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This week's withdrawal of Virgin Gaming from the Canadian market explained
Earlier this week Canadian players started receiving email notifications from Virgin Games.com that it was withdrawing its facilities from Canadian players following a legal review of the online gambling legality situation in the country (see previous InfoPowa report)
It had both players and industry observers puzzled, because thus far there has been little evidence to suggest that online gambling in Canada is verboten, indeed many industry companies had or have offices in various Canadian provinces.
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Today (Wednesday) a little more light was thrown on the issue by Pierrick Leveque, the Affiliate marketing manager for Virgin, who posted the following interesting information:
"Due to the current legal climate in North America, Wagerworks (our casino software provider) has taken the decision to stop accepting online wagers from Canada from the 13th April 2007."
The root cause of Virgin's Canadian ban therefore seems to be the fears Wagerworks (or its mainly land gambling oriented parent group IGT in the USA) has about the Canadian situation.
A quick look at the history of Wagerworks reveals the following:
"WagerWorks was initially established as an operating subsidiary of Silicon Gaming, the highly innovative slot manufacturer, whose games and system hardware reshaped the slot machine industry.
"Shortly after the formation of WagerWorks, International Game Technology (IGT), the world's largest and most successful slot manufacturer, acquired Silicon Gaming and all of its proprietary slot technologies and game library.
"Upon completion of the merger, WagerWorks became an independent entity, founded and managed by key members of Silicon Gaming�s management team, benefiting from their accumulated wealth of experience in the areas of casino operations, loyalty marketing, game development and regulatory compliance. Following the management team, the lead designers at Silicon Gaming formed a dynamic team comprising graphic artists, computer animators, producers, Flash gurus, and math modelers.
"WagerWorks recognized the full potential of legalized online gaming and set out to develop leading solutions for the market. Among the myriad of Internet gaming developers, WagerWorks is the only company with deep roots in the traditional land-based casino business; the wealth of knowledge and experience in the land-base sector provided the company considerable credibility as it began delivering proven land-based content online.
"WagerWorks was acquired by IGT in August 2005, providing the company access to IGT�s content and intellectual property portfolio, extensive business partnerships and experienced management team which will serve to further enhance its product offering and market presence. WagerWorks continues to deliver successful online gaming websites that are both entertaining and legally compliant."
Whether this means that all casinos using Wagerworks will cease accepting Canadian action has yet to be confirmed....but it certainly seems likely.
Still, it's a pity that large and reputable online venues that are safe for players have had to move out of the Great White North when there is no clear threat other than the country's proximity too, and close government bonds with, the United States.
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