During the successful Online Gaming Committee meeting hosted by Playtech in London last April 08 and 09, 2014, members of the Gaming Standards Association (GSA) were able to come up with protocols that will be recognized as standards for multiple third-party integrations.
Asaf Doron, one of the chair members of the GSA Online Gaming Committee and also Head of Integrations and Architecture at Playtech, is quite pleased with the progress they made. The association sees third-party integration as a natural part of online gaming, which makes it fundamental for the gambling industry to institute standards that will do good to all constituencies.
The GSA members in attendance at the PlayTech-hosted meeting, namely Bally Technologies, ComTrade Gaming, Gaming Laboratories International, GTech, IGT, Intralot, Playtech and Random Consulting, covered various areas of discussion pertaining to relationships between iGaming firms, game content providers and suppliers, regulators and land-based operators and made progress with the areas concerning TPGI in particular.
Playtech Consultant, Valery Gelfman and a chair member of the GSA Online Gaming Committee mentioned that a successful online remote gambling operation necessitates multiple combinations of third party products and services including external gaming content providers, regulatory authorities and, in most cases, the land-based gambling operation.
According to GSA Protocol Director Ethan Tower, they expect to publish the first draft of the set of rules by the end of summer. To which Tower provided definition of Third-Party Games Interface (TPGI) as one that “allows games from third-party game providers to be integrated with an online gaming platform in a standard manner.” After which, the GSA’s next agenda is to develop additional standards that deal with external interfaces, such as geo-location services, online payment processing and central monitoring systems for regulatory purposes.
The committee’s next meeting is on April 30, which will be an informal gathering via teleconferencing and open to all GSA members. The agenda for discussion will focus on the “failure scenarios” related to TPGI, as well as the issues and concerns regarding communication between game content and game consoles.
About the Gaming Standards Association (GSA)
GSA is an international trade association of a diverse group of gaming manufacturers, operators, suppliers and regulators participating in the global gaming industry. It was established in 1998 as a way of facilitating the identification, characterization, development, promotion and execution of standards to allow interoperability, innovation, education and communication for the benefit of the gaming constituency as a whole.
However, participation and involvement in technical committees tasked with creating and managing the GSA standards implemented in the gaming industry, is exclusive to GSA platinum, gold and silver members only. The number of committee participants allowed for each type of member differs; to which a Platinum member enjoys unlimited representation, while a Gold member is entitled to three participants and a Silver member is limited to only one.
Since inception, the GSA has earned numerous recognitions, which include Global Gaming Business Magazine’s “Best Productivity-Enhancement Technology” for its Game to System (G2S) Protocol. The association was also named as one of the “Top 3 Most Innovative Products” and “Top 10 Slot Floor Technologies” by Casino Journal Magazine and Casino Enterprise Management, respectively.
