Gibraltar Corruption

Is there still Rule of Law in Gibraltar? Is there corruption in the local police?

Are employees' Human Rights protected? Is there a mafia in Gibraltar?

How corrupt are the Courts in Gibraltar? Is Entain a bad employer?

Is Entain in Gibraltar a good employer?

My ex-employer is Entain, formerly GVC. It is one of the world’s largest sports-betting, gaming and gambling groups, operating both online and in the retail sector. Entain had over 30,000 employees in 2022 and generated a net gaming revenue of £4,3 billion. The Group owns a large portfolio of established sports brands (Ladbrokes, bwin, Coral, Crystalbet and Sportingbet) and gambling brands (Foxy Bingo, Gala Casino, Gioco Digitale, partypoker and PartyCasino). The Group is tax resident in the UK. The Entain Group has a 50/50 joint venture in the USA with MGM, BetMGM, a leader in sports betting and iGaming in the US. Entain provides the technology and capabilities which power BetMGM.

Companies of the size of Entain normally have well elaborated personnel and customer welfare programmes aimed at protecting their good standing in the world as a responsible employer and service provider. Not only should such personnel and customer protection policies be a voluntary effort by Entain, they are legally obliged to steer far away from unsavoury practices usually found with unscrupulous employers. So how does Entain score on these points? Is Entain protecting its customers? Is Entain involved in corruption? Is Entain a good employer? This website is set up around this last question, and to answer the question if Entain is a good employer, you can read my witness statement (available online and as a PDF file). So let's focus here on the other questions.

During my employment by GVC/Entain (2017-2018), I was providing customer service for the Dutch market. In those days, The Netherlands was a "grey market" and GVC/Entain operated there without a Dutch gambling licence.

In February 2018, the UK Gambling Commission gave the GVC subsidiary ElectraWorks Ltd (operating the bwin brand for which I did customer service) a £350,000 fine for repeatedly misleading consumers with adverts relating to free bonuses. GVC also received a formal warning from the Commission for failing to ensure that the person responsible for marketing at the business held a personal management licence. Richard Watson, Commission Programme Director, said: “This fine should serve a warning to all gambling businesses that we will not hesitate to take action against those who mislead consumers with bonus offers or fail to ensure they are correctly licensed.”

The Financial Times, a highly respected international newspaper, published on 12th November 2020 an article about GVC/Entain, some extracts prove to be very revealing: "GVC, owner of the bookmaker Ladbrokes Coral, will rebrand as Entain and pull out of all unregulated gambling markets as it seeks to clean up its act following the departure of its previous chief executive. Shay Segev, who took over in July, told the Financial Times the new name marked a change of direction for the company, which has previously been associated with big acquisitions and a buccaneering attitude to offering gambling in markets where it is not yet regulated." Just days after the departure of its former chief executive, Kenny Alexander, GVC was hit by revelations that UK tax authorities were launching a probe into the company for “potential corporate offending”. Shay Segev became the GVC/Entain's CEO in July 2020. In January 2021, 6 months after he started, it was announced that Mr Segev was leaving (the former CEO served 13 years in the post). It looks like Mr Segev's efforts to “clean up GVC/Entain's act” were not well received.

On 17 August 2022, the news broke that Entain had been ordered to pay a £17 million fine, the largest settlement that the UK Gambling Commission had ever demanded at that time. Gambling Commission chief executive Andrew Rhodes said about this fine: "Our investigation revealed serious failures that have resulted in the largest enforcement outcome to date. There were completely unacceptable anti-money laundering and safer gambling failures. Operators are reminded they must never place commercial considerations over compliance." and “This is the second time this operator has fallen foul of rules in place to make gambling safer and crime free.” This clearly indicates Entain's attitude regarding people's safety and abiding by the law.

In December 2023, Entain once again made the news internationally with bribery in their Turkish branch between July 2011 and December 2017. Entain reached an in-principle settlement agreement of £615 million with the UK's Crown Prosecution Service to settle this long-running bribery investigation. It is noteworthy that this happened during the time while I was working for GVC/Entain. If the company was committed to bribery in Turkey in those days, why would they not try to commit some more bribery to sabotage my employment court case in Gibraltar? It's definitely an avenue worth exploring.

As a result of Entain's shenanigans, in 2024 Entain's investors accused Entain of not reporting honestly (or at all) to their investors its knowledge of bribery and corruption at its subsidiary. The shareholders allege that this conduct by Entain led to a drop in share value. The compensation sought by these investors is allegedly over £150 million.

In December 2024, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC), took legal action against Entain, for failing to meet anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing requirements. The regulator accused Entain of inadequate checks on high-risk customers, including using pseudonyms to obscure identities. Entain's CEO Gavin Isaacs warned of significant fines.

On 20 January 2025 it was reported that the UK's accounting watchdog launched an investigation into KPMG's audit of Entain for the year ended December 2022. Entain declined to comment.

The image created by Entain is that they do not care about the law. They make the same "mistakes" over and over again and show zero respect for their shareholders, customers and personnel. These issues continue to date and there are no indications that Entain changed their ways.

Specifically about my bullying at work and unfair dismissal court case against Entain, the following Chairpersons and CEOs at the very top of Entain must have been aware of it and made decisions on how to deal with my court case:
- Kenny Alexander
- Barry Gibson
- Shay Segev
- Jette Nygaard-Andersen
- Stella David
- Gavin Isaacs
and
- Virginia McDowell as Independent Non-Executive Director, Designated Workforce Director and member of the People & Governance Committee

A simple employment court case like mine, should have been settled out of court cheaply and quickly. Instead, Entain's top management has decided that my court case should take over 7 years, and ongoing, which must have cost Entain hundreds of thousands of pounds in legal costs. Instead of settling early for a limited amount of money, my loss of income over the last 7 years has become very significant, and this does not even include future losses. The extremely long duration of my very simple court case has become a breach of my Human Rights, making it even more incomprehensible that Entain wishes to profile itself like this, for the whole world to see. Apparently, Entain's top management has decided to make an example of me. Entain's top managers seem to want to show all their staff that if you dare take Entain to court, they will not stop until your life is completely destroyed. In my court case, I believe that it includes corruption at the highest levels in Gibraltar institutions.

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"Except with his own consent, no person shall be hindered in the enjoyment of his freedom of expression, that is to say, freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference."