Bwin.party to exit Argentina
Operator leaving for "commercial reasons" following change in licensing terms, says spokesperson " regulator states licence was "revoked".
Bwin.party is winding down its operations in Argentina following the termination of its licence in Misiones, the province’s regulator has confirmed on its website.
A statement by the Provincial Institute of Lottery and Casinos (IPLyC) of Misiones “ one of the 23 provinces of Argentina and the only one to have regulated online gaming “ says it had “revoked” the licences of both Bwin Argentina SA and fellow operator Plays Mil SRL due to a “breach of contract”.
“In order to defend the consumer and strive for responsible gaming, the agency clarified that the cancellation of the license, any activity that is not authorised by the Institute shall be considered illegal gambling in the province of Misiones,” it explains.
bwin.party, however claims the decision to exit the market was “purely commercial”. A spokesperson told eGR this morning that the move followed a renewal of the company’s licensing terms by the IPLyC which were no longer viable from a business perspective.
Bwin.party’s operations in the country, described as “tiny” by the spokesperson, will be shut down within a number of days.
Eduardo Torres of IPLyC told affiliate portal A-Z Online Casinos the licences were revoked due to a failure on the operators part to “mirror” play on an IPLyC server for monitoring purposes.
Torres is quoted as saying: “… what was replicated wasn’t clear, was not well understood, the numbers did not balance, there were chances that some bets went directly to their European central system and did not pass through our system. They were given the necessary time to bring explanations and, as they have not given satisfactory answers, the licence was withdrawn.”