The Irish Sun’s sponsored online casino review section has been removed after criticism for the alleged inclusion of offshore black-market gambling sites.
The Irish paper’s bookmaker and casino review section was disabled after the section received criticism asking why it included offshore black-market gambling sites. The Irish Sun has since launched an internal investigation.
A series of online casinos included on the list and with positive reviews, claimed to be regulated in Curacao and Anjouan – including one which has been sanctioned in Australia and Spain for breaches of gambling laws, the Irish Times reported.
“We have been made aware of issues regarding certain reviews which were published online. We take our duties as a responsible publisher seriously and we have removed the relevant articles pending the outcome of an internal investigation,” A Sun spokesperson told the publication.
The Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI) has reminded customers that any deposits made with offshore betting companies are unprotected by Irish and EU laws.
“Operating without a betting licence, either issued by revenue under the old system, or by GRAI under the new system, is unlawful,” said the GRAI.
One of the now removed reviews claims that a casino operator was regulated by the “Offshore Finance Authority of the State of Anjouan” and argued that “this guarantees a good level of regulatory oversight”.
However, the central bank of Comoros issued a statement this year confirming that the organisation claiming to issue Anjouan gambling licences was acting “illegally”, and that the firms claiming to sell licenses for Anjouan on behalf of Anjouan regulators are “fictitious structures”.
“Gambling activities are not authorised in the Union of the Comoros … the island of Anjouan does not have its own laws,” it said.
“They … have in reality no physical or legal existence in the territory of the Union of the Comoros,” Ait-Ahmed Djalim, a Comoros Central Bank official, said in 2020.
“They operate online via websites to scam people.”
Paid placements
The order that these reviews appeared in “depends on fees paid”, the Irish Sun confirmed – and of the top ten listed operators, nine were listed as licensed in Curacao, a small Caribbean nation infamous as a haven for black-market betting platforms.
The Irish Sun does generate affiliate revenue, “depending on the individual deal”, it confirmed, but none of its partners have any editorial control or input on content.
It’s worth noting that The Sun launched a Save our Bets campaign – one of the core arguments of which was in protecting punters against black market operators by rallying against “restrictive” affordability checks and higher taxes.
