Attaining the Highest Levels of Compliance by Empowering the Agency to Work as One Proficient, Integrated Team
The goal of Seneca–Cayuga’s Gaming Commission Agency is quite specific: ensure the integrity of the games and protect the interest of the tribe through comprehensive regulation. While the agency’s team of 25—spanning compliance, auditing, surveillance, and licensing—was working hard, it was struggling to deliver the desired results.
“My team was lacking insight into one another’s work. There was duplication of work efforts, and it was difficult to share information among the team quickly enough to make an impact. Our ability to report and track performance was near impossible as was our ability to report our work to leadership and regulatory bodies. These challenges led to a list of non-compliance exceptions,” says Danielle Brashear, Seneca–Cayuga’s Gaming Commissioner.”
Brashear had a clear vision for the future of her team. She wanted one system for the entire team, where all permissible information would be shared. She wanted to break down departmental barriers and increase the effectiveness and collaboration of the group. She wanted a system that would offer complete, real-time visibility into the efforts and progress of the team as well as robust reporting and analytics that would enable the team to prove compliance to regulatory bodies, demonstrate work effort to leadership, and provide insights to support ongoing efficiency gains.
Streamlining Agency Work by Using One Comprehensive Solution
The Seneca–Cayuga Gaming Commission selected CIP Reporting’s Gaming Suite to power the agency’s efforts. “CIP Reporting expands beyond anything else I’ve seen. It works for all of my departments, not just one or two,” shares Brashear. “It offers the entire agency access to data, workflows that extend within and outside of the agency, and robust reporting and analytics.”
The Seneca–Cayuga Gaming Commission is Currently Using CIP Reporting to Manage:
- Auditing
- Surveillance, Including Title 31
- Lost and Found
- Promotional Marketing Activities
“CIP Reporting helps us create a more effective work environment. It helps us to stay on task by providing workflows and reporting features that ensure work is conducted in a timely fashion. It saves us time and effort while providing us data that helps us improve and measure our effectiveness,” explains Brashear.
Success:
Zero Non-Compliance Issues
With CIP Reporting, the Seneca–Cayuga Gaming Commission has Realized the Following Benefits:
Within a short time of having implemented the compliance, audit, security, and surveillance modules of CIP Reporting’s Gaming Suite, the Seneca–Cayuga Gaming Commission Agency has become more efficient and is empowered to work as one cohesive team to ensure compliance. “We are now consistently compliant with all regulations and laws and can easily report our work effort to management—now that’s success. Consistently passing regulators’ audits is a clear indicator that we’re on the right track,” says Brashear.
Now using built-in workflows and permission-based data access, the right people are informed of the workings of the agency and casino. For instance, violations logged by the surveillance department against an employee will be shared with licensing for consideration upon renewing the employee’s license.
Previously, all forms had to be printed, filled out, and mailed or faxed. Now that these are managed electronically, these hard costs have been eliminated.
Automatically generated reports, analytics, and the ability to search on any field provide the real-time visibility into every aspect of the business, present or past, in a format that is shareable with others.
Using CIP Reporting’s analytics, for example, the commission identified that more than 50% of all findings had been related to cash handling and responded by implementing appropriate corrective measures. The commission also found that the machines from one gaming vendor were significantly less reliable than others, leading them to switch these for higher-performing machines.
Mobile access and built-in checklists, workflows, and reports have lessened clerical duties. CIP Reporting ensures all data is being collected at the point of discovery, is shared and escalated as designated by the defined workflows, and can be reported on automatically.
It is simple for the commission to manage regulation and process changes such as those of the System of Internal Controls (SICS) with CIP Reporting’s centralized structure.
With greater insights into casino operations, the commission has been able to take enforcement actions to cure ongoing non-compliance issues that were previously too hard to identify and track.
Next Step: Implementing the Background Check and Licensing Module
This spring, the Seneca–Cayuga Gaming Commission will roll out the final module within CIP Reporting’s Gaming Suite, the background check and licensing module. “We are looking forward to bringing the licensing module live. I expect it will drive superior efficiency within the licensing team and it will help tremendously with our Title 31 efforts,” says Brashear.
About Seneca–Cayuga’s Gaming Commission Agency
The Seneca–Cayuga Nation is one of three federally recognized tribes of Seneca people in the United States. The Seneca–Cayuga Nation’s tribal jurisdictional area is in the northeast corner of Oklahoma and is headquartered in Grove, Oklahoma. The Seneca–Cayuga have a Class II casino, Grand Lake Casino, which offers 45,000 square feet of gaming and live entertainment. Seneca–Cayuga’s Gaming Commission is charged with auditing, approving vendors, and providing surveillance of the Grand Lake Casino with the goal of ensuring the integrity of the games and protecting the interest of the tribe through comprehensive regulation.