Online Gaming Certification

Istituto Giordano is the only completely-Italian Accredited Inspection Body recognised by the State Monopoly Agency.

The Institute's Online Skill-Based Gaming System section deals with certification of online gaming systems in accordance with State Monopoly Agency guidelines in order to guarantee player protection. Testing is compulsory for licensees and ensures that games comply with the relevant standards and are fair, whilst the system is reliable and flexible.

Besides assessing gaming systems, our experts test and certify a vast range of games and gaming system components on various platforms in accordance with the provisions of local gambling legislation.

Online casinos have been legal in Italy since 18^th July 2011.
Only operators licensed by the State Monopoly Agency can offer online gaming services.

State Monopoly Agency and Italian Legislation

The State Monopoly Agency is the section of the Economy and Finance Ministry that manages public gaming and as such, including with the assistance of certification bodies such as Istituto Giordano, it is committed to continuous verification as to the ethical conduct of licence holders, with the primary objective of guaranteeing legal and responsible gambling within a hi-tech, carefully-monitored environment.

Which certification does the State Monopoly Agency require?
The mandatory certification requested by the State Monopoly Agency for all online casinos is a test certificate confirming the gaming platform’s compliance with the technical standards specified in the Decree issue by the General Manager of the State Monopoly Agency "Regulations for skill-based gaming and solitaire fixed-odds games of chance and card games".

What are the requirements of Italian legislation?
Italian legislation requires that all software be re-assessed once a year, as well as being continually monitored to avoid possible anomalies. During this phase, that can last as long as one month, all aspects of the random number generator are analysed one by one and the assessment is performed by reviewing source code, mathematical theories, RNG period and the system that determines it.

How do Istituto Giordano technicians proceed?
From an operational viewpoint, Istituto Giordano technicians always carry out a general review of the entire programme and the complete documentation submitted to the State Monopoly Agency and check how the information is supplied to the system.
Once this stage has been completed, the entire gaming system platform is stress tested, from game access control to the gaming account itself. Finally, on-site inspections of the server farms are performed in order to ensure their compliance with all system security requirements (both physical and environmental security). Only then can the inspection procedure be considered complete, allowing certification and results to be released.

Some examples of the tests we perform

Online Casinos (slot machines, roulette, poker, video poker, blackjack, baccarat etc.)
Bingo
Security analysis
Multiplayer games and tournaments
Virtual racing
Random Number Generator (RNG)
Gaming platforms (IT system checking, payment system verification, player protection and security)
On-site audit of Server Farm