TotallyGaming.com interviewed Jane Jee and Martin Pashley

June 2017 Totally Gaming

Totally Gaming: Could you provide a brief history of Kompli-Global?

Jane Jee: Kompli-Global was founded by John Davies, chief executive of The Just Loans Group. He was sitting in a Westminster forum a couple of years ago listening to the issues that were going to come about once the 4th AMLD was implemented. He was very conscious that Just Loans does a lot of research on customers because they want to avoid fraud. John had the idea to develop a search platform that would look for adverse information on individuals and companies.

Totally Gaming: The 4th AMLD came into force across the EU today. How significant is this directive, and the regulations that will spawn from it, for the European gambling industry?

Martin Pashley: I have been working in the gambling and online gaming sector since the Gambling Act was introduced in 2005. Although regulated gaming operators have always performed age verification and Know Your Customer (KYC) checks, this has typically been done with a light touch, focusing on basic information such as whether the player is over 18 and where they live.

Online gaming is actually mentioned as a specific industry in the 4th AMLD, and now the directive states that operators must perform more exhaustive checks on adverse player information. Using Google to perform these checks just isn’t sufficient.

Totally Gaming: What are the main advantages of your kompli-IQ tool, and how it will assist European gaming operators with the customer due diligence efforts?

Jane Jee: We have developed a search platform which enables companies to look and see whether there is adverse information on their new and existing customers. In terms of gaming operators, they will have to carry out a risk assessment of their clients to work out whether those customers are low or high risk in terms of money laundering. One would suspect that those dealing in large sums of money are higher risk, so one needs to check them out more thoroughly.

Martin Pashley: kompli-IQ’s artificial intelligence is backed up with human expertise. We have a team of people in 66 countries around the world covering 158 regions who will do in-depth research and investigation and write customer and enhanced due diligence reports on the target subjects as well. This service is targeted not only at the operators but also the platform providers and regulators as well.

Totally Gaming: Given the wide scope of kompli-IQ, did the development of the solution throw up any challenges?

Jane Jee: We have more than 500 key words that we associate with the names in order to carry out the search. We were aware that, in order to carry out a proper, thorough assessment of somebody who is abroad, you need to be able to translate those terms into European languages and carry them out in the native language, and this is what we have done.

We’ve worked hard to build a network of compliance experts. These local compliance specialists can help us develop those search terms and take account of these cultural differences.

Totally Gaming: What is top of your agenda for the remainder of 2017?

Jane Jee: We are aiming to establish kompli-IQ as a baseline check and a matter of routine. We are not only targeting the gaming industry, but also financial services and various other regulated sectors who are looking to bolster their anti-money laundering efforts.

We are working closely with the gaming industry to ensure they understand the usefulness of the tool. Instead of carrying out manual searches, we hope they recognise that this search is quick, efficient and far more thorough than they have been used to in the past.

This article first appeared in Totally Gaming