Malta-based online gambling operator MaxEnt Limited said today in a statement on its official website that it would appeal the recently announced decision of the UK Gambling Commission to revoke its operating license.
MaxEnt operates the Slotty Vegas and BETAT Casino brands. The company also holds a license from the Malta Gaming Authority.
MaxEnt has until June 18 to lodge an appeal in order for the regulator’s decision to be reviewed. If it fails to appeal the matter before that date, it will have its license to operate in the UK gambling market revoked.
In its statement, MaxEnt said that they are disappointed with what the Gambling Commission has chosen to wrote in the announcement about the license revocation. The operator further clarified that it finds the part that reads that the regulator’s decision “follows identification of concerns relating to the operator’s finances and information supplied to the Commission” a bit misleading.
After an investigation into MaxEnt’s recent change of ownership, the UK gambling regulator moved to revoke the operator’s license citing concerns over the “source of funds to acquire and support the licensee at the time of, and following, the change of corporate control.” The Gambling Commission went on to say that it would have not granted an operating license to MaxEnt had its new controller “been a controller of the company when the application for the operating license was made.”
As per the regulatory body’s statement, the new controller of the Malta-based gaming operator “failed to be full and frank in his dealings.”
Lack of Documentary Evidence at the Core of the Issue
In its statement responding to the Gambling Commission’s decision, MaxEnt said that the regulator’s findings made the operator believe that it was satisfied with how the transaction was funded and that it would have been granted a license, had it applied for one today.
According to MaxEnt, the Gambling Commission’s concerns related to the transition period before the operator’s new management took over. The company added that the regulator’s issues with the new controller were not related to how the business was managed and how customers were treated, but rather stemmed from the availability of “documentary evidence from two years ago.”
As mentioned earlier, the operator has up until June 18 to appeal the decision, which it said it intends to do as it believes the regulator’s decision is not “sufficiently objective.”
Of its plans for the UK’s online gambling market, MaxEnt said that they do not intend to leave the lucrative field. According to the latest industry stats by the Gambling Commission, digital gambling has cemented itself as the leading sector and the main driver of growth. Online gaming and betting products generated gross gambling yield of £5.6 billion between October 2017 and September 2018 to claim a 39% share of the local market.
MaxEnt said in today’s statement that while it does not want to leave the UK market, it is carefully considering its position and is looking at other markets that “show great potential for a responsible, prudent operator such as ourselves.”
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