French gaming regulator ARJEL has decided to take a peek under the hoods of operators licensed to do business in France. In conjunction with data protection agency Cnil, ARJEL is endeavoring to make sure the 35 operators running .fr gaming sites are living up to their obligations to protect player data. While the two French detectives will share info and expertise in conducting their inspections, both ARJEL and Cnil will file separate reports on their findings. Supposedly this inspection is just part of the one-year anniversary of France liberalizing its gaming market, and was in no way prompted by ARJEL’s recent decision to suspend the license of troubled operator Full Tilt Poker. Sure it wasn’t.
Elsewhere on the regulator front, as the UK prepares to revamp its online gambling licensing regime, a spokesman for the UK Department for Culture, Media & Sport told The Guardian that the ongoing fallout from the Black Friday indictments “highlights why the government is looking at reforming how overseas-based operators are regulated and we hope to make an announcement in the next few weeks.” The Guardian also revealed that one of the accounts at a London Barclays set up by indicted payment processing figure Chad Elie was under the name “Chad Canary.” Somewhat ironic, given that Elie will probably end up singing like a bird to the Department of Justice when the full gravity of his post-Black Friday arrest sinks in.
According to eGamingReview, the Kahnawake gaming license held by Absolute Poker owner Blanca Games is due to expire July 31. Tick tick tick…
According to PocketFives.com, Full Tilt is still in discussions with the Alderney Gambling Control Commission to get its license reinstated ahead of its public hearing scheduled for July 26, although the company needs to get its ‘mystery European investors’ bailout deal squared away first. As for the company’s stony silence on this subject – and virtually every other subject over the past three months — attorney Jeff Ifrah said “it’s difficult to talk about a deal that’s intertwined with a DoJ settlement. You want to make sure everything you say is correct. Any company going through settlement talks with the government and an investor would cloak them in secrecy. There are confidentialities to keep and other concerns at issue. Not a second goes by in [FTP CEO Ray Bitar’s] life where he’s not focused on getting players paid back.” Here that? Not one second. Tick tick tick…
