What Happened To GentingBet? Genting Online Division Closes August 2021

It was announced on 9th July 2021 that GentingBet will cease trading on 23rd August 2021.  The online casino will close on that date and the sportsbook will cease trading one week earlier, 16th August 2021.

“Regrettably, Genting Malta Limited (T/A GentingBet) has taken the decision to close all licensed operations with effect from 23 August 2021. Genting Malta Limited (T/A GentingBet) will cease trading its sportsbook on 16 August and its online casino on 23 August 2021.”

GentingBet is the online sportsbook/casino arm of the Genting Group, who run casinos and resorts around the world, including the UK.  The land-based Genting Casinos will continue to operate as normal, this applies only to the online website GentingBet.

The company, headquartered in Kuala Lumpar in Malaysia, have suffered significantly during the corona virus pandemic of 2021-2021, that forced most of its land-based operations to close.  This includes 40-odd UK casinos as well as tens of resorts and casinos in Asia, the US and the Caribbean.

To those that have been working with GentingBet for a long time, like us, the news does not come as much of a surprise.  The group never really put the effort in to compete in the heavily competitive online space, within the UK especially.  Still, it is a bizarre decision to close the online division to save costs endured by the real-world resorts, given online gambling is growing and will continue to do so.  While the resorts and physical casinos suffered badly during the COVID-19 situation online revenues across the sector increases.  The decision to close down their websites seems short sighted.

If you are a customer of GentingBet read on to find out how to get your money out of your account and why the brand is closing down online.

Why Has GentingBet Shut Down?

Genting is a very familiar brand in the UK and Asia especially.  The are one of the biggest land-based casino operators in the UK and many people who do not gamble will know the brand from having seen their casinos in prime inner city locations around the country.  Genting dates back to 1965 and was established by Malaysian businessman Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong, and after initially growing the company as a leisure brand the group expanded to the massive conglomerate it is today.

The Genting Group employs over 60,000 people across the world and owns over 11,000 acres of land on which their resorts are based.  The group are not just into gambling either, they have a diverse portfolio that included properties, energy generation companies, fossil fuels, IT services, bio-tech and plantations.  In fact they own nearly 600,000 acres of plantation land, 55x more land than they use for their resorts and casinos.

The point being this is a company that deals in physical assets with a presence in all the major gambling hubs, such as Las Vegas and Macau.  The mindset of the company is that the online division is simply an add-on to the main land-based division.  Therefore, with revenues having suffered a lot during the pandemic they felt that the online division needs to go in order that they can revive their real world resorts and casinos.

This does seem to be a very strange stance in a world where online gambling is growing and Genting are a well known and trusted brand.  Online gambling revenues have soared during the corona crisis, yet Genting were not in a position to capitalise on this as much as other brands.  This is largely because they have never really invested in the online side of things.  For a company with so much knowledge and so many resources the websites were always generally underpowered and fairly bland.  It is a shame to those that love the Genting brand, and especially those that also visit the land-based casinos and like to play online too with shared loyalty benefits.

What Happens To Customer Bets and Funds?

Existing customers can continue to place sports bets until 16th August and play in the online casino until the 23rd August.  After this time customers will no longer be able to deposit and place bets, although any exisiting ante-post bets will be allowed to settle.

Customers can withdraw in the normal way following the 23rd August and the website will remain live for a period after this time to allow users to do that.

Eventually the website will close down and if you still have funds to claim after this date you can contact Genting directly and you will be able to get your funds back – although it may take longer than a typical withdrawal through the website.

It is important to note the company is not going out of business so customer funds are secure.  Funds are also kept separate form the main business accounts, which is a licensing condition in the UK, and so cannot be reassigned.

Will They Come Back In The Future?

It is highly likely that at some point, once the Genting Group revenues recover from the pandemic, that they will venture into online gambling again.  This will not be easy for them, however, given they will lose their entire existing online customer base and their advertisers (many of whom will not reinstate them in the future following this).

If they do come back they will need to be more serious about their online services.  GentingBet was really just an add-on to the land-based operation but in such a competitive market place they need to invest in the online-division as a stand alone product.  They have huge brand recognition and a loyal customer base for their land-based casinos, but that matters little if they cannot provide a good enough product online.