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Summary
- Evolution responds to illegal gaming offerings
- Claims VPN usage allowed players to access games
- Evolution confirms launch of an internal investigation
Evolution which is the leading developer of live dealer casino games was hit with allegations last week that accused the Swedish gaming developer of offering their games to countries that had U.S sanctions imposed on them. Those accusations caused a massive dip in Evolution’s share price and the operator ended up losing billions of dollars.
Evolution Responds To Allegations
Calcagni & Kanefsky LLP filed a complaint with the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (NJDGE) on behalf of their client who is a competitor of Evolution. The complaint informed the NJDGE that Evolution’s games were being accessed from countries like Iran, Syria and Hong Kong were gambling is banned. Syria and Iran are also on the U.S sanctions list.
Evolution is licensed by the NJDGE and one of the conditions for the operator to maintain its license is to have a clean reputation and a good record. Offering games in countries where gambling is banned or to countries that have U.S sanctions is one way of getting blacklisted by the NJDGE.
The complaint alleged that they have video evidence supporting the fact that players were accessing games from Evolution in these sanctioned countries. Evolution initially denied the allegations when news broke but once the share prices plunged, the operator decided to take things a lot more seriously.
Evolution Launches Internal Investigation
Evolution has looked to clarify its position by offering more information on their operating practices, business model and commitment to fair gaming. The company has also confirmed that it has launched an internal investigation to address all of the allegations.
Evolution claims that it has processes and tools in place to prevent players from sanctioned countries and countries where gambling is illegal from accessing its games. However, there are loopholes for individuals in these countries to use sophisticated technology and access their games.
Evolution claims that individuals in these restricted countries might have used a virtual private network (VPN) to access their games by masking their internet protocol (IP) address and making it appear that they are physically located in a country that is allowed to access games from Evolution.
Evolution also claimed that it was up to each of their partners who carry their games to conduct their own know your customer (KYC) verification process to know where their customers are located before providing them access to their games.
