Has a gambling regulator ever stepped up to the plate?

[ChopleyIOM]

The GRA are getting rightly castigated at the moment for being unbelievably s**t and, y'know, not understanding how gambling works, amongst other things.

However, I'm wondering, has any regulator ever fared much better, at anything? (Having a magnificently incestuous relationship with the entities they're supposed to be regulating doesn't count.)

This isn't a loaded question, I'm a relative newcomer to online gambling (been playing for just over five years), but in that time I can't think of an instance where a regulator has really come out all guns blazing, kicked the crooked software providers/casinos to the kerb, and really stood up for players' rights. (Quite the opposite in fact, time after time we see a failure of supposed regulation, and a failure of the regulators.)

Have I missed that shining example of a regulator kicking some righteous ass? Has it happened in the past?

Like I say, genuinely curious

 

[maxd]

I've personally seen it from two regulators: the previous incarnation of the GRA -- that was when they earned the respect of (most) people in the industry -- and the current incarnation of Kahnawake. When needs be I work fairly closely with the head of their complaints department and I have no hesitation giving them -- now, not pre 2010-ish -- the ol' thumbs up.

People are pretty slow to give Kahnawake the credit they deserve but that's another story. Not sure if what they do would qualify as "kicking righteous ass", that doesn't sound very professional, but AFAIC that they do what needs to be done when it needs doing and they are uniquely in the position to make it stick.

YMMV.

 

[ChopleyIOM]

I've personally seen it from two regulators: the previous incarnation of the GRA -- that was when they earned the respect of (most) people in the industry -- and the current incarnation of Kahnawake. When needs be I work fairly closely with the head of their complaints department and I have no hesitation giving them -- now, not pre 2010-ish -- the ol' thumbs up.

Thanks max - any more details than that? Threads here on CM I can go back and read?

I'm genuinely perturbed by the GRA's (lack of) response to the Finsoft/Spielo/Betfred situation (as any player should be, TBH), so it'd be nice to see the other side of the coin, where the regulator has actually done the right thing.

 

[GrandMaster]

I've personally seen it from two regulators: the previous incarnation of the GRA -- that was when they earned the respect of (most) people in the industry -- and the current incarnation of Kahnawake. When needs be I work fairly closely with the head of their complaints department and I have no hesitation giving them -- now, not pre 2010-ish -- the ol' thumbs up.

People are pretty slow to give Kahnawake the credit they deserve but that's another story. Not sure if what they do would qualify as "kicking righteous ass", that doesn't sound very professional, but AFAIC that they do what needs to be done when it needs doing and they are uniquely in the position to make it stick.

YMMV.

The only thing they need to do is to compensate eveybody who was ripped off by casinos licenced under the "old" Kahnawake Gaming Commission.

 

[maxd]

Thanks max - any more details than that? Threads here on CM I can go back and read?

As you know complaints that go through our process are private and unpublished, Kahnawake even more so. So no, generally speaking you will not find forum threads disclosing actions taken by licensing bodies against clients. We of course have these forums so theoretically someone may have posted about their case and that case may have had the licensor taking action(s) against their licencee(s) and such was revealed in the thread. As you may imagine this is uncommon if for no other reason than such info is seldom disclosed. If one of these does pop up and/or comes to mind I'll try to remember to return here and mention it.

I understand your wish to find a glowing counter-example to shabby licensor behaviour but I think you'll find such examples rather hard to come by. Despite the rhetoric the function of most licencing bodies is to collect licencing fees and (ha!) pay a little tax revenue to the host country. Player safety, security and protection is usually priority #143, right after "translate everything into Portugese". As far as player concerns go most of them are toothless at best and more often simply woefully negligent in the performance of their so-called "duty". As you may have gathered sham licencing is one of my pet industry peeves.

That said I think you'll find that most of the industry is self-policing, as weak an assurance as that obviously is. The point though is that the behaviour of any given casino usually falls to those that are running the show. A goodly number of those people are fair and honest and the performance of their companies reflects that. Say what you like about how things should be different but thus far that's pretty much the way things are.

The only thing they need to do is to compensate everybody who was ripped off by casinos licenced under the "old" Kahnawake Gaming Commission.

As always GM you have a fair point. Practically speaking though businesses almost never do such things -- a failure of common business practice -- and in Kahnawake's case it may not even be possible -- a failure of case documentation, etc.