Curaçao court declared BC.Game bankrupt on November 12th, following a controversy over unpaid players and a contested ownership transition.
Court documents obtained by NEXT.io show that the Joint Court of Justice of Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, and the BES islands declared suspected BC.Game operator Small House BV bankrupt earlier this month.
The decision follows months of legal proceedings filed by a group of international claimants represented by the Foundation for the Advocacy of Victims of Online Gambling (SBGOK).
Nardy Cramm, a prominent Dutch journalist, formed the advocacy group, which claims to try to pursue action against Curaçao-licensed operators who scam players.
The judge determined: “Given the undisputed position of SBGOK et al. that BC.Game does not maintain a local bank account and/or reputable bank account in violation of the licensing conditions and the other position of Small House, it is sufficiently clear that it is in the state in which it has ceased to pay.”
Players raise allegations of wrongdoing and system flaws.
The incident began with complaints of wrongdoing and system faults by BC.Game players, which resulted in player losses.
SBGOK, along with individual plaintiffs from Turkey, Indonesia, Costa Rica, and Austria, claimed that Small House BV, which allegedly took over BC.Game’s operations from Blockdance BV in April 2024, failed to meet its responsibilities to participants.
However, the operator chose to issue a public statement addressing the topic, in which it vigorously refuted the charges, alleging that they lack sufficient proof and fail to indicate any infractions by the platform.
It further stated that internal examinations uncovered anomalies in the instances, with many allegations failing to hold up under legal and technical inspection.
The team in charge of BC.Game stated: “We strongly disagree with the court’s recent rulings and will vigorously appeal the decision, as we believe it failed to adequately consider key facts.”BC.Game is confident in its ability to demonstrate compliance while maintaining its reputation as a genuine industry operator.
Small House argues they did not inherit BC.Game responsibilities.
Small House claimed that their acquisition of BC.Game was restricted to assets such as the website and marketing operations, with no liabilities owed to Blockdance BV.
However, the plaintiffs presented evidence indicating that Small House maintained operational continuity following the transaction, noting website registration anomalies and public assertions of Small House as BC.Game’s operator.
Blockdance’s LinkedIn page now suggests that it owns BC.Game.
The court was presented with many claims, including considerable amounts purportedly removed from several players’ accounts totaling more than $2.1 million.
Small House said that these payments were either settled or resulted from manipulations such as bonus exploitation and software flaws.
However, the court deemed these defenses unfounded.
Leicester City Football Club, a jersey sponsor of BC.Game, has stated that the bankruptcy will not affect its current contractual deal with the online casino.
A representative from Leicester responded: “We have been and continue to be in regular discussions with BC.Game with regard to an active legal case in Curaçao.”BC.Game has given the club the strongest guarantees that they are actively challenging this verdict, and that the procedure that has begun in Curaçao is administrative in nature and is not related to any worries about their financial condition.
The offshore crypto casino bankruptcy comes in the midst of Curaçao’s ongoing efforts to modernize its online gambling license system, which has long been accused of lacking sufficient control.
SBGOK was also responsible for the recent bankruptcy of previous master licence holder Cyberluck, which was unable to defend against a slew of player claims.
The question surrounding BC.Game’s owner was raised earlier this year when the Dutch gambling regulator, Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), attempted to levy a €840,000 fine on the operator for illegally targeting the Netherlands.
In that situation, Blockdance claimed to have only learned about the regulatory penalty from the media and is currently examining a complaint from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
At the time, Blockdance’s legal counsel, Jeff Ha, stated that BlockDance B.V. has not been punished by KSA and that any necessary action would be taken quickly.
source: NEXT.io
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