Benefits of Having Gaming Commission IT. Who is Thorsten? 23 Years in IT: 7 at DECC (Automotive) 7 at Steelcase (Office Furniture) 7 at 20-20 (Software)

Benefits of Having Gaming Commission IT

Who is Thorsten?

23 Years in IT:•7 at DECC (Automotive)•7 at Steelcase (Office Furniture)•7 at 20-20 (Software)•2 at GLTGC (Gaming)

Who is Thorsten?

Before that 4 years in navy.

Where is Gun Lake Casino?

How big is the casino?

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GLTGC Org Chart

Art of War

It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles.

-Sun Tzu

The power of four:1.Know yourself2.Know your friends3.Know your enemies4.Lead the way

http://www.josephmarshall.com/leadership_01.html

Know your friends

Thorsten TomsIT Manager

Gun Lake Tribal Gaming Commission

Know your friends: Your turn

1. What’s your name?2. What’s your title?3. What’s your property?4. Where is it?5. How big?6. What do hope to learn

from this presentation?

Other friends?

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Know Yourself: Benchmarking

Benchmarking is the process of comparing one's business processes and performance metrics to industry bests or best practices from other industries.

Know Yourself: Benchmarking

Benchmarking is much easier to apply in a commercial enterprise as almost every issue can be resolved by asking:

“Will this help the stakeholders?”

Know Yourself: Philosophy

Benchmarking is much more difficult in a Gaming Commission. The invisible hand of the market is not the guiding force. Rather, it’s the Philosophy of the tribe and the Commission. If the philosophy of the commission is unspoken, it’s even more difficult.

Know Yourself: IT My Philosophy

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IT is a supporting department. The purpose of IT is to make other departments more efficient.

IT strives to create a Robust, Secure and Well Designed infrastructure.

Benchmarking vs. Philosophy

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You hire an IT manager. He discovers this:


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In the corporate world, good IT means eliminating jobs.


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In the commission world, good IT could mean eliminating jobs.

Or it could mean freeing people for

other tasks.

But remember…


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Why is there such variation in Commissions?Commission Surveillance/Casino Surveillance

Full Time Commissioners/Part Time CommissionersElected Commissioners/Appointed Commissioners

Vendors Licensed/Vendors not Licensed1 year licenses/2 year licenses/3 year license

Other variations?


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Why is there such variation in Commissions?Your thoughts?

Casinos vary.Resources vary.

Politics vary.I submit that it’s mostly because they can. There is no “invisible hand of the market” to drive Commissions to a common look.

As long as you meet the minimum requirements of the NIGC and your compact and keep your tribal council happy, you can have

whatever commission your philosophy dictates.

What’s this got to do with IT?

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I’m here to talk about the pros and cons of having an IT department.

Having IT works well at GLTGC.

I suspect it will work well for you, but much depends on your philosophy.

Know Yourself

What kind of Gaming Commission are you?

What kind do you want to be?

Know Yourself -- 1

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The Gaming Commission…

…directly regulates the casino.

…ensures that the casino properly regulates itself.

Know Yourself -- 2

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…provides employment for maximum possible number of tribal members, regardless of efficiency.

…operates as efficiently as possible, regardless of tribal employment.

Know Yourself -- 3

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…relies on reports from the casino.

…generates its own reports with raw data from casino.

Know Yourself -- 4

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…regulates only activities directly related to gaming.

…regulates all activities involving tribal assets at the casino.

Know Yourself -- 5

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…Commissioners are full-time employees.

…Commissioners are part-time or stipend employees.

Know Yourself -- 6

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…Licensing department has in-house staff conduct background checks.

… Licensing department uses external vendor(s) to conduct background checks.

Know Yourself -- 7

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…Licensing department is proactive in informing licensees about renewals.

…Licensing department places the burden of renewal upon the licensee.

Know Yourself -- 8

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…senior staff are assigned administrative assistants.

…senior staff are expected to answer their own phones and email.

Know Yourself -- 9

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…includes the surveillance department.

…does not include the surveillance department.

Know Yourself -- 10

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…does not license vendors. …licenses vendors.

Know Yourself -- 11

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…supports its own test lab. …relies on GLI and BMM for testing.

Know Yourself -- 12

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…regulates a casino operated by the tribe.

…regulates a casino operated by a management company.

Know Yourself -- 13

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…must have a separate network from the casino and the tribe.

…can share a physical network, but must have logical separation.

Know Yourself -- 14

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…has a computer literate staff.

…has a gaming literate staff.

Know Yourself -- 15

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…is near an area where IT professionals are reasonable plentiful.

…is far from any technology hub.

Know Yourself -- 16

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…regulates a single casino location.

…regulates multiple casino locations.

Know Yourself -- 17

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…regulates in a resource plentiful environment.

… regulates in a resource limited environment.

Know Your Enemy

Anyone who conducts or attempts malfeasance against the assets of the tribe is the enemy of the Commission.

Know Your Enemy -- 1

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…must have expertise to conduct forensic investigations of confiscated computers.

…does not require staff forensic IT expertise.

Know Your Enemy-- 2

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…needs an IT expert to audit the casino IT department.

…replies on compliance/audit to conduct the NIGC MICS IT audit using the provided check list.

Know Your Enemy-- 3

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…conducts regular penetration testing of the casino IT department.

…does not conduct penetration testing.

Know Your Enemy-- 4

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…requires read-only access of the casino systems from their desktops.

…does not require read-only access of the casino systems from their desktops.

Know Your Enemy-- 5

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“If you gaze into the abyss the abyss gazes into you."

Truth: If you have an internet connection, everyone on earth with an internet connection is a potential enemy.

Is your Commission and more importantly, your casino as safe as possible against all the IT threats that are out there?

How are you fulfilling your fiduciary responsibilities to protect the assets of the tribe in regards to computer safety against external and internal threats?

Lead the Way

Some example of what IT can do for you.

Depending on your Philosophy, you may want them too!

Licensing Database

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Licensing Database

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Licensing Database

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Licensing Database

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Send these via encrypted email?

Of course not. We are ready the NIGC is not!

Licensing Database

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Licensing Database

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Compliance Database

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Compliance Database

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Compliance Database

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Compliance Database

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Audit Casino

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Audit Casino

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Audit Casino

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Audit Casino

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Audit Casino

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Audit Casino

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Audit Casino

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Lead the Way

Geek stuff!

SRX ClusterCore Switch 10GBDMZ Switch

Operations SwitchSwitch

Patch Panel

SRX ClusterJuniper VPN

Serial Console Server

Patch Panel

Cisco Voice Gateway

SwitchPatch Panel

Switch

SwitchPatch Panel

Physical Server

SAN

Physical Server Physical

Server

Multi-Tape DriveBackup

ServerKVM

Cisco Call Manager

PDU

PDU

Proxy Sever: Reports

Meraki

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Fillable PDF

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Unified Look and Feel

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Unified Look and Feel

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Web Site

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Training

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The most important thing I do.

Pass on what I know to people who will benefit from it.

Teach a man to fish…

What to look for in your IT

IT Characteristics

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1. Can explain IT terms to any audience w/o being condescending.2. Technical expertise.

1. Microsoft certs mean something.2. College means something.

3. Variety of job experiences. 4. People person: hard, because most people don’t get into IT

because the like people.5. Good at training.6. IT related hobbies.

Q&A

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

-Leo Tolstoy “Anna Karenina”

Last Slide!!

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Benefits of Having Gaming Commission IT. Who is Thorsten? 23 Years in IT: 7 at DECC (Automotive) 7 at Steelcase (Office Furniture) 7 at 20-20 (Software)