Evolution Fights Back Against Allegations Of Illegal Activity

Evolution, the world’s most prominent provider of live dealer games for both online and land-based casinos, decided to come out strong and dismiss the allegations regarding making its products available in countries which are subject to United States trade sanctions.

Last week, the Swedish company was accused through a complaint made in a letter to the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement on behalf of unnamed private investigators. The law firm that submitted the complaint accused Evolution of operating in countries such as Iran, which is under strict sanctions imposed by the U.S. government.

Moreover, the private investigators that were retained by a competitor of Evolution based in the United States recorded themselves while playing the developer’s games through internet addresses located in Singapore and Hong Kong, territories where online gambling is banned.

After the accusations were made public, Evolution’s stocks lost a lot of value and the gaming company lost around 3 billion dollars in market value in a single day. Evolution dismissed the allegations and said the claims were from an anonymous third party aiming to discredit the business.

The company explained that it has always worked closely with regulators in order to provide the necessary tools to operators in order to block play from certain territories, including the countries that feature on the United States sanction list.

The provider of live dealer games added that players from countries such as Iran, Sudan and Syria would need “sophisticated technical manipulation” procedures in order to be able to access content from Evolution.

In fact, the supplier believes that the respective private investigators used such technical means to create the impression that Evolution’s products could be accessible from those jurisdictions.

The Swedish company added that the whole demonstration was done through an operator that was a customer of an aggregator offering Evolution products, using a virtual private network (VPN).

Moreover, Evolution revealed that the respective connection was only established after multiple attempts to connect directly from the original IP address were made. With all that evidence, Evolution concluded that the whole thing was deliberate and its purpose was to discredit the company.

The supplier also added that it has already contacted the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (NJDGE) to look into the matter, and also launched an internal review to answer any questions from the regulator in a timely manner.

Source: “Evolution attacks allegations of illegal activity“. iGaming Business. November 24, 2021.