News
Covert DOJ strikes created ‘opaque environment’
Deliberate deception of gaming authorities is hard to detect, according to Alderney Gambling Control Commission’s Andre Wilsenach.
T
he ongoing enquiry into the UK Gambling act by the Culture Media and Sport Select Committee has provided a first-hand view of the Full Tilt Poker (FTP) debacle from Andre Wilse- nach, the executive direc- tor of the Alderney Gambling Control Commis- sion (AGCC). Wilsenach refuted the implication that the Com- mission’s body of 20 employees was not big enough to regulate an oper- ation the size of Full Tilt. He commented: “In an instance where someone deliber- ately deceives you, you can have all the resources in the world. When it became known that Madoff had deceived the US financial regulatory authorities, if you went to look at the resources available to them, they were huge. It took them a long time to uncover that deception, and there are other examples of that. I do not necessarily think it is always the case that purely throwing resources is going to solve the problem.” Wilsenach explained that extensive and diligent investigations are carried
out when someone applies for a licence and then they are continually inspected and monitored. “I have been a regulator for 20 years now, and unfortunately, we have seen in a number of small instances that someone who had passed the test of due diligence will, for what- ever reason, start doing things that might turn them into a rogue operator. That applies to a very small number of operators after passing the test of suitabil- ity. It happens in every sector. It has happened in this sector, and in the finance industry. “In FTP’s case, what did not help was the fact that significant enforcement actions had been taken by the DOJ. Those enforce- ment actions were very covert in nature, which resulted in a situation that almost created an opaque environment, within which the operator could do certain things and get away with it. For example, the operator could carry on without informing us of the actions that had been taken, because if he did not inform us of it, we would not know
that from the US authori- ties, and that was quite evident. The second thing is that it led the operator to misrepresent its financial position. As a result of that misrepresentation, they operated in a situation in which they did not neces- sarily have the resources to pay players.” Peter Dean’s review into the AGCC’s conduct in this issue is due to be published next month, but Wilsenach believes it has already iden- tified where some processes could be improved, such have having different risk profiles for operators depending on where and how they do their business. “We have identified areas where we can sharpen our pencils, specifically in mon- itoring risk. The other important area where we have learned lessons in this particular case is the pro- tection of player funds. We have reviewed that in the past, but it may be neces- sary to review our position on it again.” Wilsenach added that operators usually own up to breaches in regulations and have often already moved to fix the issue, but the oppo- site happened with FTP. “It was a case of deliberately deceiving the regulator. In this particular case, the reg- ulator in France and the authorities in the United States. As I said, those covert actions by the Department of Justice created an unfortunate situ- ation in which neither we nor the other regulators were aware of it.
“It is important that, when we became aware of what had happened, we immediately conducted a special investigation. We brought in forensic auditors to drill down into the areas where we thought there may be problems. They dis- covered that in fact our sus- picions were valid. I immediately suspended the licences and investigated further. A tribunal con- ducted hearings subse- quently, and the rest is history. Those licences were revoked.”
ANDRE WILSENACH: ‘IT WAS A CASE OF DELIBERATELY DECEIVING THE REGULATOR’
2 BettingBusinessInteractive • FEBRUARY 2012
WILLIAM HILL HAS BECOME AN OFFICIAL PARTNER OF THE FA
William Hill has ‘k W
Publicly William Hill had nothing but praise for Playtech during last autumn’s workers’ revolt in Tel Aviv, but the underlying tension was there for all to see through court
injunctions and barbed comments.
illiam Hill has revealed it is now talking ami- cably with joint venture partner
Playtech after the staff walkout in William Hill Online’s marketing depart- ment in Tel Aviv last year threatened to fracture the relationship for good. William Hill chief execu- tive Ralph Topping told investors that things have settled down in Tel Aviv and in the customer service and back office operations in Bulgaria, which also expe- rienced staff disruption. He also suggested that he and Playtech CEO Mor Weizer had ‘kissed and made up’. “I would say that Tel Aviv is now in a stable position operationally and it has a new management team,” he explained. “I’ve been to Tel
Aviv about three times in the last three months, so much so immigration now smiles at me when I go through; they are getting to know me really well. We had about 50 people leave that business at the time and we’ve looked at the busi- ness and didn’t think we needed 50 people, so we’ve now filled 19 vacancies. “I’m confident we’ve got a management team com- mitted to William Hill for the long term. Of course, some retention packages are in place with a few of those guys as well. We’ve put the business onto a flatter management struc- ture and there’s been more focus on the employees that were left and management development. I had a great meeting with the manage- ment last week but also
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48