Kahnawake Gaming Commission Major Changes

0 Comments   Email   Print

Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC) is the third licensing authority to announce revamp plans this year. In fact some inkling of this could be sensed when KGC appointed eCOGRA to carry out compliance testing of its licensees on a continuous basis. However that was only the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

The real indication came when KGC chairman Dean Montour and general legal counsel Murray Marshall headed a strong delegation at the IGE-ICEi expo along with Micki Oster. Micki Oster is well known to those who have been with the online gaming industry for some time. She headed the Sunny and Trident online casino groups and had made them into the most popular and trusted places to wager at on the Internet. She was regarded as the epitome of fair play, player sensitivity and business professionalism. Montour announced that Oster had been retained as a consultant by KGC to advise on player relationship activities, including timely and fair settlement of player disputes with KGC licensed operators. Montour said that he had full confidence in Oster's impartiality, experience and integrity, and that she had the full support of the board.

One of the reasons for Oster's appointment is the pressing need for regulatory compliance. Montour admitted that the KGC had not emerged unscathed from the major scandal involving one of its most prominent online poker licensees in 2008 and 2009. Though there was no wrong doing on the part of KGC and no has questioned the integrity of KGC, Montour does not want a repeat of that fiasco. Fortunately for Montour the licensees of KGC share this view and have welcomed a more compliance oriented approach. They are aware that such an approach will add value to their brands in the long run.

Therefore KGC has decided to strengthen the player disputes function under Oster. Presently KGC licensees are initially given seven days to respond to an enquiry from a player. Failing to respond the licensees are given a final warning and three further days. After that, the KGC board intervenes and this could lead to penalties and even suspension. Some steps have already been initiated. One step was the appointment of eCOGRA.

Another step is a new logo certification program. Each licensee will carry the new logo which will be linked to information at a new and informative website. When players click the logo it will reveal information such as software provider, copy of certificate, brand url, RNG certificate, return to player percentage and other relevant data. This is expected to be in place within the next six months. This is a laudable initiative because today players have to navigate through several different pages of an operator's web site in order to access this information.

News Item Tools

 Email     Print     Digg     Del.icio.us    StumbleUpon

Comments

 Add Comment

Add Comment

More News