Thomas Frank, trans game storm, IoM – AML central? | My week in iGaming #15
Philip Davies
Well, ‘Sir Philip Andrew Davies’ to spell it out in full. Ring a bell? He was one of those MPs and party insiders who got caught in a proverbial s***storm last year in the lead up to the General Election. Unlike some of the others who bet on the date of the election after, seemingly, a tip-off from someone in the know, Davies, Conservative MP for Shipley in Yorkshire, bizarrely bet on himself to lose his seat. £8000! When challenged by The Sun newspaper, Davies belligerently responded:
"What's it got to do with you whether I did or didn't? It's nobody's business."
And yes, he did go on to lose his seat, by nearly 9000 votes.
Davies was, and is, a colourful character. A working life in and around gambling coupled with a rebellious personality while MP, Davies had a penchant for just about every right-leaning cause he came across. Not only that but his rebellious nature saw him vote more than 250 times against his own party in Parliament.
Sir Philip Davies was recently appointed Chairman of the Star Sports betting company. The industry gains ‘quite a character’ – one that politics should miss.
15 in court over Election timing betting
While it was, seemingly, ok for Davies to bet on (against?) himself those with a possible insight to the Election date and bet on it weren’t quite so lucky. A year-long investigation (seems a long time, anyone have a bet on it?) culminated in an appearance at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in June. 12 of them denied the charges, 3 didn’t enter pleas. It goes on.
Thomas Frank at Spurs
Well I guess I deserved it. A few anti-Tottenham Hotspud digs in this blog last season and what happens? They go and nick our manager! Along with a few thousand other TW8 regulars I was pretty taken aback by Frank’s move.
We all knew he’d move on at some point but it would have been far more palatable had he ended up in Germany, France or the Netherlands. (Italy and Spain would have been too brutal, I fear, for the cultured Dane.) But just around the North Circular to Spurs…? He won’t have the freedoms and autonomy he enjoyed at Brentford in N17. Expectations will be high and a reliably cynical, paranoid and overly-critical supporter base will be on his back as soon as they lose 3 in a row.
I fear a short-ish, bruising experience for the hugely likeable Thomas Frank at Tottenham. It’s really not his kind of place. But he’ll come out of it with a nice few quid in the bank.
‘Why settle for bronze when you can transition to gold?’
Wicked Games continue to live up to their name with the release of Transformers – which will in turn offend, bemuse and amuse. (Although those in that third category will likely keep their thoughts relatively private.)
Transformers is a not exactly veiled indictment (‘attack’ some will say) on the trans community and 21st century liberal mores. The letters L, G, B, T and Q feature in the base game, blurred-out genitalia beneath pink lingerie make an appearance as does a lipstick-smudged banana.
Wicked Games’ website outlines what’s happening in Transformers, “A chemically-enhanced lunatic dominates the women’s league in a shameless slot spectacle. Juiced cascades, fluid wilds, and multipliers that keep stacking, ramping up to a ruthless potential x25,000 your stake. Subtlety left the stadium long ago. It’s loud, aggressive, and probably shouldn’t be allowed.”
Irreverent to some, horrifying to others, it has left some industry observers speechless, Transformers look set to be talked about for a long time if perhaps not played by that many people. Which operators will be willing to include it in their games catalogue?
A very vocal jury is already out on this one – begging the question as to whether or not there might be a ‘silent majority’ tucked away quietly, sniggering to itself.
Wicked Games also has Big Black Cock slated for a 2025 release.
iGBLive
I spent 2 & 3 July at industry conference IGBLive. 15,000 attendees and over 300 exhibitors and sponsors made for a loud, pretty ‘out there’ but enjoyable and informative couple of days. The event was at London’s Excel Arena – a truly transformed strip of land in Custom House in the East End.
Ladbrokes told to pull ‘Ladbucks’ advert over concerns about youth appeal
Here’s a strange one. Two (2) complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) were enough for an investigation and ultimately, sanction for a Ladbrokes television advert. The offence? The use of the word ‘Ladbucks’. The reason for the complaints? The term ‘Ladbucks’ would appeal to younger people because of a likeness to video game currencies designed to appeal to younger people.
Not just that though, the ASA claimed that ‘lad’ and ‘buck’ together was a concern and that in this context ‘lad’ would appeal to some under-18s. Seriously? In 2025 is ‘lad’ a word widely used by Britain’s under-18s? And is it a word used by under-18s to describe other under-18s? In my, admittedly, limited knowledge the answer is ‘no’. We’re not living in a scene from the film Kes. I generally only see or hear the word ‘lad’ when ageing or retired football hooligans describe themselves or their one-time foes on social media.
And as for ‘bucks’ – no one can seriously say this is a word used mainly or largely by under 18s in the UK. Assuming, in this context, the word is used to describe money and not the male of a horned animal, it seems a fairly innocuous choice of word. Americans of all ages have been using the word ‘buck’ as a casual replacement for ‘dollar’ for longer than any of us have been alive.
There’s a reason there were only 2 complaints. That they were upheld is bizarre.
Isle of Man – any more to it?
The Isle of Man conjures up images of TT races and loads of people with the name ‘Quayle’. You don’t normally think of crime (cue jokes about close family relationships) when you consider that island out in the Irish sea.
However, just weeks after Isle of Man-based TGP Europe closed UK operations rather than cough up a £3.3m Gambling Commission fine, the owner of SBOTOP online, Celton Manx, has been walloped with a £3.9m fine by the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission. Failing a number of AML (anti-money laundering) requirements was cited, including insufficient identity verification checks and customer monitoring, lack of effective due diligence procedures, inadequate staff training and falling short when it came to handling suspicious activity.
One of TGP’s failings was ‘adherence to anti-money laundering requirements’. 2 big fines and knuckle-rapping in a matter of weeks. Two cases of corporate carelessness? Or is there something afoot on the Isle of Man?