Strange Silence From Trade Associations

Published: Friday, February 25, 2005 Online-Casinos.com

A deafening silence greets Gambling Federation's malware activities

Players and industry observers alike this week continued to comment on the puzzling silence of the Interactive Gaming Council (IGC) and iGGBA, both trade associations in the industry where Gambling Federation and its CEO Flaviano Fogli are members. In fact in the case of the IGC, Fogli is a Board member, making its silence even more inexplicable.

Readers will recall the shocking admissions by Fogli last week that his company had knowingly included malware in their gambling software download to players over a period of some months in order to grapple with a competitor.

This week an article appeared in I-Gaming News which again admitted the blunder, but this time tried to blame an unidentified GFED employee who had left the group to join competitor Royal Dutch Casino and who was additionally suspected of taking details of the player database with him.

Regrettably this individual was not identified, and Royal Dutch Casino were keeping their heads down.

The general feeling among most online casino players remains one of indignation that a large company like GFED should have behaved in such an irresponsible and unethical manner, with scant regard for player privacy considerations. The fact that it seems that no-one is being called to account in this matter by responsible trade associations, only makes it more bizarre.

As one player pointed out on the still seething message boards:

Player information was not kept secure.
When it was stolen, GF did not inform the affected players.
GF obviously considered new players signing up to be handing over their computers.
They did this for at 'least' half a year.
They only said something when they were caught.
Their attitude when caught was not of any contrition,but excuses, pointing fingers, and lying -- the most insulting kind of lies: stupid ones.