GSA announces new structure and protocol updates

“The changes we have made are positive and make GSA membership more meaningful,” said GSA President Peter DeRaedt. “GSA has been lucky to have a core group of members who have shouldered a significant amount of the development expenses while the rest of the world reaped the benefits of their investment. Now, GSA members have more control over their future, because they are directly invested.”

Effective immediately, GSA standards will be available exclusively to members. This means GSA members around the world will have a clear R&D and operations advantage over competitors, by having access to the most versatile and powerful protocols that drive the devices and systems of tomorrow.

Additionally, only members will have access to protocol updates, new versions or technical notifications to previously released standards. This means that members will enjoy the exclusive benefit of teams of dedicated engineers working to make the industry better.

The exception is GSA’s serial GAT standard, which will continue to be available for free to the industry.

With a keen eye focused on regulation, GSA will now grant free access to governmental regulatory agencies of its standards. Membership is now open to test labs, which can join GSA at either a Bronze or Silver membership level.

To help keep GSA standards available to the entire industry for a reasonable investment, GSA has created a new “Bronze” membership level, with a low annual fee of $10,000. Members at this new level will have access to final versions of all GSA standards. In addition, they will also have access to a manufacturers ID, which is necessary to implement GSA standards in products. Bronze members will be eligible to use GSA’s exclusive Certification Program.
 
Last, effective immediately GSA’s Certification Program will be available exclusively to members in good standing. “When people are invested, the results mean more, and they take a greater sense of ownership and responsibility. What these changes do is make GSA an organization of true investors – people who care about the outcome of the global gaming industry,” DeRaedt said.

In addition to structural changes, GSA is working on several updates to its standards, and expects to announce the updates in the coming months. “What these changes clearly show – from structure to protocol updates – is that GSA is constantly working to improve the gaming industry,” DeRaedt said. “That has been our mission from day one, and we will continue to work hard every day to bring about a better and more profitable industry.”