Another leading island-based gaming company has surrendered its Isle of Man gambling licence.
Celton Manx, which operates international online sports bookmaker SBOBet, has held a licence with the Gambling Supervision Commission since August 2008.
But on Friday last week, it formally surrendered its licence.
A spokesperson for the Gambling Supervision Commission said: ‘The GSC is aware that with effect Friday, May 9, Celton Manx has formally surrendered its licence. Celton Manx held a licence with the GSC under the Online Gambling Regulation Act since 2008.
‘A licence holder may surrender their licence for various reasons and the GSC is unable to discuss individual circumstances in this regard.’
Bill Mummery, Celton Manx’s chief executive director, confirmed that the licence had been surrendered but declined to comment further.
Celton Manx, which is based at Celton House on the Isle of Man Business Park in Braddan, is the latest big name firm to surrender its Isle of Man gaming licence.
In March this year, PokerStars announced that as part of an ongoing programme to optimise its operating model, it no longer needed an Isle of Man B2B licence.
Parent company Rational Entertainment Enterprises had held a licence since 2005.
PokerStars owners, the Flutter Group, said there would no impact on players and staffing levels in the island.
No fewer than 13 companies have surrendered their online gaming licences this year.
Last month it was revealed that the island’s gambling regulator was facing a shortfall of £778,000 this year due to a lower-than-expected number of gaming licences on its register.
The GSC gets it income from annual licence fees and new business applications.
It said the 109 licences expected to be carried forward at the start of 2025-26 was significantly lower than the projected figure of 148.
In fact, the number of online gambling licence holders on its register currently stands at 80. In addition, there are three bookmakers, five controlled machine suppliers and one casino licence holder.
The GSC said factors contributing to the shortfall include it not meeting its new licence applications targets.
Its revenue bid said that during 2023-24 and the first two quarters of 2024-25, a higher-than-expected number of applications failed to the meet the required standards for approval.
The GSC also cited the impact of the police raids on King Gaming in April last year, as part of investigation into allegations of international fraud and money laundering.
‘The recent well publicised revocation by the GSC of licences for King Gaming has further complicated the outlook for new business, with seizures and prosecutions a possibility,’ the bid document states.
The GSC said next year’s evaluation of the Isle of Man by MoneyVal - the Council of Europe body in charge of monitoring compliance with international standards on countering money laundering and financing of terrorism - is also expected to ‘further impact the pipeline of new business’.