Rather well-known Dutch developer Sheriff Gaming was rapidly growing its business, but it suddenly ceased operations. What was the reason for the event?
Employees of the company were caught up in fraudulent activities. The investigation revealed money laundering, tax evasion and light drug dealing. The prosecutor’s office seized numerous bank accounts, properties and several cars across Europe.
The situation unfolded in September 2013, when the company’s owners were placed under judicial investigation. Sheriff Gaming’s license was revoked, but customers were not affected – the company was still successfully developing 3D slots for online casinos for several years. There were rumours of a desire to change the name of the company to save its reputation, but it never happened.
It turned out that the company’s management was managing the cash winnings among the winners. Small prizes were given to the players, but the average person could not make a big score. For this purpose, numerous fake accounts were created, registered to executives and their relatives. It was on these accounts that large sums of money fell out.
According to one of the employees, if customers used the progressive jackpot system and got a big win, the company refused to pay out the money in 95% of cases. All the round figures went to the owners’ accounts.
Testimony from a programmer who worked for the company also confirms the scheme to undercut interest for regular players. According to him, one day the programme malfunctioned and a large sum of money went to one of the customers. The situation infuriated the director, who then ordered that the full amount not be paid to the winner.
It is surprising how the numerous refusals to pay out money have not raised a wave of scandals and loss of reputation for the company. However, employees said that when accidentally winning large sums of money, they explained to players that there had allegedly been a software glitch and the jackpot had been hit by a mistake. Another way out of the situation was to accuse the person of cheating, foul play.
This approach has repeatedly helped to resolve the conflict situation in the company’s favour, and customers have walked away with nothing, without being charged. In some cases, management offered to take a much smaller amount, to which everyone agreed. If a player insisted on a hundred per cent payout, he was rejected altogether.
The gambling industry has a prestigious Alderney license (AGCC). It is issued by an independent non-governmental company that protects players from unfair gaming and regulates gambling companies.
Sheriff Gaming had such a licence. How is it that the inspections did not reveal any violations? The fact is that before another visit to the office, the developer had to adjust statistics and other documents to demonstrate clean operation. As a result, the regulator did not detect player cheating and the licence continued to operate, inspiring public confidence.
Most often, customers are cheated in urban casinos. Management cites technical faults in the machines, leaving cash on the company’s balance sheet. Such cases cause scandal and public outcry.
Attempts to find conflicting cases online have been unsuccessful. Perhaps the players did not advertise the claims or the company cleaned up negative publicity in search engines. If you know cases of payment denial from this developer, report about it in comments on the forum.
According to one version, Sheriff Gaming is a company set up after the departure of one of the founders from BetSoft. It is a London-based software developer that has released around 160 games. It has not been officially confirmed, but the companies’ products are very similar.
If you look at The Amsterdam Masterplan, you can see a similar style and intro. That said, both products were released in the same year.
More than once the companies have clashed in court over copyright claims. In this battle, Betsoft has been defeated twice.
The owners tried to sell the company’s assets, but the government did not allow this, and the brand went bankrupt along with its head office. The assets were confiscated and sold to Novomatic, a major Austrian company.
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