eCOGRA, an independent online gambling standards authority, has suspended the rights of six online casinos to display its "safe and fair" seal, after not meeting all the requirements of its "Generally Accepted Practices" assessment. The six online casinos to have their rights suspended were I Big Casino, Challenge, Music Hall, Nostalgia, Golden Reef, and UK Casino Club. Ironically, all six of these online casinos have their operations based in Kahnawake and are members of Casino Action. Arctic Poker, which is also a member, had its certificate withdrawn recently after failing to renew it in time.
The routine assessment of onsite operations that was carried out by eCOGRA compliance and advisory staff, which is a part of the regular seal renewl process, found several failures in compliance with their Generally Accepted Practices at all six of the online casinos. The requirements for this assessment are designed to ensure that the games presented by the online casinos are fair and honest for online gamblers, and also make provisions for the safety of online deposits and payouts by players.
The spokesman for Casino Action has announced that he expects the suspended online casinos to be reinstated very shortly, and that the issues regarding the suspensions of the six online casinos part of their group were "purely administrative". He also confirmed that discussions are currently being held with eCOGRA: "We had delayed posting as we thought this would have been resolved in 24 hours, but as I am sure most of you know that these kinds of things tend to take longer than you would expect. In no way has our honesty, integrity or customer service been questioned and our reputation speaks for itself! We are expecting our eCOGRA seals will be reinstated very soon, but in the meantime it is business as usual."
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