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Dr Aftab Rizvi carried out the first compliance certification
Interview with
Dr Aftab Rizvi
Gaming Associates
The First Certification
by Ian Sherrington
Series – The Online Gambling Industry
Part 2– The Paperwork, Jurisdictions, Legal and Compliance
Introduction
To participate in games of chance, a player implicitly trusts the game provider. Otherwise, they wouldn’t (read shouldn’t) play.
But, how can a player know that the games being offered are fair and secure?
The technical systems required to operate an online gaming website are complex and way beyond a normal person’s comprehension. So, a practical proof of fairness and security is required.
To prove to players that their games are fair and trustworthy, a game provider could request an in-depth analysis of their systems by an external expert. However, this would be a costly, lengthy and repetitious episode if undertaken for all games and websites.
The solution to this conundrum is compliance.
Compliance is the process of adhering to the technical standards and regulatory requirements set by the jurisdiction in which the operator holds a license.
In theory, every jurisdiction sets their own technical requirements that the systems must comply with. However, there are many standards that are common to more than one jurisdiction and, more than often, one jurisdiction’s requirements will match another, or will contain many similarities,
Compliance companies are the experts in these matters and one such company is Gaming Associates.
The CEO and founder of Gaming Associates is Dr Aftab Rizvi.
Aftab is the pioneer of compliance. He was responsible for certifying the world’s first government regulated online casino – Lasseters Online Casino – complied with the regulations set by the newly-formed Northern Territory’s jurisdiction.
In 1999, after passing compliance certification, Lasseters Online was successfully launched and for the first time, players could trust an online gambling system with certainty.
Here’s how he did it…
Islamabad, Pakistan
Aftab Rizvi was born in Rawalpindi, Pakistan .
He proved to be a gifted student. In 1993, after years of effort, Aftab earned a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from Quaid-Azam University, Islamabad.
Researching AI systems involved a variety of methods, many of which were grounded in mathematics, logic, and computer science. All skills that would prove to be useful later on.
AI was applied in various domains, although it was not as advanced or widespread as it is today. The fields of image recognition, speech recognition, games and many others all benefited from the adoption of AI technology in the 1990’s.
Perhaps the most famous example of AI in those days was the Deep Blue Chess Computer, built by IBM in 1997.
Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov, in a six-game match. It was the first computer to defeat a reigning world champion in a full match.
Check out this lengthy, but fascinating video about the match!
Australia
On his way to his university each day, Aftab’s route would usually take him past the Australian Embassy. One day, he noticed a long queue of people waiting to enter the embassy. He asked someone, why are these people queuing? He was informed that the Australian government were offering permanent resident permits for qualified people.
On the spur of the moment, Aftab decided to join the queue. He filled in all of the forms and applied for Australian residency. Aftab was, after all, very qualified and was looking for an opportunity.
Three months later, to his eternal wonderment, he received his Australian resident’s permit and could relocate when he wished.
However, in the meantime, Aftab was due to get married and everything was arranged. Unfortunately, he discovered that he would lose his Australian residency if he were to marry before he took it up. So, Aftab immediately flew to Sydney to claim his residency. On his return, the marriage ceremony was completed as planned – to everyone’s relief.
Relocating to Australia was all very new. Aftab had not even visited Australia before he applied for his residency.
“Relocating to Australia was a significant and transformative experience for me. I was fortunate to take this decision as I landed into many more exciting opportunities which I did not have access to before. The move opened doors to new professional challenges and personal growth, allowing me to explore and contribute to fields that were previously beyond my reach. The vibrant and diverse culture of Australia also enriched my life in countless ways, making the relocation a truly rewarding journey.”
Once he and his wife had set up their new home, the next issue was to find a job. Luckily, Aftab found an opening for a Post Doctoral Research position in AI at the University of Western Sydney. Life was looking up.
Aftab settled in to his studies into AI and in particular Neural Networks. However, Aftab’s life would soon take an interesting turn.
In the university’s Department of Psychology worked a research professor called Jan McMillan. She happened to also be the Chairman of the Institute of Gambling Research. And she had an interesting problem…
In 1999, the Northern Territory state government had passed legislation to legalize online gambling. This plan might prove to be quite lucrative, but was tricky.
All went well with the legislation. However, they had an issue with the public’s general distrust of online gambling and the political knives were out!
Should a Northern Territory government licensed online gambling site be compromised in any way, then it would reflect badly on them. And consequently, the government could face grave consequences – or at least be very embarrassed.
So, in order to mitigate the potential risk the Northern Territories government had to be sure that the games that would be offered to the public are 100% fair and that there were no security risks whatsoever in the software.
How should they go about sorting that out?
Lasseters
The Northern Territory regulator accepted their first application for an Interactive Casino license. The application was from Lasseters.
Lasseters is an Australian icon. Situated in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Lasseters was founded in 1981 as a hotel and casino complex. It is still in business today.
They took the decision to enter the world of online casinos after seeing the success of the offshore gambling havens.
Lasseters had a deal with a software company called Access Systems. Access created the software necessary to run the Lasseters online casino system. With the software seemingly sorted, Lasseters needed a license to begin operations.
At this point, Professor Jan McMillan, chairman of the Institute of Gambling Research became aware of this issue . She sent an email to all staff in the Department of Psychology to hoping to get some advice in this matter. One of those recipients of the email was Aftab.
This was the pivotal moment. Aftab received the email and he was immediately intrigued. Little did he know that this email would soon change his life.
“Entering new areas is always quite challenging. The fear of the unknown was stopping me from joining that project, but my researcher’s mind was pushing me to do it and take it as a challenge. This internal conflict between apprehension and curiosity ultimately led me to embrace the opportunity. It was a decision driven by my passion for discovery and innovation, which has always been at the core of my professional journey.”
After responding to the email, Aftab would become even more intrigued. He was informed that the assignment was to work out how to certify an online gambling system, but not who or where the client was. All very hush-hush and he was to tell no-one about it.
The Problems
Aftab considered the issues before him. As he saw it, the problems weren’t so much to do with the Random Number Generator (RNG) software (as used in online casinos to determine the outcome of a gaming transaction) as the RNG software had already been tested – it was used in land-based gaming machines for many years and had been tested to death.
No, the biggest worry was what happened to the random numbers after they had been generated. The random numbers would need to pass through many complex software functions. Could they be manipulated and a game’s outcome be influenced somehow?
And then, of course, there is the general security of the system to consider. Connecting anything to the internet was, and is, to be taken seriously. Could the systems be penetrated and data or money stolen?
If there would be any doubts on these factors, the Northern Territory government would not dare to issue its first online gambling license.
Lasseters Online Casino Scrutinized
Aftab was engaged to solve these problems. He realised that, to allay all fears, he would need to understand every aspect of the Lasseters online gaming system and then write an in-depth technical analysis, covering each component, before he could certify that the gaming system was indeed up-to-scratch.
Aftab studied the proposed Lasseters Online Casino system in fine detail. He checked every line of code, disassembled the database and used his mathematics knowledge to investigate the RNG methods used.
Check out this fascinating documentary, made in 1964, about the UK Post Office’s Premium Bond service and it’s ERNIE Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment. It’s also a great example of how a complex business operated in those days. And a nice distraction…
In those days, random numbers used by gaming systems were generated in software, which always has some doubt to it. Hardware solutions were available, but not in common use at that time.
Internet Threats
Things were moving fast and new threats came along all the time. Aftabrealized that he would still need to understand everything about internet security and all of its inherent vulnerabilities. For sure there were threats of all kinds out there and in order to protect against them, he would need to understand them.
It was early days and the internet was, like any baby, vulnerable.
One of the big concern was the hacker attack known as “The Man in the Middle Attack”. This is where a hacker would intercept the internet data packets sent between the player and the game server. The hacker could then ‘insert’ themselves between the two parties. They could then take over a player’s gaming session, which could result in the player’s loss of their account, and their money.
This, and many other concerns needed to be addressed.
To secure the game data traffic between the player and the server, the system designers opted to use the Blowfish encryption algorithm. Blowfish was designed in 1993. It was known for its speed and strong encryption capabilities. And it was free. Blowfish was widely adopted in cryptographic applications,
With the gaming system, as supplied by Access Systems, there were, initially, many areas of concern. The Northern Territory government were strict and no stone was to be left unturned. Any Issues = No License.
Thankfully, all of the problems were eventually addressed and the system passed successfully through certification.
Nevertheless, unconvinced, the Northern Territory government decided that they needed a further opinion about network security before they were entirely happy. So, they hired the accounting firm of Ernst & Young to carry out a review/risk assessment.
It seemed like it was never over…
But finally, after what seemed like a lifetime of work, the Northern Territory’s regulator accepted the certification and issued their first online casino license.
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Lasseters Online Casino was officially launched on 10th April, 1999 – the world’s first fully certified and government regulated online casino!
What Happened to Lasseters?
Well, the Lasseters Hotel and Casino, itself, is still there in Alice Springs. It’s doing well by the look of it.
But, unfortunately, Lasseters Online Casino closed in 2008.
After a bright start, external events would eventually cause the demise of the online casino.
Firstly, Lasseters lost all of their Australian players when the Australian government passed the Interactive Gambling Act in 2001. The IGA invalidated the Northern Territory license by making it illegal for companies to offer online casino services to people in the whole of Australia.
And secondly, UIGEA came into force in 2006. That took away all of their US players.
Faced with relentless competition and no profit in sight, the painful decision was taken to close the doors on historic Lasseters Online Casino.
Technical Functional Requirements
Aftab’s report into the Lasseters online gambling system ran to 18 volumes – it was indeed a very detailed analysis.
It was realized that it would not be practical to carry out such an in-depth study of every new online casino that came along. So, Aftab and team was requested to whittle down his 18 volume report and create a straightforward set of requirements that each gaming system would need to comply with.
The new document would be called the Technical Functional Requirements (TFR). It would be used to certify new online casinos.
Alongside the TFR, other processes, such as the methods used to build and deploy the software, are also needed.
The build process in software development refers to the series of steps and procedures that transform source code written by developers into an executable program or application.
During the build process, a programmer could insert unauthorised code, compromising the system. Supervision is therefore needed. After building the application, the executable files would need to be transported (deployed) to the server.
Lasseters would use a secure area in their Alice Springs hotel complex to house the servers needed to run their online casino. After a supervised build by the software house (under the watchful eyes of Aftab’s staff), the casino software would be burnt on to CDs, which would then be flown from Sydney to Alice Springs – personally delivered by one of Aftab’s trusted guys,.
It was estimated to take 3 months to complete the TFR . To formalize the arrangements, a contract would be drawn up between the Northern Territory government and a company called Global Gaming Services (GGS). GGS would employ Aftab as an online games/systems tester and he would be asked to write the TFR.
After a few months of relentless effort, Aftab and his team created the world’s first online gambling technical functional requirements.
The requirements would not only be used by the Northern Territory, but also by many other online gambling jurisdictions.
Many online gaming jurisdictions have used these requirements to create their own regulations.
Gaming Associates
Armed with this new and unique knowledge, Aftab would continue on his path by founding his own company, Gaming Associates.
Gaming Associates has grown into an internationally recognized leader in testing and certification for the online gambling and gaming industry. Specializing in independent auditing, testing, and regulatory compliance, the company has built a strong reputation under Aftab’s leadership, who has championed fairness, security, and transparency throughout the industry.
Aftab’s vision has been instrumental in establishing Gaming Associates as a trusted authority across nearly all global gambling jurisdictions. The company is known as the pioneer in iGaming compliance and game system testing, consistently leading the way in developing industry standards and best practices.
With a focus on ensuring gaming systems operate fairly, securely, and transparently, Gaming Associates plays a critical role in maintaining the integrity of the online gaming ecosystem.
The company also certifies emerging gaming technologies, including e-sports, live dealer games, and blockchain-based platforms, ensuring they meet the highest levels of regulatory compliance.
Close
Aftab’s influence on the online gambling industry has been profound, His work has helped ensure that the online gambling industry earned a trustworthy reputation. Not an easy task!
Dr Aftab Rizvi – Thank you for the interview.
Gaming Associates, the world’s most experienced online gambling compliance company!
