Roger Mexico

It's very interesting isn't it. What struck me was the evidence that King Gaming had so few visitors and so presumably punters and income. Which leads not just to questions about where the money is coming from (with all its implications of money laundering) but also about what all those people up at Victoria Road do all day. And how many of them are there? In a neat coincidence, an answer to a Written Question from Julie Edge was published today. Effectively it was asking for an update to some data that came out in an FoI last July and was worded: How many work visas have been issued since October 2021 by broken down by a) category of visa, b) nationality, c) salary, d) public or private sector and e) role within that sector. There's a lot of information there, including the fact that the total number of such visas in the last two and a half years is 2,100 (there will also be dependents associated with many of these). The vast majority are for the private sector (91% of employees) and 339 of them were Chinese citizens, the second most common.

Well-qualified for commenting on Manx police investigations then.

If a missing person is found safe, the police usually put up a notification that they have been on Facebook, where they have originally reported it, and then remove all related material (including the notification) after a few hours. It protects the privacy of what is usually a vulnerable person and stops people seeing just the original post and thinking they are still missing. So in this case no news usually is good news.

Bookies existed but you could only bet as an account customer and by phone (I remember elderly relatives doing so). Actual shops that could tempt in the passing unwary punter weren't allowed to open till later maybe 1970-ish. The GSC's forerunner would also have had control over slot machines

With respect to 1. there actually appear to be fewer lines in total in Castletown There's only half the freezer frontage (the other half is now chilled beer/wine not available before) and less frontage for other chilled - there's about 4 m of wall and an island gone. The replacement cabinets are a different design so exact comparisons are difficult but there seem to be fewer chilled lines and they run out quicker. I was actually surprised as I would have though ready meals etc was what Expresses specialised in, but there seems less choice than before and it feels harder to get things out and see what's there. There are extra things that Shoprite didn't stock (or not in such number of lines). There's a lot of concentration on Meal Deals and the like, so more space is taken up by sandwiches, crisps etc and individual bakery, fruit etc items. This reduces the space for more standard items. There's a bit more space for fruit and veg and it's cheaper and usually better quality that Shoprite (which isn't saying much) though stock levels are often low. The number of store cupboard and household lines seems less than not massively so but the lack of budget lines makes shopping them more expensive even without the 10-15% Express mark-up. Being an Express is relevant because what they have done is impose an Express template on the businesses, (judging Little Shoprite = Express) without considering the factors they would normally use when positioning an Express - lunchtime business traffic and number of commuters for example.

But the problem they have is they've tied into 21 year leases with the Nicholsons on all the sites. So unless they're losing more than the rent, they're best keeping them going.

Probably the same given it's only a couple of weeks and the other details are identical. IOMN do sometime put court stories up quite late, they've presumably put it in the print edition and then online late when they realised they hadn't put it there. But the problem isn't his driving, it's his owning them in large numbers and leaving them cluttering up the streets, often unlicensed. Maybe, like you can bar someone from owning animals if they are cruel to them, you could ban them from owning cars in these circumstances. But it would need new legislation and the people demanding that something should be done about Moore would be the first to complain about the attack on their freedom.

It's a rather odd take to look at a situation where the problem is being caused by under-qualified and incompetent management and claim that the real problem is the unions. And that it can be solved by giving the useless managers more power.

Yes, to supervise the Casino and allow us to open one. Here's an RTE report on its evils from 1966.

Not sure how functioning the site actually is. I can't see how you could register and you have to log in to interact, so it's possible they have left something up so players can access their accounts. But there's nothing there to indicate they are no longer licenced - quite the opposite.

It's mostly not new. Six of the defendants reported up in court today are the same ones who appeared in court a month ago. For some reason one didn't appear and another has been added "charged with an act against public justice". Unlike the others he isn't being held at Jurby.

The gentleman involved doesn't seem to be a stranger to the police. Perhaps they were less inclined to give the benefit of the doubt this time.

Not quite. According to that: The benefit overpayment totalled £141,461.35 and covered a period of more than nine years between May 2013 and October 2022. [...] The court heard that that the defendant had paid back £1,025 and was having £30 a week deducted from her benefits. She had also agreed to set up a standing order for a further payment of £25 a week. Which I reckon comes to a mere 49.1 years (you may have missed the standing order). More interesting is the final sentence: A proceeds of crime hearing will take place in June. Which I can't remember from a benefits case before. The really extraordinary thing is how long it took to notice that she was being supported by this guy. They're supposed to have been together 13 years.

As always you need to go to the original document to get the true story. Glover had asked: How the 700 new jobs filled during this administration are broken down by economy sectors; and how many are new government positions. And had it pointed out to him that he'd got it all wrong. What the figures mean (if anything) I'll try to come back to later, but one warning that the answer gives is: Please note, the figures provided for sub-sectors can be affected by businesses being reclassified into different economic sectors which can lead to apparent large swings in job numbers among some sectors and you can see this in the Finance section. Insurance drops by 313, but Banking (usually seen as being in decline) is up by 174 and "Other Financial Services" by 582 (about 72%). So these may just be jobs being statistically shifted about than being lost.

Well I wasn't sure at all. That's why I used words such as "suspect" and "may" and "I don't know". But Auclair was only picking up on the statement issued by the GSC when it was issued Wednesday evening (the story was actually broken by finlo at the start of this topic).. and is presuming that the police action is related to sports gambling in some way. That's part of the companies' business and the area he has done so much investigative work in, but it may not be the main motivation for any action. I can't find the police statement yet, but you can reconstruct most of it from the IOM Newspapers' article: Seven people have been arrested on the Isle of Man as part of an investigation linked to a gaming company. The arrests were made following a ‘series’ of police raids at two properties on the island on Wednesday. The Isle of Man Constabulary has confirmed that the seven individuals have subsequently been released on bail pending. According to the force, the raids formed part of a ‘wider’ fraud and money laundering investigation linked to King Gaming Ltd. In a statement issued this morning, a spokesman for the Isle of Man Constabulary confirmed that officers executed warrants on business premises on Victoria Road and Bucks Road in Douglas. The spokesman added: ‘In relation to those warrants seven people were arrested and subsequently released on police bail. ‘A number of people found on the premises at Victoria Road were subject of further immigration interviews involving the IOM Immigration Services and those enquiries are ongoing. ‘This activity is part of a wider fraud and money laundering investigation being led by the IOM Constabulary’s Proactive International Money Laundering and Investigation Team in relation to King Gaming Ltd IOM. ‘Enquiries are being conducted in close liaison with partners within the Islands AML/CFT regulatory and intelligence network to fully investigate these matters. ‘The Constabulary will not be making any further comment in relation to this matter.’ It's interesting that there's no reference made to any cooperation with bodies outside the Island, though that doesn't mean it didn't happen. As I suspected there immigration aspects to this and both premises were raided (though not anywhere else it seems).

It was technically incorrect, both companies are registered at Bucks Road. The 'campus was being built at Victoria Road and I think there are already operations there. Any raids would presumably be made on both locations (and probably others). I suspect that some of the reasons for all this may be immigration-related, but whether that is the main driver I don't know. Either way the Manx Government may not end up looking well out of it in the eyes of the UK.

I don't know. The nice lady is showing the young girls how to deal with Savile. Always keep him beyond arms-length and have a knife in your hand.

But surely if 'everyone' (except those in Ramsey) is aware of the details of what is going on, there's no reason for keeping things quiet. Anyone who who might be using that information to hinder the investigation will surely know already and have fled, destroyed evidence, borrowed Ashford's shredder or whatever. Once the raid happened there is really no need for further secrecy. The only people who will benefit from continuing official silence are those who haven't committed crimes themselves, but who may have enabled them in some way. And without exposure the danger is that such behaviour will not only escape censure but might be repeated by the same people.

Think of the savings on pensions! Given the number of times that certain frequently-posting Manx Forums contributors claim to eat out on Island every month/week/day, maybe we should be getting these highly-paid people to post on here all the time. (If they don't already). It clearly increases the appetite for supporting the hospitality sector.

Those are both at the end of the Prom that 'passed' however (overflow from the Prom tanks and Lake Road). But the FoI (Ref 3770473) didn't ask about any other outlets in Douglas and is mainly concerned with the smaller regional ones.

Or "If people were less informed and engaged in what we do they wouldn't know how bad things are and would be happier." Presumably when this reaction happened at the West meeting it suddenly occurred to the CoMin members that their seats in the Keys might not be as safe as they thought they were.

Well the press release might just be referring to the so-far unreported raids/arrests that happened yesterday. And of course competent authorities would want to act to secure evidence before letting the companies being investigated know that action was being taken. But as I said last night I can't see this happening without UK approval and possibly support. Not least because in the these sort of cases more than one jurisdiction will have to be involved and even if the other jurisdictions don't include the UK, any international cooperation will have to be via them.

It's weird isn't it? You'd think someone with Glover's background in journalism would be perfectly equipped to chat and 'work a room' and talk to anyone and hear what they had to say. Whereas Moorhouse comes across as rather shy and self-effacing in public. But in actual practice it's Moorhouse that people wanted to chat to.

Getting back to the CRHS event, it appears all the attendees were not happy: Though in fact he did post it on the actual post and it's still there - and the fact Treasury wasn't there was mentioned (they couldn't really pretend otherwise). I did spot Glover wandering around looking grumpy at the event. I don't know if that was because no one seemed to want to talk to him or that no one wanted to talk to him because he looked so grumpy.

Given that they now appear to break out the balaclavas every time someone gets a bit drunk in Pulrose, it would be a surprise if they hadn't. Maybe a toddler had throw a toy out of its pram on the Prom and they got diverted on the way.