There was an interesting moment at the European i-Gaming Congress and Expo currently going on in Barcelona that caught my attention, and probably the attention of a few other online bingo industry observers.
While discussing the penchant for gambling monopolies in many European states, Ron Martin from Neteller came out with a beauty when he commented that: “…the past year had been unexpectedly unchallenging for Neteller and not much fun. The brand had been damaged and repair work was in progress”.
Of course, online bingo players will remember that Neteller’s troubles started with the arrival of the US’ UIGEA law and had little to do with any European state-run gambling monopolies. However, I found the understated nature of the comment on his company’s recent troubles almost unnerving.
To call Neteller’s brush with US authorities ‘a unique and dangerous situation’ for a company involved in the reputation-heavy industry of online payment processing would not be understating the facts. As most players of bingo online know, things got pretty tight for Neteller and their US customer base who began to wonder if they would ever see their money again once US authorities latched on to the Isle of Man-based company.
But all’s well that ends well and Neteller are in the process of wrapping up payments to those US customers who saw their funds frozen for nearly six months while Neteller faced off with US Department of Justice heavies. Better still for the company, things do seem to be on the up and up as they diversify their interests away fro the US market.
In fact, diversifying one’s interests away from the US of A seems to be a theme at this year’s congress – I wonder why?
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