4.01 All gaming activities and financial transactions shall be conducted fairly and honestly, and must be independently verifiable. (Also applicable to Gaming-Related Suppliers)
Requirements – At a minimum:
- Continuous independent monitoring and recording of lottery schemes and cash (and cash equivalent) handling must be in place to support the verification of:
- Adherence to required game rules by players and employees or, in sport and event betting, the processing and redemption, if any, of the bet fairly, honestly and in accordance with the terms of the bet placed by the player, including applicable betting rules;
- Confirmation of outcomes of lottery schemes;
- Prize payment to the proper person;
- Accuracy of financial transactions.
- Continuous logs shall be maintained for critical gaming systems including to track financial accounting and game state history.
4.02 There shall be appropriate, accurate and complete records of transaction and game state and play information kept and made available for the purposes of (Also applicable to Gaming-Related Suppliers):
- Ensuring timely investigations can be performed by the Registrar.
- Capturing information needed to continue a partially complete game within a reasonably defined time.
- Resolving disputes in a fair and timely manner.
- Ensuring player complaints can be resolved.
- Tracking all relevant player information (including funds information).
- Tracking all relevant individual gaming sessions and game play information.
- Tracking all relevant information related to events (including significant events).
- Tracking of game enabling, disabling and configuration changes.
Guidance: There should be an adequate amount of storage, capacity and retention of logged information. The appropriate capacity, design and monitoring of the logging facilities should be in place to ensure that logging is not interrupted for a technical reason that could have been prevented.
4.03 There shall be a mechanism in place to ensure that if logging is interrupted, compensating manual controls are used, where reasonable. (Also applicable to Gaming-Related Suppliers)
4.04 The gaming system shall be capable of providing custom and on-demand reports to the Registrar. (Also applicable to Gaming-Related Suppliers)
Guidance: the intent is to ensure that the Registrar can receive information in an appropriate format when necessary. Examples are: a list of all games hosted by the website, or a list of all active player accounts.
4.05 Game specifications must be documented that clearly indicate (Also applicable to Gaming-Related Suppliers):
- The objectives of the game;
- The wagers that may be made;
- How the game is operated and played;
- Odds of winning for each prize available to players;
- The advantage of the operator in relation to each wager.
4.06 Prior to placing a bet or wager, the player shall be provided with sufficient information to make informed decisions about betting or wagering based on chances of winning, the way the game is played, and how prizes and payouts are made. (Also applicable to Gaming-Related Suppliers)
Requirements – At a minimum:
- Comprehensive and accurate information that explains the applicable terms governing play must be easily available to the player prior to the placing of a bet or wager through such supports as “game rules”, “help” or “how to play” pages placed prominently to allow players to easily locate them. All reasonable steps must be taken to ensure the content is understandable.
- The explanatory content shall:
- indicate the methods of how players may participate in the game and provide instructions and any terms for each of these methods,
- provide clear instructions on how to interact with the game,
- provide clear descriptions of what constitutes a winning outcome,
- indicate any restrictions on play or betting (e.g., play duration limits, maximum wins),
- contain comprehensive, accurate and understandable information on the odds of winning, payout odds, or returns to players,
- indicate prize value units (e.g., currency or credits),
- provide any other information on elements that will affect play (e.g., the number of decks or frequency of shuffles in virtual card games, the method of in-game betting) or results (e.g., how progressive jackpots work, number and kind of tokens to be collected to enter a bonus round, the rules and behaviour in a bonus round, how the results of pool betting in sport and event betting work, the procedures for confirming the results),
- contain the same information and be consistent across all languages it is provided in.
- If certain outcomes, prizes or features are only available under limited circumstances, the explanatory content must clearly indicate what these circumstances are.
- Where speed of interaction has an effect on the player’s chances of winning, players must be informed that the speed of connection or processor may have an effect on the game.
- Where player skill and/or strategy has an impact on the player’s chances of winning, players must be informed that their skill and/or strategy will have an impact on their chances of winning.
- For all peer-to-peer games, players must be informed of possible communication loss and the impact to the player in such an event.
- The denomination of each credit shall be clearly displayed.
- The units of displayed prizes and payouts (e.g. denominational units, currency) must be clear.
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Cash out options and how to redeem winning bets in sport and event betting.
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Players shall be provided with information that indicates circumstances in which a game can be declared void.
4.07 Information provided to players prior to and during game play shall not mislead players or misrepresent games. (Also applicable to Gaming-Related Suppliers)
Requirements – At a minimum, information shall not:
- Describe any outcomes, prizes, or features that are not achievable.
- Encourage play as a means of recovering past gambling or other financial losses.
- Be designed so as to make false promises or present winning as the probable outcome.
- Imply that chances of winning increase:
a. The longer one plays;
b. The more one spends; or
c. Suggest that skill can influence the outcome (for games where skill is not a factor);
- Use language that suggests the probability of a particular outcome is more likely to occur than its actual probability. Examples include the use of the terms, “due”, “overdue”, “ready”, and “ready to hit”.
- Mischaracterize the nature of the game by giving it a commonly accepted name, such as “European Roulette”, if the game does not operate as a player would reasonably expect.
4.08 All igaming games, random number generators and components of igaming systems that accept, process, determine outcome of, display, and log details about player bets, including any subsequent modifications, must either be approved by the Registrar or certified by an independent testing laboratory registered by the Registrar, as per the AGCO’s ITL Certification Policy, prior to being provided for any gaming site. [Amended: April, 2023]
Guidance: For greater certainty, this Standard applies to gaming equipment used in Live Dealer games that contains electronic components.
4.09 Gaming systems and gaming supplies shall be provided, installed, configured, maintained, repaired, stored, and operated in a way that ensures the integrity, safety and security of the gaming supplies and systems. (Also applicable to Gaming-Related Suppliers) [Amended: October, 2022]
Requirements – At a minimum:
- Only games and remote gaming servers approved by the Registrar or certified by an independent testing laboratory registered by the Registrar shall be used on the gaming site.
- The Registrar shall be immediately notified where there is any problem with the integrity or security of the gaming system or gaming supplies.
- Monitoring and testing shall be performed throughout the life of the gaming system and gaming supplies to ensure they are operating as approved.
- In the event of any suspected integrity or security problem with a gaming system or gaming supply, logs of the current state of the gaming system and gaming supply, and any supportive evidence shall be preserved.
- Operators shall monitor the payback of their live games to detect any behaviour that may indicate faulty performance.
- Gaming suppliers shall take immediate action, conduct timely investigations, and make any necessary corrections when there is a problem with the integrity or security of gaming systems.
4.10 Where there are suspected game or system faults that may impact game integrity or fairness including the integrity or fairness of sport and event betting (e.g., influencing a player’s chances of winning or the return to players), Operators shall make the game unavailable to players until the issue has been resolved. In the case of sport and event betting, making a game unavailable may include the suspension of betting, the withholding of funds, and the refund of any bet until a gaming system fault has been resolved. Operator decisions must be fair, reasonable, and made in good faith.
4.11 Production, testing and development systems shall be logically separated. (Also applicable to Gaming-Related Suppliers)
4.12 Game outcomes and sport and event betting transactions shall be recoverable, where technically possible, so that player bets can be settled appropriately. (Also applicable to Gaming-Related Suppliers)
4.13 In any case where there is a game or system fault, including where game outcomes or sport and event betting transactions are not recoverable, the Operator shall have clearly defined policies and processes in respect of treating the player fairly when resolving the player’s transactions. These policies and processes shall be made available to players. (Also applicable to Gaming-Related Suppliers)
4.14 Mechanisms shall be in place to allow a game to be recreated up to and including the last communicated state to the player. (Also applicable to Gaming-Related Suppliers)
Requirements – At a minimum:
- Selected electronic game elements and game outcomes shall be logged before they are displayed to the player.
- Information shall be captured that is needed to continue a partially complete game within a reasonable period of time.
4.15 A player’s bet and the outcome of the game shall be clearly displayed, easy to understand, and available for a sufficient length of time for the player to review. (Also applicable to Gaming-Related Suppliers)
4.16 Games shall pay out accurately, completely and within a reasonable time of winning, subject to checks and verifications. (Also applicable to Gaming-Related Suppliers)