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// PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL // January/February 2016
for proper investigations and ultimately
the enforcement of laws that differ from
one jurisdiction to another. That makes
this a most interesting task!
How do the laws of France get enforced in
other jurisdictions? What can be done about
a rogue state that allows operators to roam
the world with internet offers that do not
comply with the laws of other countries?
T. Pujol:
That is a challenge. The op-
erator which is illegal in France may not
be illegal in such a rogue state. France and
other jurisdictions may have strong and
effective laws to protect the consumer and
prevent money laundering, match-fixing,
and other forms of illegality—laws that
others may not have.
ARJEL is the regulatory authority in
France and it does have the ability and
the authority to block the websites of
illegal operators from having access to
French consumers. So, the French con-
sumer can be protected in that way.
But ARJEL cannot block these opera-
tors from proposing an offer about a
French sporting event to consumers in
other countries. That has two implica-
tions. First, it is our goal for consumers
all across the world to be protected from
illegality. Second, if illegal operators can
produce profits that are based on the
outcomes of French sporting events, that
creates the possibility that those illegal
operators may attempt to illegality ma-
nipulate the outcomes of French sport-
ing events. Our goal is to protect the
consumer wherever they might reside, as
well as to eliminate the risk of sporting
events being manipulated in France, and
hopefully anywhere in the world.
Why couldn’t the alliance of 27 jurisdictions
which are represented in GLMS establish
laws and standards that required all coun-
tries to comply with and respect the laws of
each jurisdiction? The leverage to enforce
that requirement would simply be that
none of the offending jurisdiction’s opera-
tors would be allowed to operate in the ma-
jor markets of the world if even one of them
is breaking the laws and operating illegally
anywhere.
T. Pujol:
You say ‘simply’ but that is not
so simple! It is very difficult politically and
from a legal point of view to implement
a system that penalizes operators or other
countries in that fashion. It is even diffi-
cult to stop internet-based operators based
in Europe from crossing jurisdictional
boundaries without license to do so. That’s
why the first critical step is for each coun-
try to create a national regulatory plat-
form. We are starting with Europe and al-
ready expanding into other regions. With
proper national regulatory platforms in
place, we can then collaborate to help each
other enforce those standards that each
country has established for itself. Without
those national standards and regulatory
platforms, though, it is difficult to effect
an international regulatory platform. Even
then, there is still the task of clarifying and
agreeing upon process and procedures for
enforcing the standards and policies that
we have all agreed upon.
We have seen what happens to the market
value of companies like Volkswagen and
Sony when their integrity is compromised.
In both cases it was literally cut in half. I
would think the value of integrity would be
even higher for the brand of Lottery.
T. Pujol:
Transparency of gaming in-
dustry governance is the crucial issue in
terms of confidence and consumer trust.
At FDJ, we consider our brand image to
be our most valuable asset. And the im-
age and value of our brand is based on the
integrity of the gaming transactions, the
security of its financial operations, and the
trust on the part of FDJ’s players and all
FDJ stakeholders that everything operates
without compromise. It’s the right thing to
do, and it is sound business strategy, for
FDJ to strive to operate for the best inter-
ests of society.
Financial directors and accountants use
the concept of ‘goodwill,’ which is the dif-
ference between the overall value of the
company and the material book value of
its hard assets. Our industry should estab-
lish a detailed security impact estimate for
the value of goodwill of the Lottery op-
erator to enable us to quantify the actual
losses that result from a breach of security.
It can be done, but I do not know that it
has ever been done. Even so, I think we
all know that protection of consumer and
stakeholder confidence is mission-critical
for government-gaming operators.
Effective security is not just about technol-
ogy, is it?
T. Pujol:
The American cryptographer
and IT security specialist Bruce Schneier
said that security is based as much on pro-
cess and human behavior as it is on tech-
nology. You can have the best IT security
in your company network, with the most
protected servers that contain state of the
art technology. It will not be effective,
though, if the process and procedures that
govern human involvement is not equally
as well-conceived and implemented.
That’s the reason why the WLA created
the Security and Risk Measurement Com-
mittee, which works to enhance these
controls and procedures. It is not just
about technology. It is about the way that
human beings interact with the technol-
ogy. And that is a major focus of the WLA
Security Certification program.
Criminals will always be inventing new
ways to accomplish their goals.
T. Pujol:
Absolutely, it’s an eternal game
between robbers and policemen. Cyber
criminals are equipped with motivation,
skills, and opportunities. They have the
ability to react and to adapt their attacks
very quickly against the new first line of
IT defense. A good security system must
defend against the ingenuity and skills of
these hackers.