More scandals followed as his initial bid turned out to have incorrectly included a Dubai equity firm that later said it was not only not part of the deal, but had never even heard of Amaya or Baazov. Without missing a beat, the ex-CEO came back with a revised bid that dropped that firm, KBC Aldini Capital, as well as another, with no explanation given on the latter.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\nHowever, KBC said it had filed a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission on the matter.<\/p>\n
The Amaya board says it will conduct all due diligence before making a recommendatin to stockholders on the matter. Meanwhile, one percent shareholder Jason Ader let his thumbs down be known with a letter to Amaya’s board that indicated his belief that Baazov’s push to take over was “a continued attempt by a discredited former executive to capitalize on the Amaya situation at other shareholders\u2019 expense.”<\/p>\n
Ouch.<\/p>\n
Duterte Turns on Ongpin\u2019s Philweb<\/b><\/h2>\n
Meanwhile, President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, whose promise to be tough on crime meant supporting vigilante death squads who carried out the extra-judicial killings of alleged or suspected criminals and habitual drug users on his behalf, was busy addressing online gambling in his country as well.<\/p>\n
Duterte first focused on Robert Ongpin, head of the country\u2019s gaming giant Philweb. Until recently, Philweb operated 299 online gambling cafes throughout the country, offering games like video poker and slots via roughly 8,000 terminals. In 2015, its operations contributed around $12.2 million to government coffers.<\/p>\n
But to Duterte, Ongpin represented the \u201coligarchs,\u201d and \u201cinfluence peddlers\u201d who, he believed, were \u201cembedded in government.\u201d He set about dismantling Philweb\u2019s operations. In early August came the news that the company had been denied a license by PAGCOR, the national gambling operator-regulator.<\/p>\n
In a last ditch attempt to save his business and its 6,000 employees, Ongpin offered to donate almost all of his majority stake in the company to PAGCOR. His offer was declined.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish to state that, despite my deep personal financial pain, I bear no rancor against PAGCOR nor the President,\u201d wrote a broken Ongpin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
David Baazov was the golden boy of online gambling at the beginning of 2016. The Amaya founder, CEO and chairman had transformed his company from a relatively obscure gaming software provider into one of the biggest online gambling companies in the world. It was Baazov who, in 2014, engineered one of the most spectacular and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":42247,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,21,10],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Biggest Gaming Business Busts of 2016: Who Fell and How Far<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n