J. Todd conducted the following 12-minute interview with Andre Wilsenach at the Global Gaming Expo. The topic, of course, was the FTP scandal.
Main points of the video, summed up:
- The owner of a license is obliged to inform the AGCc of the legal, economic and political events relating to the license holder that have an influence on business operation.
- After the 15th April, the AGCC was still in the belief that FTP wiould be able to refund players.
- The AGCC had not at all been informed that the United States Department of Justice had already frozen FTP funds in the 2-3 years prior to the lawsuit. This only became clear for them after their own investigations following the 15th April. Neither FTP, nor the DoJ had informed AGCC about this. And with this, FTP had already broken license requirements, namely that "the licensee should inform the AGCC of significant events, meaning that if something affects their business, they have 24 hours to inform the Commission". FTP had obviously not done this.
- The money had been frozen through the payment processors.
- The nature of such a relationship requires mutual trust between the AGCC and the license holder. In the beginning, there were no problems with this, but the AGCC has found out some details that destroyed this relationship and led to a suspension of the license in the end of June.
- The AGCC had wanted to hold a public hearing but FTP was striving to conduct the hearing in private, because of the nature of the issues discussed.
- As a regulator, the AGCC is obliged to make sure that crime does not happen in the industry. And the players' interest is to make sure to have an operator whose funds cannot just disappear.
- The AGCC knows about the potential investors and hope to achieve a deal. If tis happens, the AGCC will cooperate with the new board of directors and owners to be able to grant them a license as soon as possible.
- The AGCC knew that FTP funds and player funds were kept on the same account. They were not worried because of this, until they thought that these funds were sufficient to pay back players.
- Certain authorities think that the separation of funds is 'the silver bullet', but the AGCC does not think it would have definitely solved these difficulties.
- Also, they do not think it was a Ponzi-scheme.
Stay tuned for more news to come!
Main points of the video, summed up:
- The owner of a license is obliged to inform the AGCc of the legal, economic and political events relating to the license holder that have an influence on business operation.
- After the 15th April, the AGCC was still in the belief that FTP wiould be able to refund players.
- The AGCC had not at all been informed that the United States Department of Justice had already frozen FTP funds in the 2-3 years prior to the lawsuit. This only became clear for them after their own investigations following the 15th April. Neither FTP, nor the DoJ had informed AGCC about this. And with this, FTP had already broken license requirements, namely that "the licensee should inform the AGCC of significant events, meaning that if something affects their business, they have 24 hours to inform the Commission". FTP had obviously not done this.
- The money had been frozen through the payment processors.
- The nature of such a relationship requires mutual trust between the AGCC and the license holder. In the beginning, there were no problems with this, but the AGCC has found out some details that destroyed this relationship and led to a suspension of the license in the end of June.
- The AGCC had wanted to hold a public hearing but FTP was striving to conduct the hearing in private, because of the nature of the issues discussed.
- As a regulator, the AGCC is obliged to make sure that crime does not happen in the industry. And the players' interest is to make sure to have an operator whose funds cannot just disappear.
- The AGCC knows about the potential investors and hope to achieve a deal. If tis happens, the AGCC will cooperate with the new board of directors and owners to be able to grant them a license as soon as possible.
- The AGCC knew that FTP funds and player funds were kept on the same account. They were not worried because of this, until they thought that these funds were sufficient to pay back players.
- Certain authorities think that the separation of funds is 'the silver bullet', but the AGCC does not think it would have definitely solved these difficulties.
- Also, they do not think it was a Ponzi-scheme.
Stay tuned for more news to come!
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