The recent publication of a Gambling Prevalence Survey did much to stoke the fire as far as anti-gambling rhetoric goes and it hasn’t taken long for one of the usual suspects to come out against the publication of it.
We last heard from the Alderney Gaming Control Commission (AGCC) when they delivered a repost essentially telling the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that their money laundering complaints were…bollocks!
AGCC’s main grievance is that a number of national newspapers have picked up on stories that, even though Alderney is white listed in the UK, it does not meet the same protection standards. The reports also went on to say that those regulated by the UK Gambling Commission are a lot safer.
Andre Wilsenach, AGCC chief executive, commented, “At the moment we are putting in funds at a rate in excess of £1 million per annum. Our licensees are multinational, and are able to propose a charity or research vehicle relevant to their player base; but currently the majority of the money goes to the UK’s GREaT Foundation.
“This is merely one of the steps Alderney takes to deal with the issue of problem gambling. Strong player identification requirements, obligatory self-exclusion systems and staff and systems able to identify problem gambling characteristics in player behaviour are all basic requirements for an Alderney licensee.”
Alderney has gone to great lengths to increase their reach recently and has even announced tie-ups with the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) and Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC).
Wilsenach continued, “The industry would be much stronger if like-minded regulators co-operated on common standards to raise the level of protection for the young and vulnerable and to exclude those operators and jurisdictions that are not able to comply with such standards. We believe that the UK’s white-list approach is an excellent method of erecting such a fence.”
You feel these guys from Alderney have some balls coming out against all this stuff and, being that it’s also an island, scenes from The Wicker Man may become of the next group that dare cross them.
