What can a regulator do when an operator it has penalised by a licence revocation continues to operate and generate player complaints?
That’s the question apparently facing the Malta regulator Lotteries and Gaming Authority, which revoked its licence to Goal Gaming, but is now reportedly enquiring into player complaints that the company’s subsidiary gambling site, Goalwin, is still operating on the Ongame network….and still generating no or slow pay complaints from the player community.
The payment problems have allegedly persisted for the past year-and-a-half, and are presumably at the root of the regulator’s decision to pull Goal Gaming’s licence last month
Players report that the LGA is responding to complaints as part of an investigation that will hopefully lead to some sort of resolution, and there have been suggestions that players should put pressure on Amaya Gaming as the owner of the network on which Goalwin operates.
In the past the LGA has had to deal with a number of online poker site failures that left players unpaid despite provisions in the Malta regulations that require the separation of operational funds from player balances at licensee sites.
One of the most controversial of these disputes – the Purple Lounge affair – left many players embittered and critical of the LGA for not looking after their interests when the operator, Media Corp., abandoned its licence prior to liquidating Purple Lounge.