A total of 25 Isle of Man e-gaming licences have been suspended or cancelled in the last 12 months.

Over the same period, 18 new licences have been approved, taking the total on the Gambling Supervision Commission’s register to 84.

The Manx government says that e-gaming remains a significant sector of the Manx economy.

But it is an industry which has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons over the past year.

It was this month last year that police made seven arrests when it raided offices linked to King Gaming.

Construction work was halted on King Gaming’s planned £70m campus headquarters on Victoria Road which had been billed as the largest single private investment in the Isle of Man.

The e-gaming firm continues to be under police investigation over allegations of international fraud and money laundering.

Its e-gaming licence, which it had held since July 2017, was suspended and then cancelled by the regulator in July 24 as was that of an allied company Dalmine Ltd.

Last month police have raided the offices of another Douglas-based e-gaming company, Ableton Prestige Global Limited, as part of a separate investigation into large scale international money laundering.

Ableton had surrendered its licence in April last year.

A UN report on transnational organised crime cited the Isle of Man as a jurisdiction that has become a hub for online gaming firms due to its ‘relaxed regulations’.

Gaming licences are usually surrendered for commercial reasons.

Last month, PokerStars confirmed it had taken the decision to surrender its Isle of Man gaming licence which its parent company Rational Entertainment Enterprises had held since 2005.

A spokesman said the move was part of an ongoing programme to optimise PokerStars’ operating model, and players would continue to play under its UK licence.