See updates, bottom of post. (6-21-13)
There is very little information coming either from Bubble Group (Sheriff Gaming), the Dutch authorities, or regulators. The Alderney Gambling Control Commission (“AGCC”) did publish a report on May 28th announcing that they are looking into the Bubble Group license because of the allegations. The document can be seen HERE. We will update the blog when we hear of any decision by the AGCC.
Although there is very little chatter on the subject on message boards because of the lack of information, we are seeing plenty of speculation that we won’t repeat here. As well, an alleged former employee has made posts (which may well be removed soon as inflammatory and unsubstantiated). These posts accuse at least one of the owners of impropriety. We simply will not repeat the allegations in any detail until we can confirm any part as factual, or at least be able to attribute them to a specific person rather than an anonymous poster. It could well be a disgruntled player or former employee simply taking advantage of an opportunity to damage the Sheriff/Bubble reputation further. We see this happen from time to time.
As of today we have seen the new Guts Casino and BET-AT.EU pulling the games until the air can be cleared ahead. It also appears as if Microgaming Quickfire, which supplies most casinos running Sheriff games have disabled the integration. At casinos integrated directly with Sheriff we are still able to load the games, so the game servers have not been shut down. We also note that the Sheriff Gaming web site is still in full operation. (update – there seemed to be server issues and the games were never officially pulled from any platform providers – Microgaming did not actually disable the integration and it was simply an unfortunate coincidence in timing.)
We would caution everyone to await the facts as they emerge before condemning Bubble Group or Sheriff Gaming. If it ends up they are guilty of illegally providing games to players in the Netherlands, they are no more guilty than many other providers and should be judged no more harshly. If they are innocent of all suspicions they should be afforded the opportunity to regain their good reputation. If they are guilty of the manifold suspicions announced on Dutch television, then we can assume they will be dealt with accordingly. To the best of our knowledge no one has been arrested nor charged with any crime a full week after the police actions.
The casinos owned by Bubble Group have been taken offline. It is this reviewer’s opinion that players should be safe to play the games anywhere else they are being delivered the same as before.
UPDATE 6-21-2013
There is very little information at press time but it appears as if Sheriff Gaming has begun a formal process of informing platforms, and other providers of their games, that the Gaming aspect of their business is not affected by the legal actions that occurred in late May. We have seen BET-AT.EU make a statement that they will be returning the games to their line-up as of today.