31 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • MARCH/APRIL 2023 And rather than rely on just one trusted party for the security of game reconstruction, as has been the norm in the industry, IGT’s proprietary system can optionally allow lotteries to ensure that multiple trusted parties must agree and participate before a game reconstruction can occur. Keith Cash, IGT Vice President Global Instant Ticket Services, shared more about this innovative technology, now being used to generate secure instant games for IGT customers worldwide. PGRI: How did the new game security system come about? Keith Cash: Over the past few years, IGT invested several million dollars in developing a next-generation platform for programming instant games that is revolutionary in many ways. To begin with, it takes more of a data-based approach, as opposed to traditional game programming, and this approach has given us vast means to innovate to add value for customers and players. For example, we are now using this advanced platform to create our Infinity Instants™ games, a whole new category of instants in which virtually all elements of the ticket can be enhanced. But that’s just one of its applications. When we created the NextGen gameprogramming process, it also allowed us to develop a new and superior security process that harnesses the advantages of blockchain technology and can be used for all of IGT’s instant products. How does the use of the blockchain increase instant game security? Our NextGen technology uses a game database to store all of the basic elements required to generate a given game, including the prize structure, the game art, and the rules (see Figure 1). NextGen maintains a separate blockchain for each game database, logging every access or modification. You cannot create a game or reconstruct a game without touching this associated database, which leaves a permanent and visible record — or signature — in the blockchain. When anybody accesses the database, for example, to program or to audit the game, each action is logged automatically by the user’s name, Internet Protocol (IP) address, and computer identifier, with this information stored in a game-specific blockchain. By virtue of how blocks in the chain are generated, the previous blocks cannot be altered. Now the entire record of the game – any action made when a game is generated, accessed, or recreated — shows up in that blockchain. And we can share that blockchain with our customers, so they can always see the life of their game. FIGURE 1: An end-to-end illustration of IGT’s secure game generation process
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