a casino. Likewise, when money is moved within the building to or from the casino cashier cage and the armored car bay, the hallways and elevators dedicated for that task are secured and equipped with surveillance cameras. Glamorized in Oceans 11, the controls over the actual cash are elaborate albeit not as extravagant as was depicted by Hollywood. A key component to casino controls is the concept of the segregation of duties. The idea is that no one performs a task that could result in a fraudulent activity without that task being verified within a ‘reasonable’ time frame. The reasonable time frame, of course, represents the level of risk adopted by the regulators. An example of physical controls that are deemed essential to security of both cash and cashiers involve a segregation of duties to access the cashier area as well as the controls necessary to safely permit commercial transactions between patrons and cashier personnel. Access to the cashier cage is typically through a “man trap” which consists an area with doors at either end that are controlled by separate departments. This design is intended to prevent someone from accessing the inside of the cashier...

BMM Testlabs announces growth in Asian services at G2E 2014

BMM Testlabs is pleased to be exhibiting at G2E Asia 2014, May 20-22, 2014 in Macau. Kirk White, EVP & GM – Australia Asia-Pacific commented, “BMM is pleased to be able to continue our support of Asian Gaming events this year, with G2E Asia. With five full-service testlabs in the region; Singapore, Macau, Korea, Melbourne and Sydney, in addition to our education facility in partnership with the Macau Polytechnic, BMM is fully poised to support the growth of the Asia gambling market.” White continued, “BMM has recently expanded our services to the wider Asian Gambling industry to include Lotteries, Wagering and Bingo. Both BMM’s online gaming consulting and testing services, as well as our terrestrial gaming testing services for Asian Casinos and Clubs, are highly sought after. Customers are finding BMM’s uniquely responsive product testing service invaluable in ensuring quicker product release times in this highly competitive market.” White concluded, “BMM actively participates in a number of gaming forums in Asia, to support the development of the industry in the region, and BMM continues to have steady business growth. We are very much looking forward to the opportunity to provide guidance and expertise to both new and existing customers, as well as Regulators at the 2014 G2E Asia show.” Visit BMM at Booth #912 at G2E Asia...

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BMM Testlabs congratulates Frank Fahrenkopf as 2014 Fall Resident Fellow, Harvard