A major investigation by Bloomberg has revealed how the government’s drive to attract online gambling companies created openings for alleged scam rings targeting Asia.
Bloomberg’s report details how King Gaming Ltd, once praised by Manx ministers as a vision for the island’s economic future, was labelled a “criminal organisation” by a Chinese court.
Six former employees were found guilty of scamming victims in China out of more than $5m.
Police raided King Gaming’s office in Douglas in April 2024, officers tried and failed to break down the door to the finance department, which a former employee described as unusually well-fortified, before smashing a first-floor window to climb through in search of financial documents.
Lurching
Bloomberg says the island had been “slowly lurching toward a fiscal crisis” before embracing online gambling, with internet gambling became the second-largest contributor to gross domestic product.
John Webster, a former chief economist for the Isle of Man who later started one of the island’s first gambling sites, told Bloomberg: “We used the expression ‘No one wants to lie with dogs because they get fleas’.”
He added: “It’s quite obvious now, in retrospect. If you go into a gray market where you’ve got lots of criminal gangs and triads, then you have to be super cautious. Otherwise people are going to abuse the opportunity.”
Revolving Door
The report highlights a revolving door between regulators and the companies they oversaw.
Mark Robson, previously head of e-gaming, co-founded King Gaming in 2017. Later, a Gambling Supervision Commission inspector who monitored the company was hired by King Gaming.
It is later alleged by Bloomberg that multiple warning signs were overlooked by regulators and government officials.
It said that days after raising concerns internally, a director at King Gaming was fired. He then walked into the Gambling Supervision Commission and made a whistleblower claim.
He offered to walk the regulator through evidence that a vast network of international gambling sites was operating on King Gaming’s server without authorisation.
The report says he was promised a follow-up meeting, but never heard back. Nor did the regulator broach the subject with King Gaming.
The Manx government told Bloomberg in a statement: “Any suggestion that regulators have compromised due diligence, supervision, scrutiny, or enforcement as a result of political or economic pressures is categorically false.”
However, a United Nations report in 2024 identified the Isle of Man as a vulnerable jurisdiction where Asian criminals were exploiting “relaxed regulations and the relative ease with which licences can be obtained” to launder “billions in criminal proceeds into the financial system without accountability”.
Surrendered
Mark Rutherford, chief executive of the Gambling Supervision Commission, told Bloomberg he did not see a problem with regulators joining the companies they once monitored. He said: “Curtailing that would impinge on their rights.”
Since the raid on King Gaming, 55 companies operating on the island have surrendered their online gambling licences or had them revoked.
That represents an increase of more than 150% compared with the average cancellation rate in the four years prior.
The island issued a new National Risk Appetite statement in May 2025, declaring it had “limited appetite” for any more casinos owned or controlled from East or Southeast Asia.
However, the crackdown has come at a cost.
Lyle Wraxall, who runs an agency of the Department for Enterprise dedicated to digital economic growth, reportedly called the National Risk Appetite statement a “huge misstep” at an industry conference.