The great offshore gamble: online casinos bet on a tiny African island

An obscure island in the Indian Ocean has become an unlikely titan in the global online gambling industry. With its lack of corporate taxes and “minimal red tape”, Anjouan has become home to a “thriving industry” of gambling websites tied to the black market, and counts banks, brokers and cryptocurrency exchanges among its virtual residents, said Australia’s ABC News.

But there is “just one problem”: “none of the licences – financial or gambling – are worth the (virtual) paper they are written on”. Meanwhile, the industry continues to draw operators and gamblers from around the world – including Britain – into its ever-expanding orbit.

A widening ‘network’

Traditionally, Anjouan – one of the semi-autonomous islands that make up the Comoros archipelago – was best known for its exports of ylang-ylang oil and vanilla. But it has since “stumbled” into the “dangerous but highly lucrative” industry of underground online gambling, said The Guardian. There are now 1,500 registered gaming licence holders on the books in Anjouan.

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This is far from a state-sponsored endeavour to create a low-regulation haven on the island. In fact, it appears to be led by a “small cadre of mostly British businessmen flogging unofficial ‘licences’” to online casinos, as well as banking and cryptocurrency platforms.

Anjouan-licensed gambling platforms have been linked to “serious breaches” including fraud, “theft of personal data” and a lack of payment of winnings, said Le Monde. And those seeking redress will find that “the legal value of licences from this island is highly questionable”.

‘Fighting back’

The whole operation is given a veneer of legitimacy thanks to a global “network” of organisations selling fraudulent gambling licences, which is estimated to be making “tens of millions of dollars a year in fees”, said ABC News. But the island’s authorities claim supposed gambling regulators are “fictitious entities” operating “illegally”, while Anjouan’s supposed financial regulator “lacks both credibility and accountability”.

Licences often “reassure” customers that there has been “some kind of due diligence process” in the operation, keeping their gaming and winnings “safe”, said sporting ethics NGO PlayTheGame. But under the surface, in the “overwhelming majority of cases”, customers find themselves “helpless” should they end up as the victim of fraud. And sadly, this happens “often”.

For its part, the island is “fighting back”: making efforts to rid itself of its increasingly notorious reputation, said The Guardian. The government of the Comoros Union has made a “direct request” to the British government for assistance to unravel the “unauthorised licensing regime” once and for all.