It was a busy week in the online gaming industry, let’s take a look at what happened over the last few days. A Unibet player claimed his account was hacked, the Jazz Sports Group building experienced technical issues again, Full Tilt Poker’s gaming license was suspended and former Matchbook players based in the US were paid.
Here are the details:
– A Unibet player said his account was hacked. He claims that €6,000 were transfered to Unibet’s poker room and lost via chip-dumping. In cases like this the players are responsible for their own account security. The player in question claims that he has never accessed his account from an internet cafe or any location with an unsecured wireless network.
Chip-dumping is losing your chips on purpose in order to benefit another player’s chip stack. This method is used by scammers and players that deposit with insufficient funds. Here’s an example: a player steals a credit card, makes a deposit on one account and then intentionally loses (dumps chips) to their real account.
– Two weeks ago we reported that the Jazz Sports Group bulding had a power outage and that their backup power equipment didn’t function properly. The bulding hosts Jazz Sportsbook, BetIslands and ABC Sportsbook and last Wednesday the players from these sportsbooks were redirected to backup sites when they attempted to access each sportsbook homepage.
– The Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) suspended Full Tilt Poker’s operating license. Full Tilt Poker executives must attend a hearing on July 26th to discuss the state of their license with AGCC. As part of the suspension order, Full Tilt Poker has to cease player registration, deposits and withdrawals and gameplay immediately. The Full Tilt Poker website remains accessible but the downloadable poker client times out and fails to allow players to access the lobby. Here’s the official statement from the Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC):
Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) has today issued Hearing Notices under Regulation 46 of its Regulations to Vantage Ltd, Oxalic Ltd, Filco Ltd and Orinic Ltd, collectively trading as FULL TILT POKER.
In addition, AGCC has issued Suspension Notices under Regulation 47 to the above named companies requiring them to suspend all operations with immediate effect.
The decision to suspend these licenses follows a special investigation prompted by the indictments unsealed by US Attorney General’s Office in the Southern District of New York on 15th April 2011, during which grounds were found to indicate that these licenses and their business associates were operating contrary to Alderney legislation. The nature of the findings necessitated the taking of immediate action in the public interest.
The venue and date for the hearing will be announced in due course.
Issued by: Andre Wilsenach (Executive Director)
Alderney Gambling Control Commission
Alderney,
Channel IslandsDate issued: 29th June 2011
– Former Matchbook players based in the US have received $289,621 in payouts since May of 2011. Matchbook withdrew from the US market on February 27th, 2011 following an ownership change because the new owners wanted the site to cater to European and Asian markets.