Lotteries and Gaming Authority of Malta Cites Irregularities with Everleaf Poker Network

The Lotteries and Gaming Authority of Malta (LGA) has finally broken its silence regarding the Everleaf Gaming poker network, and it’s not good.  The regulatory body has discovered irregularities with the firm following its delayed payouts to customers and abrupt exit from the US market early last month. 

Sanctions were issued against Everleaf by the LGA.

An investigation yielded “a number of irregularities in their operation” resulting in the network “being monitored closely to ensure its operation respects Maltese law.”

The LGA did not elaborate on its findings.

Funds belonging to Everleaf were seized last October from a Liechtenstein-based payment processor by a Task Force of the Secret Service field office in Seattle, Washington following a lengthy investigation begun around February 2009.  The seizure affidavit specifies that online gambling is illegal in the state of Washington.  In fact, Washington is the only state in the U.S. that makes playing online poker a Class C felony. 

Only three of the Everleaf Gaming Network’s rooms were mentioned in the Seizure affidavit, including the network’s own room.  While Everleaf card rooms appeared to use the processor, Causash Establishment, exclusively, Everleaf itself did not seem to have been the target.  The same field office went after payment processors utilized by both BetUS.com and PokerStars a year earlier. 

-  Ace King, Gambling911.com