Ice Queen

What is Ice Queen?

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This summer, the Commission reached settlements of £900,000 with Betfred over safer gambling failures, £4.75 million with Evolution over weaknesses in its AML risk assessment and supply-chain oversight, and £122,835 with Stakelogic after games were found to be running faster than permitted.

Taken together, the cases provide further ammunition for the anti-gambling lobby at a time when it is already facing political pressure, tax increases and demands for tighter restrictions. Each apparently avoidable failure makes it harder for the industry to argue that existing regulation is sufficient.

What is Ice Queen?

In April, court documents showed that Evolution had sought to add Playtech to the case.

While Playtech has backed its Black Cube investigation Evolution slammed it as a “smear campaign”, and has strongly refuted the claims made, citing them as “highly inflammatory and knowingly false”.

As the case rumbles through court, a key piece of evidence, meant to support Evolution’s defence was a report carried out by specialist gaming advisors Spectrum Gaming Capital. It analysed Evolution’s operations and was meant to counter the damning Black Cube report.

About Ice Queen

“Standing still was not the responsible choice,” Nally said when the market launched. “Albertans were already gambling. What we’re putting in place is a regulated market that will put player safety and player responsibility first.”

“At the end of the day, this is not about revenue. This is about channelization,” Nally added. “How much of that black market can we channelize into the legal, regulated market?”

According to Nally, approximately 70% of online gambling in Alberta occurred through unregulated operators prior to the July 13 launch, with the remaining 30% flowing through Play Alberta, the province’s sole legal platform at the time.