Frequently Asked Questions

iTech Labs tests and certifies a large number of RNG’s every year. We offer set prices for RNG testing and certification. After receiving your enquiry, we send you a small questionnaire to gather basic information about your RNG implementation. This allows us to estimate the cost accurately, and offer you a fully fixed price.

After receiving your response, we send you details about the submission requirements, testing process, reporting, deliverables along with our fixed price. If you are happy with the information provided, we start the process. If you have additional questions, you can email us, or we can arrange a telephone or Skype call for further discussions.

Our website lists recommended PRNG algorithms. You may consider implementing one of these algorithms as it may reduce extra work and re-testing. RNG testing involves: source code evaluation, compilation to generate the raw RNG output, and testing the raw numbers and scaled/shuffled output. RNG implementation may use Pseudo Random Number Generators or Hardware generators. For both, we test the raw numbers and scaled/shuffled output.

iTech Labs certifies large number of games including casino games, multi-player games, skill-based games and many more each year. We always provide a fixed price proposal, which includes the testing scope, testing process, schedule, the deliverables and the price.

You will need to have a working site available, for our testing to be completed. We also normally require player accounts and back end access during the testing period. Weekly or bi-weekly progress reports will be provided, which include progress percentages for each module and details for each bug found, including screen shots and references to the relevant standard. We retest bugs as they are fixed.

For smaller projects we invoice the full amount at the beginning of the project. For larger projects we invoice for deposit at the beginning of the project, and then the balance is payable monthly, based on progress. After the testing is completed, we provide the detailed certification report and certificates.

We issue your certificates after the testing process is complete, which involves first pass testing, followed by retesting of any defects. As soon as all high and medium priority issues are resolved, we issue the certificates for your gaming site.

iTech Labs certificates themselves, are hot-linked to the original on the iTech Labs website.

Regular RTP/RNG audits give players added confidence that the gaming system they’re playing has been subjected to external scrutiny, and remains fair. In order to provide you with a quote for an RTP audit, you will need to let us know the number of sites as well as the total number of games. And for an RNG audit quote, you will need to let us know the types of games involved (Poker, Blackjack, Roulette etc.).

RTP audits are carried out on all single player casino games, and RNG audits are carried out on card games, dice games and ball games. After receiving all the relevant information from you regarding what is to be audited, we’ll provide you with a fixed price proposal. Then, the auditing process involves either supervised extraction of data, or securely sending game logs to iTech Labs. We then conduct sanity checks and run various tests to perform the audit.

This data is used for calculating RTP and analysing RNG output. On completion, an audit report is prepared, showing the results of the audit, which is then  hosted on your gaming site. The audit report itself, is hot-linked to the original on the iTech Labs website.

The price will depend on the complexity and number of game clients (flash, download, etc.) for the casino games. If your game is a clone of a previously certified game, we only charge for the testing of the changes. The scope of the testing will also depend on the requirements of the applicable gaming standard.

After receiving your inquiry, we’ll send you a small questionnaire to gather some basic information about your casino games – a list of games, game types, etc. We will then need to see the game rules and/or games on a website, to produce an estimate for non-standard games. For slot games, we may need to see the game rules and maths for accurate estimates. In case maths are not available for slot games, we will provide a qutote based on certain assumptions applicable for standard complexity slot games.

The above process allows us to estimate the cost accurately and offer you a competitive fixed price.

The Return To Player (RTP) is the single most important statistic for any game. This is the percentage of money won to money played over a long period, consisting of tens of thousands of games (or a much higher number for high volatility games). A high RTP attracts players, but creates a higher risk for the house.

Games with high RTP’s should be carefully checked, to ensure there are no loop-holes which would allow the player an extra percent – any extra may be enough to have the house make a loss on that particular game. It is important to ensure that even with the best player strategy, the RTP is still below an acceptable level for each game.

We conduct theoretical calculations of the RTP for all games we test and certify. To verify the theoretical RTP for a game, we need access to the full game rules. It is beneficial to be able to see an implementation of the game if it is available, as it is a quick way to answer any questions that aren’t obvious by observing the game rules. All our mathematical evaluations are performed and/or thoroughly checked by professional mathematicians.

We also recommend monthly audits, to verify that the actual RTP of each game is close to the mathematically verified result. This is to ensure that no error exists in initialisation, and that coding hasn’t introduced variations in the actual RTP. Please see the section titled, ‘How do I get RTP/RNG audited for my casino site?’ above.

Each jurisdiction sets the standards they are willing to accept, and we use those standards, supplemented with risk-based tests (we test the things which create a high risk for the operator if they were to fail e.g. game implementation not matching game rules, or RTP). Outside these jurisdictions, as part of our initial negotiation on scope and price, we would define the standards we are using.

iTech Labs is a wholly Australian-owned testing company, based in Melbourne, Australia, with wholly owned subsidiaries in Asia and Europe.  We are not owned by, nor do we have any interest in any gaming company.  Our accreditation by the gaming Jurisdictions is subject to us maintaining professional competence, integrity and independence in our work. Each client’s work is treated with complete and utter confidentiality. Police checks and credit checks have been conducted for all consultants working for iTech Labs.

Multi-player games have a potential weakness – if several players around a table are able to see each other’s cards (like in a card game), they may have enough information to unfairly compete against the other players on the same table. Casinos and poker rooms employ a variety of collusion prevention and detection mechanisms.

A typical collusion prevention mechanism, is to prevent players from the same network sitting at the same table. We check what you have implemented and what is required by the gaming jurisdiction.

If your RNG (and scaling) have passed our tests, we provide RNG certification. This includes an RNG certification logo, a linked certificate and a hot-linked original certificate.

If your RNG and games have passed our tests, we provide an RNG & Game certification. This includes an RNG and games certification logo, a linked certificate and a hot-linked original certificate.

If we audit the actual RTP/RNG of your games (from server logs), we provide a RTP/RNG audit certification. This includes an RTP/RNG audit logo, a linked audit report and a hot-linked original audit report.

If your platform has passed our tests, we provide platform certification. If your games have passed integration tests, we provide integration certification.

Yes, you can. If you analyse all the cards dealt to you (without omitting any card), you can see whether the cards are uniformly distributed over the range 1 to 52. The distribution becomes greater as the number of cards is increased, so please ensure that you have captured a sufficient number of cards and not omitted any. 10,000 cards is a good number to start with. The same approach is possible for dice and ball games.

Please see our RNG audit reports to see the results of such analyses.

All games tested by iTech Labs have game history/logs for real money games. It is possible to collect information about cards/dice/balls from the game history or logs.

iTech Labs certifies Hardware Random Number Generators (RNG’s) and Pseudo Random Number Generators (PRNG’s). The former uses hardware devices, while PRNG’s are based on software algorithms. Please see below for some information on the suitability of PRNG’s for gaming applications.

Period and reseeding
iTech Labs only certifies Pseudo Random Number Generators (PRNG’s) that have long periods. For example Mersenne Twister (MT) has a period of 2^19937 – 1. This means that the MT sequence will be repeated only after this many numbers are drawn, and in a typical gaming system, this may take years. The initial seeding is from a random source; if there is any reseeding, it happens randomly and infrequently – these ensure that the probability of the same sequence repeating is practically zero.

Security
The PRNG used in gaming applications may not have a cryptographically secure algorithm. In cryptographic applications, the focus is more on the criteria that an attacker should never be able to crack the key (or predict the next value in the sequence), even if the attacker has huge computing power and enough time to perform a brute force crack. The statistical qualities of the generator are never an issue in cryptographic applications (though cryptographically secure generators generally do provide good statistical properties as well).

In gaming applications, the statistical quality of the generator is the most important criteria. Predictability does matter, but unlike in a crypto application, any crack by an attacker will have to be accomplished in a much shorter time, or else it would be of no use. In a crypto application, if an encrypted document or an encrypted key is decrypted even after a year’s effort, it would be important – but it would be irrelevant in a gaming application.

In addition, when it comes to gaming applications, the observable values by players are only a partial value of the usual 32 bit numbers from the algorithm (e.g. a set of scaled numbers for the reel positions in a slot game, a roulette number, or cards from a shuffled deck). Even these numbers are unlikely to be presented to a single player in a sequence, because of multiple games played in an online system at any time.

Based on partial values available to players, the complexity of trying to crack it increases exponentially – trying to brute-force it may take quite of lot of computing effort and may hence be infeasible, practically. Any security issue in a certified PNG is insignificant or non- existent.

We have a very simple method of starting a business relationship with you. We agree on a scope of work and a fixed price, usually through a proposal document, then we ask for a deposit payment. This establishes the fact that we are working together on the project with an agreed scope and a fixed price.

Further invoices are issued monthly, based on progress made. Our status reports are weekly or bi-weekly as required, our prices are competitive fixed prices, and we pride ourselves on our dedication to meeting agreed deadlines. Please use the Contact Us page to see how we can help your business.

Absolutely. iTech Labs is ISO/IEC 17025 and ISO/IEC 17020 accredited by the National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA). NATA is a member of the international mutual recognition arrangement of the International Laboratory Accreditation Co-operation (ILAC). Our full scope of accreditation can be see on the NATA website, under the accreditation number 15690. Please click the following links to see our accreditation on the NATA website: Click here for ISO/IEC 17020 (2012) and here for ISO/IEC 17025 (2017).

A message to players regarding the display of iTech Labs logos, certificates, and claims about iTech Labs certification.

We have received reports that our logo and/or name are used on some online gaming sites without relevant certification. This gives a false sense of security for players using those sites.

Wherever you see our logo on a gaming site, feel free to click on it to check that the logo is authentic. Clicking on the logo should display our certificate. The certificate should have a hot-link labelled ‘Original’ that links back to the original certificate on our website: www.itechlabs.co.uk. Please check the URL of the ‘Original’ certificate to make sure that it is coming from one of our websites.

Inside the certificate, the correct URL of the gaming site is shown. If the certificate is showing the URL of another site, but not exactly the site you are playing, the certificate is invalid for that site. Our certificate does not apply to other sites reached through a link from the certified site, unless the linked site’s URL is shown on the certificate. The certificate should also show what exactly is certified:

1. Random Number Generator (RNG)
2. Games & Tournaments – with list of games and tournaments
3. Return To Player (RTP) audits – audit reports for actual RTPs of game played (for single player games only)
4. Card Analysis – audit reports for actual cards dealt for card games such as Poker, Blackjack etc.

Any sites displaying our logo with only a link to one of our web sites (instead of a link to the certificate), a link to some other site, or no link at all, should be treated with caution, as they may not have actually been certified by us. The logo must be linked to our certificate.

If any site is claiming certification by iTech Labs and you are unable to find the relevant certificates, please ask the casino for a copy of our certificate or proof of certification. iTech Labs takes no responsibility for the integrity of any software that is falsely displaying our logo or claiming certification by us.

About iTech Labs – Independence
iTech Labs is an ISO 17025 certified online gaming certification company, accredited by gaming authorities in most European countries where online gaming is legally allowed. We certify gaming systems independently, according to the requirements of the gaming regulators in the respective jurisdictions. We do not approve, license, regulate or monitor gaming systems. We do not develop or supply hardware or software. Apart from certification, we have no commercial relationship with any gaming software provider or casino operator.

Complaints
If you have any complaints you should initially contact the casino. If you are not getting a proper response from the casino, please contact the gaming authority (gaming regulator) in the country where the online casino is based. The logo of the gaming regulator is usually shown at the bottom of the casino site.
If you see any sites misusing our logo, please send an e-mail to: [email protected]