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On Wednesday 8 October the Department of Internal Affairs and Intralot will conduct a scheduled Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery exercise on the Electronic Monitoring System (EMS) and Integrated Gambling Platform (IGP) services as part of good business practice.

In order to complete this exercise an outage of the EMS and IGP core systems will be necessary while we switch services to our Disaster Recovery site. This outage will start at 10am on the 8th. We expect all services to be fully restored by 10am the following day.

Normal gambling operations at venues will not be affected during the outage and the Intralot Service Desk and the Department's Licensing team will still be available.

The following services will not be available during the outage:

• EMS reports.
   
• Processing of all electronic gaming machine (EGM) servicing that requires Intralot assistance e.g. EGM enables, EGM Game/Base Changes etc.
   
• Site controller diagnostics and Site Controller swaps cannot be actioned.
   
• Issuing of new or amended Licences.

Depending on the exact timing for service restoration, EMS daily reports on 9 October may be delayed. Please check the EMS website from 10am for updated daily reports.

There will be a similar system outage starting at 10am on the 22nd October for up to 24 hours when we switch the EMS and IGP systems back from the Disaster Recovery site. Services will be unavailable as above during the outage.

If for any reason the exercises cannot go ahead as scheduled we will notify you as soon as possible.

The interruption to services will not affect your ability to comply with your obligations under the Gambling Act 2003.

If you have any questions please email us at ems@dia.govt.nz.

The Department has recently concluded its investigation into the Fortune Technology Corporation Class 4 Jackpot systems: Players Club 1, Players Club 2 and Freefall.

These jackpot systems were previously approved on 1 May 2013 by the Secretary for Internal Affairs as complying with relevant minimum standards prescribed under section 327 of the Gambling Act 2003.

In late 2013 we became concerned as to whether these approvals were correctly made and investigated the issue. This resulted in any pending applications for Players Club 1, Players Club 2 and Freefall jackpot systems being placed on hold until the matter could be investigated.

Following our investigation and consultation with Fortune Technology, the Department has confirmed that Players Club 1 and Players Club 2 comply with the minimum standards.

Accordingly, these systems continue to be available to Class 4 gambling operators for use in Class 4 gambling venues.

We have resumed processing pending applications for the Players Club 1 and Players Club 2 jackpot systems.

The Department has confirmed that the regressive prize methodology of Freefall Jackpot System does not meet minimum requirements and the previously granted approval has been revoked effective from 18th July 2014.

We will also be making arrangements for a public consultation on potential changes to the relevant technical standards.

We acknowledge Fortune Technology’s contribution and cooperation in achieving an agreed outcome in this matter.