Playgon Interactive and its affiliate Bitrate Productions have shut down all their live dealer operations after receiving a cease-and-desist order from the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB). According to the NGCB, Playgon has been offering real money play to players when it should really have only been acting as a social casino. It’s a major blow to the operator from one of the most effective gaming regulators on the planet.
According to he NGCB, Playgon was not only not properly licensed for the type of play they were offering, the company deliberately mislead the board into thinking that they were only a social casino. “At some point, however, Bitrate’s activities went beyond social gaming,” the Gaming Board said in its statement on the matter.
Officials at Playgon strongly deny the allegations put forward by the NGCB and, in their own media statement, maintain that they’ve stayed in compliance since their customers are all outside the United States. “The comprehensive legal opinion assured us that our business model was in full compliance with Nevada state laws. It is important to emphasize that our business is exclusively outside the U.S. and does not target Nevada or any U.S. state operators or players. The expert legal counsel advised that we were operating in a manner that did not fall under the state’s gaming jurisdiction.”
Though officials at Playgon maintain that they have a good case, the company does not plan to fight the NGCB’s ruling saying that it would be complex, expensive and, “unlikely to succeed in a timely manner.”