Jeremie Kanter recently joined ComplianceOne Group as a member of the board and head of its Diligence in Gaming division, where he oversees regulatory and operational compliance. We caught up with him to discuss the fast-changing regulatory landscape.
Q: You joined ComplianceOne Group recently. How have your first few weeks been and what are you most excited to begin work on?
I’ve been working in senior compliance roles at several gaming companies for more than a decade. During that time I’ve been fortunate to experience both the operator and the supplier side of things, with the likes of William Hill/888, SBTech, and Playtech. What was so appealing about ComplianceOne Group was the opportunity to join a team that is building far and away the most comprehensive expertise on gambling compliance in the world.
I’m heading up Diligence in Gaming, our regulatory compliance and assurance arm, that’s already had great success helping operators in the Netherlands. We now have the know-how to deliver this kind of support in regulated markets around the world, and we’re looking forward to building more partnerships with tier-1, forward-thinking operators who understand what is required to support their ambition and succeed in these jurisdictions.
Q: How do you see regulatory compliance evolving in 2023?
That’s a big question, and obviously, it varies between markets, but I think the direction of travel at this point is very clear.
What we are seeing in the most highly-regulated jurisdictions – I’m talking about the likes of the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, and a few others – is that the old-style, checklist approach to regulation is no longer enough. Previously operators looked at compliance as a series of obligations handed down from the regulator. The view was that if you ticked every box the regulator asked of you, you were safe, whatever happened.
The shift we are seeing now is that regulators expect operators to display a far deeper understanding of the logic behind everything they do. The operator is now responsible for the impact and consequences of their implemented actions, regardless of whether they can claim they followed the regulator’s guidance.
So now it is imperative not only to be setting objectives and referring to requirements but displaying to the regulator that you are accountable and your house is in order, in every sense. It’s about demonstrating – with evidence – the effectiveness of the regulatory journey you are on and how all your stakeholders are aligned: this means showing a “culture” of compliance across the board (in all the meanings of the board!).
Q: How are you working with your partners to help them up their compliance game?
We’re really about bringing the correct methodology and best practices to operators so we can support them in running their daily operations in a compliant manner. We see lots of gaming operators investing heavily in compliance, but they aren’t always assembling the pieces correctly.
This is understandable. If you are operating across multiple jurisdictions, you need to deal with an ever-growing list of requirements that are sometimes in conflict with each other. Different regulators expect different approaches. It’s tough to juggle all of this.
In a first for our industry, from a compliance firm, we bring greater assurance to our partners because we can assess procedures and work with operators to ensure the way they approach a particular challenge is aligned with expectations. We accompany them not only in designing their own set of policies and procedures but also in evidencing their assurance controls and related impact. It’s about helping them along their journey and changing the culture not only so they don’t have issues down the line, but mostly because it is the right way to run your business.
Q: ComplianceOne Group has grown to cover several different areas of compliance. Could you walk us through the structure of the Group?
ComplianceOne Group is such an exciting place to work because we are now in a position to offer truly 360-degree support across all aspects of regulatory and technical compliance.
I’ve already introduced Diligence in Gaming, which I’m leading and which covers all elements of regulatory and operational compliance for operators. Maxima Compliance continues to serve as the expert in technical compliance services under the leadership of Sergio Suárez García.
Our Chief Product Development Officer Catalin Zaha oversees a whole host of compliance-focused products. These include the intelligence database Complitech and our SAFE solution DataVault ONE. We’ve also recently launched RecruitCompliance with our Head of HR & Talent Danielle Nason, which is helping our partners identify and hire the best compliance talent in the sector.
This comprehensive one-stop-shop setup is what makes ComplianceOne Group so unique because no one else brings together such breadth of expertise.