The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) says Smart Live Gaming’s parent company has surrendered its operating licenses one week after the regulator announced their interim suspension.
On Friday, the UKGC announced that Smart TV Broadcasting had surrendered its Combined Remote Operating License and General Betting Operating License as well as the associated Gambling Software License.
The surrender comes one week after the UKGC announced the interim suspension of the licenses based on the regulator’s belief that Smart TV was “unsuitable to carry on the licensed activities (section 120(1)(d) of the Act).”
Last Friday’s announcement included an order for Smart TV to settle any outstanding bets pending on the seven UK-facing websites covered by the licenses and to return any outstanding account balances to customers.
This Friday’s announcement reminded Smart TV that “the surrender of its licenses does not prevent the settling of any outstanding winning bets and the return of customer balances. Smart TV has informed us that it is taking action to process payments to customers by means of bank transfer.”
The UKGC has announced previous suspensions under Section 120(1)(d), the most recent being Metro Play Limited, the operators of 666Bet and Metroplay.com. A money laundering and tax fraud scheme came to light following the suspension and Metro Play was ordered into compulsory liquidation a couple months later.
Earlier this week, the UKGC called out another Smart Live Gaming site, Betowen.com, for falsely claiming to be licensed by the UKGC. Yet Betowen continues to display a UKGC license claim, while the other Smart Live sites remain open under their Malta Gaming Authority license.
