The Uganda National Bureau of Standards and the National Gaming Board have signed a memorandum of understanding to enforce standards in the country’s nascent lotteries and gaming sector.
The signing took place between the UNBS Executive Director, Dr. Ben Manyindo and the Executive Director NGB, Edgar Agaba at UNBS Head Office in Bweyogere Industrial Park. That MoU was reached at in accordance with Section 4h of the Lotteries and Gaming Act No.7 of 2016.
Dr. Manyindo said, “The MoU is an opportunity for UNBS to work with NGB in adopting, adapting and updating common standards for use in lotteries and gaming technology.”
According to the MoU, UNBS will establish a Technical Sub-committee for developing standards in the gaming betting sector and also coordinate Uganda’s participation in international standardization work related to gaming.
Last year, UNBS through the technical committee developed standards for casinos and for limited pay out machines which are commonly used among the lotteries and gaming community. The standards are designed to ensure regulation and supervision of gaming activities/institutions to hold them to a code of conduct and make them more accountable.
“UNBS will involve members of gaming community in the development of industry standards and support them to undertake training relevant training in standards implementation and ensuring compliance,” Dr. Manyindo said.
Drawing from Section 4 (h) of the Gaming Act which mandates the Board to set and approve standards for the supply, installation or adaptation of gaming and betting software, the Chief Executive Officer, LGRB, Mr. Edgar Agaba said
The signing of the MoU comes at an opportune time when LGRB is focused on enhancing enforcement operations to promote compliance to sector, regulations, stamp out illegal operations and ensure implementation of international best practices and standards.
The standards that have so far been developed and approved include US 1580-1:2017 for Gaming equipment and requirements for Casinos and US 1580-2: 2017 for Gaming equipment and requirements for Limited pay out machines.
However, other standards are under development including US 1580-3 Monitoring and Control systems, US 1580-4 Wagering record keeping software, US 1580-5 Local area and wide area jackpot and progressive equipment requirements, US1580-7 Token requirements, and US 1580-8 Roulette wheels requirements, US1580-9 central and monitoring system among others.
“The MoU will allow us to work with UNBS to enable compliance to sector based standards and ensure value for money, Mr Agaba Said. He however noted that some of the sports betting operators have multitudes of outlets that could not efficiently be reached and inspected.
“Working together with UNBS we shall ensure that we reach the wider betting community and ensure enforcement of standards,” Mr Agaba added.