Monthly Archives: September 2018

Dutch court rejects CO-Gaming, Mansion appeal of six-figure fines

The Netherlands’ highest court has upheld the right of the local gambling regulator to impose stiff financial penalties on gambling sites it deems to be operating in the country without permission.

On Wednesday, the Dutch Council of State rejected the appeals of two companies – Co-Gaming Ltd and Mansion Online Casino Ltd/ONISCAC Ltd – that sought to overturn the six-figure fines levied against them a few years ago by the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) regulatory body.

In 2014, Co-Gaming Ltd, currently a subsidiary of Nordic gaming operator Cherry AB but at the time acting under its ComeOn Europe banner, was fined €180k for making nice with Dutch gamblers through the use of a Dutch-language website and chat service, plus liberal use of images of Dutch flags.

The previous year, the KSA hit Mansion/ONISAC with a €150k penalty for offering services in Dutch and allowing punters to transact via popular Dutch payment processor iDeal.

Who’s Bluffing? Poker Players Question Credibility of Brett Kavanaugh, Christine Ford in Senate Hearing

To conservative-leaning poker players and Trumpian sycophants alike, US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is a credible man at the suffering end of a Democratic hit job. Liberal grinders, by […]

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Romania suspends Publicwin online, retail gambling licenses

Romania’s gambling regulator has temporarily suspended two gaming licenses for as-yet unexplained reasons.

On Thursday, Romania’s Oficiul National Pentru Jocuri de Noroc (ONJN) regulatory body announced that it had suspended the licenses of online gambling operator Sea-Bet Limited and fixed-odds betting licensee Bet Club Sistem SRL. The two companies are part of the same group.

Sea-Bet, which is based in Malta, operates online in Romania under the Publicwin.ro domain and controls a network of retail betting operations in Romania under the Publicwin brand.

The suspensions were issued on September 18, but didn’t take effect until Wednesday. Neither of the ONJN’s official notices offers reasons for the suspensions.

Melco’s temporary Cyprus casino ‘exceeding expectations’

Melco International Development’s temporary Cyprus casino has more than achieved the company’s visitation goals in its first three months of operation.

This week, Melco International’s Cyprus Casinos (C2) venue announced that its new Limassol gaming venue had welcomed over 175k individual guests since its soft-launch on June 28. The property held its official grand opening ceremonies this week.

The Limassol venue has apparently made up ground since its soft launch, as C2 president Craig Ballantyne originally said the property’s visitation had been “below expectations,”. The underwhelming birth was blamed in part on what Ballantyne claimed were unfair advantages offered by small-scale casinos in the Turkish-controlled northern half of Cyprus.

But C2 weathered the storm and said this week it had signed up 13k customers to the property’s loyalty program, “thus achieving the goals set by Melco Group,” according to an official statement from the company. Ballantyne added that C2’s first three months of operation “were successful and the results exceeded our expectations.”