Hoping to reach an end to what has turned into an ugly disagreement, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission is calling on a neutral body to investigate and evaluate a feud between casino operator Sunny Group Casinos and its former software supplier, Microgaming Systems.
The commission has tabbed Frank Catania, a former New Jersey regulator who played a key role in drafting Kahnawake's gaming regulations, and the National Fraud Center to head the investigation, which was deemed necessary after Sunny Group severed ties with Microgaming and switched its online gaming operations from the Kahnawake territory to Antigua. The company also re-launched operations using software by Playtech.
The parting of ways between Sunny Group and Microgaming, which ended a seven-year relationship, was a classic case of he said/she said.
Sunny Group came out with public claims last week that it was dropping Microgaming because of concerns that the supplier was rigging its random number generator to force players to lose more than they should. They were also unhappy with response time of various requests from Microgaming to produce audit reports and other service related issues.
Microgaming responded with a public statement of its own, claiming that it was actually the one to break the relationship off after Sunny Group failed to meet numerous payment deadlines. It claimed Sunny Group missed licensing fees and royalty fees on more than one occasion.
The commission was brought into the middle of the dispute when Sunny Group claimed a member of its staff was unable to secure the company's servers and was physically removed from Mohawk Internet Technologies' hosting facility--a claim the company still stands by.
The commission said the servers couldn't be worked on because certain protocol have to be followed if an operator chooses to either relocate or switch software suppliers. The commission says that neither it nor MIT was notified of Sunny Group's intentions to switch to Playtech or move to Antigua.
Commission officials said no computer equipment can be worked on until it is determined that all players have been paid any outstanding balance that was due to them from gaming activity that was conducted through servers on tribal land.
Alan Goodleaf, chairman of the commission, has picked Catania, the former director of the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, as an independent party to investigate and evaluate allegations. The National Fraud Center will provide Catania with its investigative findings, which he will compile and evaluate.
The review will enable the commission to determine whether there has been any breach of its regulations and to take whatever measures may be appropriate.
"The commissioners together decided that an independent third-party review of the recent circumstances and allegations made by permit holders was appropriate," Goodleaf said. "We expect to benefit from the unique gaming regulatory and compliance experience of Mr. Catania and NFC."
There is no timetable on when the investigation will be completed.