The owner of an igaming business has been banned from conducting gambling activities on the island.

The Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission (GSC) has indefinitely banned Boldwood Software owner Phua Cheng Wan from participating in regulated gambling activities in the Isle of Man.

The igaming platform provider, based at South Quay in Douglas, had been granted a licence from November 21, 2022 until May 14, 2025 but it voluntarily gave the licence up after receiving an Enforcement Report and Notice from the regulator.

The GSC met in June to review Boldwood’s licence after launching an investigation into whether Mr Phua met the criteria of a ‘fit and proper’ individual and this week announced its decision to ban him from carrying out gambling activities here.

Under the Online Gambling Regulation Act 2001 (OGRA), licence holders must be operated by individuals of proven integrity

The GSC statement said: ‘The investigation undertaken by the Commission identified a range of open-source materials that suggested Mr Phua was associated with “bad actors”.

‘The Commission’s investigation included establishing that, while Mr Phua has not been convicted of an offence, there is evidence of association with criminal elements.

‘Accordingly, the Commission finds it appropriate to prohibit him from performing any role or functions within the regulated gambling sector in the Isle of Man.

‘The prohibition will remain in place indefinitely until such time as Mr. Phua successfully applies to the Commission to have it varied or revoked.’

There has been a focus on igaming and egaming businesses – igaming relates to casinos-tyle online gambling while egaming relates to computer network gaming - on the island recently with police launching a number of investigations.

Earlier this year, officers raided Ableton Prestige Global Ltd, Aperia (IoM) Ltd and Amiga Entertainment Ltd headed by Chinese national Zhi Chen with two people arrested.

Reports by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes have alleged the island had been infiltrated by global crime syndicates who were using businesses here to launder the proceeds of scam compounds in South East Asia.

Separately, a number of reputable e-gaming companies have surrendered their Isle of Man licences purely for commercial reasons.

Last month Celton Manx, which operates international online sports bookmaker SBOBet, surrendered the licence it had held with the GSC since August 2008.

The GSC issued a public statement saying that Celton Manx, based at Celton House on the Isle of Man Business Park in Braddan had been ordered to pay a discretionary civil penalty of £5,625,000, discounted by 30% to £3,937,500 due to its early co-operation with the investigation.

The fine follows a regulatory inspection which identified a significant number of contraventions of the Gambling (Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism) Code.

A range of issues were found, some of which were systemic in nature, including a failure to carry out an assessment of risk posed by a customer or conduct enhanced due diligence despite the clients being identified as posing a higher risk of money laundering and/or terrorist financing.