An independent review was done with regards to the to the appropriateness, timeliness and fairness actions taken by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) with regards to its licensee Full Tilt Poker and associated companies.
The AGCC commissioned Peter Dean, CBE, former Chairman of the British Gambling Commission to review their conduct and the twelve page report was handed in today.
The AGCC suspended Full Tilt’s gaming license shortly after the events of Black Friday and scheduled hearings with Full Tilt to review their license. Three months after the suspension, Full Tilt’s license was revoked. The AGCC claimed that FTP misrepresented the status of players’ funds.
The AGCC was commended for how it acted before and after Black Friday and that it conducted the appropriate amount of tests both during the original application evaluation process and how they acted quickly when certain irregularities surfaced.
In a press release today, André Wilsenbach, Executive Director of the AGCC, had the following to say:
“We wanted to reassure ourselves, and those who take an interest in our activities, that should mistakes have been made then we would recognize them, and if lesson could be learned that we would learn them.”
Wilsenbach acknowledged that Dean made valuable recommendations in his report, and pledged to accept those proposals and seek to implement them as sons as practically possible.
The AGCC sympathizes with the players who lost their funds as a result of FTPs actions but go on to say that regulatory regime cannot be proof against deliberate concealment or deception.
The sad truth is that similar incidents have occurred where players have lost their funds or been swindled by rogue online gaming operators just as consumers are swindled by ordinary businesses. Questions continue to arise in the industry, particularly from land based government agencies with regards to the adequacy, impartiality and legitimacy of offshore regulators whose governments depend on Internet gaming as a important revenue generator to fuel their local economies. Lessons from Black Friday have caused regulators to tighten controls in an effort to protect player interests to prevent repeats of similar incidents.
