Artem, on Monday a list of companies that can certify gambling equipment appeared on the KRAIL website. Why can this be a problem for operators?
The list of subjects of certification of gambling equipment includes 5 companies. But according to our information, today none of the companies can fully carry out such certification. Some companies are ready to carry out it, but they need to understand everything first. This is a problem for operators who want to start operations and obtain equipment licenses.
Why did this problem happen?
The problem of certification was clear even at the stage of developing the draft law on gambling, which has already become law. That is why a transition period of a year was proposed. The law contained a provision that certification was not applicable until January 1, 2021. And this amendment was submitted in December 2019. The working group that worked on this bill assumed that the law would be adopted quickly and the regulator would have a year to develop the necessary regulatory framework for certification. But, unfortunately, the adoption of the law was delayed. There was no transition period. And the Commission began to work with this problem almost immediately and solve it along the way. Quite serious work was carried out in this direction, certification issues were constantly discussed in the Commission, in the KER. There were many recommendations. And the Commission chose one of the paths that they have now followed. This is the approval of the list of subjects of certification. Most likely, this was done on the recommendation of the NAAU, the body that controls the certification sphere in Ukraine.
What does the law say about equipment certification?
The Gambling Law sends the issue of certification to the Law on Technical Regulations and Conformity Assessment. Which is the main special law that controls the certification of something in Ukraine. There is article 24 in the Law on Technical Regulations. It says that if certification is not provided for by any technical regulation, then it is voluntary. We currently do not have regulations on the certification of gaming equipment. But the requirement for such certification is in the Law on Gambling, so it must be carried out voluntarily. A voluntary order is an operator's appeal to any accredited certification entity. This subject must say whether he is ready to certify the equipment under the Gambling Law or not. We know that there are such subjects of certification. A fairly large number of certificates have already been issued by different subjects of certification for different equipment. But, unfortunately, these subjects of certification were not included in this list. Operators cannot submit such certificates to the Commission as these entities are not listed.
Is such a list really necessary from the point of view of the law?
From a legal point of view, there was no need to accept such a list, since we are talking about voluntary certification. The list can be accepted only if there is a technical regulation and certification subjects are accredited according to such a special technical regulation. In this case, the subjects of certification confirm that they comply with the technical regulations and can carry out certification. Receive accreditation, and then automatically should be included in the list. Since the gambling law stipulates that the Commission does not designate such entities, it simply maintains a list. This means that the Commission, for some reason, has the right to fix. But this basis is accreditation according to technical regulations. If you do not have technical regulations, then the certification is voluntary, and there cannot be a list. There can only be a list of all accredited certification subjects who either can carry out such certification, depending on the technical base and specialists, or cannot. Now operators have found such certification centers, received certificates and de facto cannot dispose of them.
Why did KRAIL decide to form the list?
We see that KRAIL went the other way, they still decided to make a list. Based on, as I understand it, the recommendations of the NAAU. As far as we know, the list will be expanded. The Commission will actively work in this direction so that certification entities dealing with this issue are included in this list. If we follow the path of defining the list, operators will be able to submit certificates to the Commission and begin to operate.
What should operators who have already received certificates do? And for those who are just going to certify equipment?
Those who received certificates need to wait for the list to expand. Those who have not received it yet can receive it. But the question is: who? To date, companies have not yet worked out their attitude towards the fact that they were included in this list. And they are not ready to certify. There is a hypothetical opportunity because they have accreditation, but it is also important to have specialists and have a technical base. And maybe not everyone has it. The question is how quickly they can get this certification done. If they need to buy expensive equipment for this, will they buy it? And, perhaps, they do not have such specialists, how long does it take to find them? Now the only way to quickly launch the market is to expand the list.
The interview especially for Gamingpost.net
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