Manx financial scam: Chinese Filipino Boilerhouse

[Amadeus]

Just now, Albert Tatlock said:

Don't think they had another brand...it was just Cyberhorizon I think....and not much contact with egaming. So why the GSC, I don't know.

They did. Wow Entertainment Limited, there's a change of name in the registry. That entity is tied to Wow Casino from what I can see.

[When Skies are Grey V2]

Quote

 

What happens to the fines that are collected?  Is it just treated as general govt income?

[The Phantom]

9 minutes ago, When Skies are Grey V2 said:

What happens to the fines that are collected?  Is it just treated as general govt income?

For the FSA they have moved away from Govt funding to self funding status - through fees and fines.  Complete coincidence they are fining the pants off people for not ticking the right boxes. 

https://www.applebyglobal.com/news/isle-of-man-fsa-introduces-a-new-predominantly-industry-funded-fee-model/

I'm assuming the GSC will be similar.  

[Roger Mexico]

16 hours ago, The Phantom said:

For the FSA they have moved away from Govt funding to self funding status - through fees and fines.  Complete coincidence they are fining the pants off people for not ticking the right boxes. 

https://www.applebyglobal.com/news/isle-of-man-fsa-introduces-a-new-predominantly-industry-funded-fee-model/

I'm assuming the GSC will be similar.  

I'm pretty sure fines just go into general government revenue, though.  The idea being that that way the FSA etc can't be accused of raising them in their own interest.  The GSC actually makes more from its fees that it costs - £1.3 million in 2023-4[1].   More likely any penalties being imposed are being done so they can show they are being 'serious' about enforcement, rather than having a 'quiet word' with the bad boys (or just ignoring them).

All these organisations are supposed to be self-funding from fees in any case.  I'm not sure how the FSA got into a situation where half their costs came from the taxpayer.  I suspect it was a mixture of industry pressure to keep fees down and the ever-expanding number of people it employs - 89 in the latest report, more than half on over £50K.

 

[1]  To be fair to them, the GSC Annual Report is delightfully old fashioned with lots of figures and a complete absence of stock photos of the Manx landscape.  Can it even be an IOMG Report without a moody picture of a sunrise/set over water - or just water?  The FSA in contrast has twelve.  But they're "EMBRACING OUR CHANGE JOURNEY", so that's OK them.

[littlebushy]

6 minutes ago, Roger Mexico said:

[1]  To be fair to them, the GSC Annual Report is delightfully old fashioned with lots of figures and a complete absence of stock photos of the Manx landscape.  Can it even be an IOMG Report without a moody picture of a sunrise/set over water - or just water?  The FSA in contrast has twelve.  But they're "EMBRACING OUR CHANGE JOURNEY", so that's OK them.

I'm not convinced all those pictures of water are Manx territorial waters!

[The Phantom]

49 minutes ago, Roger Mexico said:

I'm pretty sure fines just go into general government revenue, though.  The idea being that that way the FSA etc can't be accused of raising them in their own interest.  The GSC actually makes more from its fees that it costs - £1.3 million in 2023-4[1].   More likely any penalties being imposed are being done so they can show they are being 'serious' about enforcement, rather than having a 'quiet word' with the bad boys (or just ignoring them).

All these organisations are supposed to be self-funding from fees in any case.  I'm not sure how the FSA got into a situation where half their costs came from the taxpayer.  I suspect it was a mixture of industry pressure to keep fees down and the ever-expanding number of people it employs - 89 in the latest report, more than half on over £50K.

 

[1]  To be fair to them, the GSC Annual Report is delightfully old fashioned with lots of figures and a complete absence of stock photos of the Manx landscape.  Can it even be an IOMG Report without a moody picture of a sunrise/set over water - or just water?  The FSA in contrast has twelve.  But they're "EMBRACING OUR CHANGE JOURNEY", so that's OK them.

I'm not sure.  Historically it was funded mostly by Govt.  Since the above noted changes though, I know the over riding impression in industry is that now we are funding our own regulator.  Maybe it's just the fees to fund the FSA and the fines go to Govt?  It's also been a standard joke in industry that the FSA just wants a handful of massive CSPs and charge them a massive licence fee to make their lives easier.  But like any other Govt agency, they are expanding like a virus. 

Some irritating cross over now on this thread with the 'Two tier fear' one now. 

[The Phantom]

6 hours ago, Roger Mexico said:

The GSC actually makes more from its fees that it costs - £1.3 million in 2023-4[1].   

Had a chance to go through this now.  I'd love to know what the 3x Cannabis Inspectors do all day with only one licence in for an as yet unbuilt operation.   Also interesting to note that it seems they've hit a brick wall with a lack of medical licencing: 

"In order for medicines, including cannabis medicines, to be manufactured and sold, the company that produces and sells the medicine must have permission to do so from a dedicated medical regulator (whose area of interest is different from that of the GSC). This medical regulator in turn specifies medicine safety requirements e.g. particular standards of quality control in premises; traceability of medicine batches and reporting of adverse notifications; as well as the reliability of processes and management. Licences are issued once the requirements are met. Most countries have dedicated bodies that undertake this work – in the UK, it is the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (The MHRA) – but smaller countries such as the Isle of Man traditionally have no demand for such a body, unless they also host a medicines manufacturing sector. However, with the introduction of the medicinal cannabis sector in the Isle of Man, it became apparent that future Isle of Man business would require this form of licensing. A project was therefore commenced by Government to consider how best to award such licences to Isle of Man business."