The project will involve the DOJ’s Gambling Control Division (GCD), which regulates the majority of gambling activities within the state. The division explains that the goal is to enhance the detection of black market operators and “predatory” advertisements, particularly as these promotions spread quickly online.
Montana has always had laws regulating how licensed video gambling machine businesses can be promoted. However, it might be more difficult to enforce these laws when the messaging is not directly from the accredited ecosystem, but is instead routed via online media buys and affiliate promos.
What the Partnership Will Do
According to the announcement, GCI will help the GCD by providing monitoring and intelligence services to find new or changing illegal activity. As stated in the publicly available materials, the scope includes:
- Mapping new illegal gambling operations;
- Monitoring local and online advertising channels;
- Pointing out possible links between licensed businesses and illegal activity;
- Giving data-driven support that can help with state enforcement actions.
Montana’s announcement presents the project like a technology upgrade: better analytics and investigative tools that should help the regulator move faster when trends change, or new operators show up.
Regulator and Vendor Frame It as an Enforcement Upgrade
According to Alex Sterhan, Administrator of the Gambling Control Division, the state wants a cleaner market and needs better tools to identify advertisers and operators who are breaking the law. He believes that the division can use the additional reach and technical strength that GCI brings to its daily enforcement work.
The GCI CEO, Matthew Holt, presented the project as an example of how a partnership between the private sector and government can help obtain timely insights when dealing with unregulated markets.
For its part, GCI offers compliance support. Its toolkit includes workflows for data collection, auditing, and reporting, media and ad monitoring, and services to curb unlicensed activity. That’s the kind of back-office visibility regulators seek as illicit operators and their marketing move further online.
Bottom Line
Speed and clarity are what Montana gains from this partnership. With its successful implementation, it might be possible to identify unlicensed brands sooner, comprehend how they reach players, and provide enforcement teams with a more robust starting map. Ultimately, the time lag between seeing illegal operations and stopping them could be reduced.
