LARO77 GLI Explained: Lab Testing and Game Certificates

GLI is the three-letter name you meet on game pages and studio footers, and it stands for Gaming Laboratories International. It tests games and gaming systems against written standards and issues certificates for what passed. Where a certificate is quoted as proof of fairness, it helps to know exactly what it covers, because it forms one check on the trusted online casino checklist for players and answers only one question.

What GLI is and what it tests

GLI’s own site says Gaming Laboratories International “provides the gaming industry’s leading testing and certification services” and that “GLI provides independent testing and inspection of electronic gaming products”. Its RNG page says its custom test software has been built with in-house mathematicians and industry consultants “since our inception in 1989”.

For the RTP line, the RTP meaning page explains what the percentage says and what it leaves out.

GLI-19: the standard for interactive gaming

The GLI Standard Series document is titled “GLI-19: Standards for Interactive Gaming Systems”, Version 3.0, revision date July 17, 2020. Its “About This Standard” section says GLI developed it to provide “independent technical analysis and/or certifications” on the “state of compliance for gaming operations and systems with the requirements set forth herein”.

It sets out the process in two sentences: operators and suppliers provide documentation and access to a production equivalent test environment, and “upon the successful completion of testing, the independent testing laboratory will provide a certificate of compliance evidencing the certification to this standard”.

RNG testing: the part most certificates mention

GLI’s RNG certification page calls the random number generator “a key component that MUST be adequately and fully tested to ensure non-predictability and no biases exist towards certain game outcomes”. Its evaluations typically include source code review, assessment for the RNG period, determination of the RNG range, investigation of seeding and re-seeding, inspection of background cycling, the DIEHARD battery of tests, and outcome distribution tests.

GLI’s glossary explains the two RNG families used in games: pseudo-random generators, which are “deterministic and will repeat the same sequence if given the same seed value”, and true random generators, which rely on physical processes. | RNG type, per GLI’s glossary | How it works | |---|---| | Pseudo-random (PRNG) | An algorithm and a seed value; the same seed repeats the sequence | | True random (TRNG) | Physical processes such as atmospheric noise or radioactive decay |

A pass here is about randomness. It is not a payout promise.

BMM Testlabs: a second laboratory

BMM Testlabs is a separate laboratory. BMM’s own home page calls it “the longest-established and most experienced private independent gaming test laboratory in the world” and says it has served the gaming industry “for over 40 years”. Its menu lists product testing, product certification, mathematics, sports betting, quality assurance, lotteries, iGaming and managed security with PCI:DSS evaluations, and it gives its headquarters as Las Vegas, Nevada.

The practical point is that a game page may name GLI, BMM Testlabs or another lab. Each lab issues its own certificate against its own list of standards, so read the lab’s name first and then the standard it names.

Game certificate: how to read one

A game certificate is a lab’s written statement that a specific product met a specific standard. GLI-19 describes it as a “certificate of compliance”. Read four fields.

A certificate for one version of a game does not carry over to a later version, so match the version on the paper to the one you play.

What a certificate does not cover

A certificate covers a game or system against a standard. Everything else needs another source.

A lab certificate also says nothing about the site that carries the game. If a site displays a certificate that does not match a lab’s own record, report it, and the NBI cybercrime report page lists what the report should contain.

To see which studios stand behind the games you play, open the game providers page, where each studio’s page records what that studio publishes about its own games. When a studio or site cites a lab, ask it for the lab, standard, game, version and date, and treat a reply missing any of the five as an unanswered question.