N.H. Admin. Code § Lot 8204.03

Current through Register No. 44, October 31, 2024

Section Lot 8204.03 - Equipment Requirements for Pari-Mutuel Wagers on Historic Horse Races

(a) Wagers on historic horse races shall be offered on terminals that include a cabinet in which the electronics and other operating components are located.

(b) The terminal shall:

(1) Protect against electrostatic interference by being grounded so that static discharge energy do not permanently damage or inhibit the normal operation of the electronics or other component within the wagering terminal;

(2) Have the capacity to recover and complete any interrupted wager without loss or corruption any control or critical data information in the event that a temporary disruption of the norm operation of a wagering terminal occurs as a result of an electrostatic discharge;

(3) Be tested to a maximum discharge severity level of 27 kV air discharge;

(4) Not be adversely affected, other than during resets, by surges or dips of up to 20 percent of the supply voltage, or be protected from such surges by an uninterrupted power supply;

(5) When designed such that a surge or dip of up to 20 percent of the supply voltage causes a reset, such a surge or dip does not result in damage to the equipment or loss or corruption of data, and upon reset, the game returns to its previous state or returns to a game completion state, provided the game history and all credit and accounting meters comprehend a completed game;

(6) Have an on/off switch that controls the electrical current installed in a readily accessible location within the interior of the terminal so that power cannot be disconnected from outside of the terminal using the on/off switch;

(7) Be designed so that power and data cables into and out of the terminal can be routed so that the are not accessible to the general public. Security-related wires and cables that are routed into a log area shall be securely fastened within the interior of the terminal;

(8) Have an identification badge affixed to the exterior of the terminal by the terminal provider the is not removable without leaving evidence of tampering, and includes the following information:

a. The name of the terminal provider;

b. A unique serial number;

c. The terminal model number; and

d. The date of manufacture;

(9) Have an external tower light located conspicuously on the top of the terminal that automatically illuminates when a patron has won an amount that the terminal cannot automatically pay, or when a error condition has occurred;

(10) Be constructed of materials that are designed to allow only authorized access to the inside the terminal. The terminal and its locks, doors, and associated hinges shall be capable withstanding determined and unauthorized efforts to gain access to the inside of the terminal an shall be designed to leave evidence of tampering if such an entry is made;

(11) Have external doors that are locked and monitored by door access sensors, and when opened, the door access sensors:

a. Cause game wagering activity to cease;

b. Disable all currency acceptance;

c. Enter an error condition;

d. Illuminate the tower light at a minimum; and

e. Record the error condition;

(12) Have external doors designed so that it is not possible to insert a device into the terminal the will disable a "door open" sensor without leaving evidence of tampering when the door of the terminal is shut;

(13) Have a sensor system that provides notification that an external door is open when the door moved from its fully closed and locked position, provided power is supplied to the device;

(14) Have one or more logic areas to house the following electronic components:

a. A central processing unit and any program storage device that contains software that ma affect the integrity of wagers, including the game accounting, system communication, an peripheral firmware devices involved in or that significantly influence the operation an calculation of game play, game display, game result determination, or game accounting revenue, or security;

b. Communication controller electronics and components housing the communication program storage device; and

c. The nonvolatile memory backup device, which if located in the logic area, is kept within locked logic area; and

(15) If the terminal is accepting currency, have a currency storage area that:

a. Is separately keyed;

b. Fitted with sensors that indicate "door open/close" or "stacker receptacle removed"; and

c. Secured by 2 locks before the currency can be removed, which are located on the relevant outer door and on at least 1 other door.

(c) The communication system shall comply with International Game Technology's (IGT's) slot accounting system (SAS) 6.03 protocol specifications, available as noted in Appendix B, for:

(1) Ticket in/ticket out (TITO), which allows a player to easily move money from 1 machine another regardless of the terminal's denomination or terminal provider; and

(2) A back office system(s), which compiles certain data from terminals at the facility into a sing reporting mechanism.

(d) Critical memory storage shall be maintained by a methodology that enables errors to be identified including signatures, checksums, partial checksums, multiple copies, timestamps, effective use of validity code or any combination of these methods.

(e) Comprehensive checks of critical memory shall be made following game initiation but prior to display of game outcome to the patron.

(f) An unrecoverable corruption of critical memory shall result in an error state which will:

(1) Not be automatically cleared;

(2) Cause the terminal to cease further functioning;

(3) Cause any communication external to the terminal to immediately cease; and

(4) Require restoration or clearing of software state by an authorized person.

(g) If critical memory is maintained in nonvolatile memory on the terminal and not by the server base system, then:

(1) The terminal shall have the ability to retain data for all critical memory as defined in this section and be capable of maintaining the accuracy of the data for 30 days after power is discontinued fro the terminal;

(2) For rechargeable battery types only, if the battery backup is used as an off-chip battery source, shall recharge itself to its full potential in a maximum of 24 hours, and the shelf life of the battery shall be at least 5 years;

(3) Nonvolatile memory that uses an off-chip backup power source to retain its contents when the main power is switched off shall:

a. Have a detection system that will provide a method for software to interpret and act upon low battery condition before the battery reaches a level where it is no longer capable maintaining the memory in question; and

b. Require access to the locked logic area or other secure method to clear nonvolatile memory and

(4) Following the initiation of a nonvolatile memory reset procedure:

a. The game program shall execute a routine that initializes all bits in critical nonvolatile memory to the default state; and

b. All memory locations intended to be cleared as per the nonvolatile memory clear process shall be fully reset in all cases.

(h) The following shall apply to critical memory of a server-based game:

(1) Critical memory of a server-based game may be maintained by the server, terminal, or some combination thereof;

(2) The critical memory related to each wagering device shall:

a. Be kept independent to all other wagering devices so that, if corruption occurs in any sing wagering device's critical memory, no other wagering devices are affected by that corrupt memory state; and

b. Utilize unique identification, such as serial number or other unique wagering device hardware identifier, to clearly identify which physical wagering device the critical memo represents.

(i) All terminals shall be equipped with a device, mechanism, or method for retaining the value of the meter information specified in Lot 8204.05 in the event of a loss of power to the terminal. Storage and retrieval of the accounting meters from a server is an acceptable method of retrieval.

(j) Configuration setting changes shall not cause an obstruction to the meters.

(k) If the terminal is in a test, diagnostic, or demonstration mode, any test that incorporates credits entering or leaving the terminal shall be completed prior to resumption of normal operation.

(l) There shall not be any mode other than normal wagering operation that debits or credits any of the electronic meters.

(m) Terminals shall not allow any information contained in a communication to or from the online monitoring system that is intended to be protected, including validation information, secure PINs, credentials, or secure seed and keys, to be viewable through any display mechanism supported by the terminal.

(n) All program storage devices shall:

(1) Be housed within a fully enclosed and locked logic compartment;

(2) Validate themselves during each processor reset; and

(3) Validate themselves the first time they are used.

(o) Program storage devices that do not have the ability to be modified while installed in the terminal during normal operation shall be clearly marked with information to identify the software and revision level the information stored in the devices.

(p) Terminals shall have the ability for an independent testing laboratory to perform an integrity check all software that might affect the integrity of the game using a third party verification tool.

(q) If a winning amount is in excess of the thresholds established in the Internal Revenue Service reporting requirements, the terminal shall cease operation and require attendant interaction to proceed.

(r) Terminals shall be capable of detecting and displaying the following errors:

(1) Open door conditions;

(2) Nonvolatile memory errors;

(3) Low nonvolatile memory battery for batteries external to the nonvolatile memory itself for lo power source;

(4) Program error or authentication mismatch;

(5) Display device errors;

(6) The identification of an invalid bill or voucher; and

(7) Loss of communication to the totalizator system.

(s) To protect the integrity of the game, when a terminal error condition is detected, the terminal shall secure itself by:

(1) Ceasing play and requiring operator intervention prior to returning to normal play;

(2) Display an appropriate error message;

(3) Disable bill and voucher acceptance;

(4) Sound an alarm, illuminate the tower light, display the error on screen, or any combination thereof;

(5) Communicate the error condition to an online monitoring and control system; and

(6) If the terminal is powered down with an unresolved error condition, remain in error mode unless power down is used as a part of the error reset procedure.

(t) Upon resolution of an error condition, a terminal may return to a wager completion state, provided the game history, wagering credits, and other meters display the completed wager properly.

(u) Terminals shall not be adversely affected by the simultaneous or sequential activation of various terminal inputs and outputs.

(v) Test, diagnostic, or demonstration modes on a terminal shall:

(1) Be entered only from an attendant following appropriate instructions;

(2) Not be accessible to a patron; and

(3) Be indicated on the terminal via an appropriate message.

(w) Upon exiting from test, diagnostic, or demonstration mode, a terminal shall return to its previous stat

(x) Video monitor touch screens on terminals shall:

(1) Be accurate to terminal provider specifications for touch point sensitivity;

(2) Be able to be calibrated without access to the terminal cabinet other than opening the main door and once calibrated shall maintain accuracy for at least the video touch screen terminal provider recommended maintenance period; and

(3) Have no hidden or undocumented buttons or touch points anywhere on the screen that affect wagers or that impact the outcome of the game, except as provided by the game rules.

(y) Paper currency acceptors used in a terminal shall:

(1) Be electronically based;

(2) Detect the entry of bills or vouchers inserted into the paper currency acceptor and provide method to enable the terminal software to interpret and act appropriately upon a valid or invalid input;

(3) Be configured to ensure the acceptance of only valid bills or vouchers and reject all other items

(4) Return to the patron all rejected bills or vouchers, and any other item inserted into the acceptor;

(5) Be constructed in a manner that protects against vandalism, abuse, or fraudulent activity;

(6) Register the actual monetary value or appropriate number of credits received for the denomination used on the patron's credit meter for each valid bill or voucher;

(7) Register credits only when the bill or other note has passed the point where it is accepted stacked and the acceptor has sent an "irrevocably stacked" message to the terminal;

(8) Be designed to prevent the use of fraudulent crediting, the insertion of foreign objects, and an other fraudulent technique;

(9) Implement a method of detecting counterfeit bills;

(10) Only accept bills or vouchers when the terminal is enabled for play;

(11) Have the capability to detect and display any supported error conditions;

(12) Shall communicate with the terminal using a bi-directional protocol;

(13) Be located in a locked area of the terminal that requires the opening of locked door for access. The paper currency acceptor shall not be located in the logic area. Only the bill or voucher insertion area shall be accessible by the patron;

(14) Have a secure stacker that shall:

a. Deposit into the stacker all accepted items;

b. Be attached to the terminal in such a manner that it cannot be easily removed by physic force; and

c. Have a separate keyed lock to access the stacker area. The keyed lock shall be separate fro the main door, and a separate keyed lock shall be required to remove the bills from the stacker; and

(15) Have a bill validator that shall:

a. Retain in its memory and have the ability to display the information required of the last 2 items accepted by the bill validator;

b. Have a recall log that may be combined or maintained separately by item type. If combine the type of item accepted shall be recorded with the respective timestamp; and

c. Give proper credit or return the bill or note if power failure occurs during acceptance of bill or note.

(z) Available credit may be collected from the terminal by the patron at any time other than during:

(1) A game being wagered;

(2) Audit mode;

(3) Test mode;

(4) A credit meter or win meter increment; or

(5) An error condition.

(aa) Each terminal that accepts currency shall be equipped with a printer that:

(1) Is used to make payments to the patron by issuing a printed voucher;

(2) Prints only one copy to the patron and retains information on the last 25 printed vouchers;

(3) Is housed in a locked area of the terminal but shall not be located within the logic area or the drop box; and

(4) Allows control program software to interpret and act upon all error conditions.

(ab) The terminal shall transmit the following data to an online system that records the following information regarding each payout ticket or voucher printed:

(1) The value of credits in local monetary units in numerical form;

(2) The time of day the ticket or voucher was printed, showing hours and minutes;

(3) The date indicating the day, month, and year that the ticket or voucher was issued;

(4) The terminal number; and

(5) A unique ticket or voucher validation number.

(ac) Terminals shall be capable of displaying wager recall, which shall:

(1) Include the last 10 wagers on the terminal, including at least 50 intermediary steps within tho wagers, including free spins and bonus games;

(2) Be retrievable on the terminal via an external key-switch or other secure method not available the patron; and

(3) Provide all information required to fully reconstruct the wagers, including:

a. Initial credits or ending credits associated with the wager;

b. Credits wagered;

c. Credits won;

d. Entertaining game display symbol combinations and credits paid whether the outcome resulted in a win or a loss;

e. Representation in a graphical or text format;

f. Final wager outcome, including all patron choices and all bonus features; and

g. As an optional feature, display of values as currency in place of credits.

(ad) Server-stored information shall be backed up no less often than once per day to one of the following locations approved by the commission based on industry standards for logical and physical security:

(1) An offsite storage facility; or

(2) Through a cloud service provider.

(ae) The server and offsite backup storage shall be accessible to the commission and subject to third-par checks and validation.

N.H. Admin. Code § Lot 8204.03

Derived from Volume XLII Number 6, Filed February 10, 2022, Proposed by #13330, Effective 1/22/2022, Expires 1/22/2032.