eCOGRA To Provide Dispute Resolution Service To Malta Operators

By Brian Cullingworth, Last updated Jan 18, 2019

Players at over 1,100 online gambling sites can submit disputes to mediator

The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) has authorised eCOGRA, the independent testing laboratory, to make available its Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) service to players at certain MGA licensed online gambling operators.

eCOGRA’s fast and impartial dispute resolution service has been available free of charge to players for over 15 years as part of the organisation’s self-regulation activities, and since 2015 eCOGRA has been approved by the UK Gambling Commission to provide its ADR service to remote gambling operators licensed in the British market.

To date, over 10,000 disputes have been handled by eCOGRA, involving leading operators such as 888, White Hat Gaming, bwin.party, Sportingbet, Unibet, 32Red, Bet-at-home, Casino Rewards, Betway, Gamesys, Skill On Net and Mr Green.

Tex Rees, a Clear ADR Accredited Civil and Commercial Mediator, is in charge of eCOGRA’s dispute resolution service, which includes an experienced team committed to resolving most disputes within a week.

“All Malta licensed operators are now required, in terms of the MGA Player Protection Directive 2018, to provide their players with access to an impartial third party dispute resolution service. Since many of our multi-jurisdictional clients are licensed by the MGA, we’ve made available our ADR service to these operators. We know, from their perspective, how important it is that they can come to us for a full suite of compliance services”, Rees said.

Players can currently access eCOGRA’s dispute resolution services at 1,159 online gambling sites listed on www.ecogra.org.

Brian Cullingworth

Infopowa news was a staple of Casinomeister’s news from 2000 until 2019. Brian Cullingworth was the main writer, contributor, and was one of the most knowledgeable persons I have ever known involved in the online casino industry.

We first met in January 2001 at the ICE in London where I observed him going booth to booth interviewing online casino, software, and licensing jurisdiction representatives. Brian was also heavily involved with our forum as “Jetset“, he was involved as an informal consultant to eCOGRA, the OPA, and was a player advocate who assisted countless aggrieved players with his connections to industry folks. He also published “Casino Cautions” via Infopowa news for quite a number of years. These can be found in our news archives.

His passing in February 2019 was a dark day for us. He will be forever missed.