{"id":807640,"date":"2026-10-19T14:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T14:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/807640\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T14:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T14:44:11","slug":"revealed-african-island-fights-offshore-gambling-network-linked-to-uk-family-gambling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/807640\/","title":{"rendered":"Revealed: African island fights offshore gambling network linked to UK family | Gambling"},"content":{"rendered":"

The island of Anjouan, rising out of the Indian Ocean between Mozambique and Madagascar, is a corner of the Earth that few people have heard of, let alone laid eyes on.<\/p>\n

Known as Nzwani in the local language, this tiny volcanic island \u2013 one of a collection that make up the Union of Comoros \u2013 counts ylang-ylang oil and vanilla among its chief exports.<\/p>\n

Yet Anjouan has stumbled into a role at the heart of a much more dangerous but highly lucrative industry: underground online gambling.<\/p>\n

The African island has become notorious for selling licences to rogue casinos, many operating illegally.<\/p>\n

Some appear to be targeting vulnerable customers, while others have been accused of refusing to pay out winnings.<\/p>\n

At least one appears to be chasing British gamblers, via high-profile stunts involving the porn actor Bonnie Blue and the far-right activist known as Tommy Robinson.<\/p>\n

But Anjouan is not some maverick backwater, wilfully flouting international law.<\/p>\n

Instead, the island\u2019s name seems to have been co-opted by a small cadre of mostly British businessmen flogging unofficial \u201clicences\u201d for banking, cryptocurrency trading and, it appears, gambling, all from the safety of a leafy London suburb 5,000 miles away.<\/p>\n

Now though, the island is fighting back \u2013 and it wants Britain\u2019s help.<\/p>\n

From real estate to roulette<\/p>\n

Based in a drab four-storey office block in the London suburb of Finchley, the Sherm Group is an apparently respectable but nondescript family business.<\/p>\n

Sherm owns a property portfolio worth more than \u00a325m and claims to offer ancillary services including asset finance and even private jet and helicopter travel.<\/p>\n

The company keeps a relatively low profile but the same cannot be said of its managing director, 57-year-old Elliot Sorsky.<\/p>\n

Sorsky\u2019s LinkedIn page reveals a keen interest in property but also a visceral dislike of Keir Starmer, chiefly expressed in angry responses to policy measures designed to protect renters.<\/p>\n

Map of where Anjouan is<\/a><\/p>\n

The profile also reveals an apparent talent for exaggeration.<\/p>\n

Sorsky, the page claimed until recently, holds degrees from Harvard, Cambridge and Oxford, including one in property maintenance and real estate. Oxford said it had never offered a \u201creal estate\u201d degree and Sorsky\u2019s LinkedIn page has since been deleted.<\/p>\n

If Sorsky was bluffing, he may have picked up the skill at the poker table.<\/p>\n

Highlights from this year\u2019s Irish Poker Open posted on YouTube showed Sorsky battling international cardsharps, albeit with limited success.<\/p>\n

But the Sorsky family\u2019s involvement in gambling appears to stretch far beyond poker.<\/p>\n

Evidence suggests that members of the family may have acted as the go-to fixers for underground casinos targeting players around the world.<\/p>\n

Licences to print money<\/p>\n

There are nearly 1,500 gaming licence holders on the public register of the Anjouan Gaming Authority, many specialising in crypto gambling.<\/p>\n

Probably the best known is BC.Game, which sponsored the shirts of Leicester City FC and has been accused of accepting bets from UK customers, even though it does not have a British licence.<\/p>\n

A newcomer, BetBolt, appears to be targeting a particular type of British punter. First, it claimed to have paid Bonnie Blue $1.2m (\u00a3910,000) to win an auction for the right to name her newborn baby.<\/p>\n

Tommy Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, has been a guest croupier on BetBolt. Photograph: Finnbarr Webster\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Then, earlier this month, it welcomed Tommy Robinson \u2013 real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon \u2013 as a guest croupier, arriving to the tune of Rule, Britannia!. It claimed that his fee was donated to raising funds for his fellow far-right activist Daniel \u201cDanny Tommo\u201d Thomas. A spokesperson said BetBolt did not take bets from UK gamblers and that Robinson had a \u201cbig global awareness\u201d. \u201cWe are simply doing this for brand awareness,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

The majority of Anjouan\u2019s other licensees are far less visible than BetBolt, likely to be known only to hardcore gamblers, particularly those who have tried to quit.<\/p>\n

In the UK, a national \u201cself-exclusion\u201d tool known as GamStop allows players to lock themselves out of all betting. Legitimate operators are required to apply GamStop exclusions.<\/p>\n

Multiple Anjouan licensees are promoted online as being \u201cnot on GamStop\u201d, targeted keyword advertising that regulators and experts say is designed to appeal to people likely to be wrestling with addiction.<\/p>\n

In some cases, Anjouan-licensed casinos can only be accessed using a virtual private network. Others appear to have no qualms about accepting British business.<\/p>\n

In a test, the Guardian easily signed up with one, SlotsCharm, and placed multiple slot machine bets. When the bets stopped, representatives of the casino telephoned or emailed more than 100 times offering incentives to bet again.<\/p>\n

BetBolt claims to have paid the actor Bonnie Blue $1.2m to win an auction for the right to name her newborn baby. Photograph: Gilbert Flores\/Variety\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the site said it was regulated by \u201cour internal rules\u201d, adding that it was \u201cyour choice if you want to play with us or not to play\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sites like these are, in theory, regulated not by their own internal rules but by Anjouan Gaming, an organisation whose website states that its governing authority is the Anjouan Offshore Financial Authority.<\/p>\n

This, it claims, was established under Comoros law to oversee licences in gaming, crypto, brokerage, banking and insurance.<\/p>\n

But that, according to the Comoros government, is an elaborate fiction.<\/p>\n

According to a spokesperson for the Central Bank of the Comoros, this licensing regime constituted \u201cillegal activities\u201d by those who were \u201cabusively using the name of the Comoros Islands to give themselves apparent legitimacy\u201d.<\/p>\n

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This, they said, was of \u201cserious concern\u201d, undermining the tiny country\u2019s efforts to improve its guardrails against money laundering and terrorist financing.<\/p>\n

The government is preparing judicial action locally, the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

But the islands\u2019 attention is focused elsewhere too: on London.<\/p>\n

The London connection<\/p>\n

If you want to get a licence in Anjouan \u2013 to offer banking, crypto or, apparently gambling \u2013 a business called Anjouan Corporate Services appears to be your one-stop shop, offering \u201cexpert guidance\u201d to get you up and running for just \u00a319,000.<\/p>\n

It might seem strange that the owners of rogue online casinos would want any kind of licence at all. But industry experts say the fig leaf of respectability they get is worth the paltry fee.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt provides a degree of reassurance to players and an apparent regulatory framework, which can make banks, payment providers and other commercial partners more comfortable doing business with them,\u201d said Alun Bowden, an analyst at Eilers & Krejcik Gaming.<\/p>\n

Anjouan Corporate Services offers no information about who is behind it.<\/p>\n

But a brochure includes a UK mobile number and an email address using the initials TS.<\/p>\n

The initials correspond with a LinkedIn profile in the name of Toby S, who describes himself as head of licensing for Anjouan Corporate Services.<\/p>\n

Public records indicate that this is Toby Sorsky, Elliot Sorsky\u2019s son.<\/p>\n

Last year, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation unearthed a picture of Toby at a business conference in Dubai, smiling alongside his father.<\/p>\n

UK corporate records shed further light on the apparently dynastic nature of Anjouan Corporate Services.<\/p>\n

Four Sorskys \u2013 Elliot, Harold, Richard and Michael \u2013 have all owned stakes in ACS Global Custodian, the UK company behind the website.<\/p>\n

ACS Global Custodian is based within Sherm Group\u2019s London headquarters but appears to be matching its host blow for blow, financially.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s bank balance soared from \u00a313,130 to \u00a3614,826 in 2025, exceeding the cash funds held by Sherm\u2019s property division.<\/p>\n

That increase coincided with a recent stampede of online casinos looking to obtain Anjouan licences.<\/p>\n

According to the Anjouan Offshore Financial Authority, those casinos \u201cmust submit\u201d their application to Anjouan Corporate Services.<\/p>\n

Asked for comment, Harold Sorsky said ACS was not involved in gaming licences, saying the Guardian was \u201cadvancing a narrative that is entirely untrue and unsupported by the facts\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cACS Global Custodian Ltd does not sell, issue, or otherwise provide gaming licences and has not done so since we took over the company in 2023,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cAny reference to ACS supporting gaming licence applications is outdated and predates the delegation of that function to another service provider specialising in the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said other providers were involved in offering Anjouan gaming licences.<\/p>\n

Sorsky added: \u201cApart from having the same directors, Sherm Group has absolutely no affiliation whatsoever with ACS and is a completely separate entity.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the past couple of years, many have left the offshore casinos industry\u2019s traditional home, the Caribbean island of Cura\u00e7ao. Last month\u2019s vast data leak<\/a> from Cura\u00e7ao\u2019s gaming regulator, exposing details of ownership and financial flows, shows many got out just in time to avoid the spotlight of transparency.<\/p>\n

Anjouan poses no such risk. The list of licensees gives only the names of companies, often in jurisdictions such as Panama, Belize and Costa Rica, where corporate registers are opaque.<\/p>\n

At the iGB Live event in London \u2013 a gambling industry conference at which casinos with no UK licence rub shoulders with household names such as Ladbrokes and Betfred \u2013 one industry source explained why.<\/p>\n

\u201cCura\u00e7ao is getting crazy right now. You can\u2019t do this, you can\u2019t do that. Anjouan is very easy. So why spend \u00a380,000 on a Cura\u00e7ao licence when you can spend \u00a320,000 on an Anjouan one?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Comoros government told the Guardian that \u201cBritish citizens have been identified\u201d in relation to an unauthorised licensing regime.<\/p>\n

\u201cInternational cooperation efforts are under way, both in terms of financial intelligence and police collaboration,\u201d it said, adding that this involved a direct request for help from the UK government and its law enforcement bodies.<\/p>\n

A Treasury spokesperson declined to comment.<\/p>\n

This article was amended on 19 October 2026. An earlier version incorrectly called the Australian Broadcasting Corporation the Australian Broadcasting Service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The island of Anjouan, rising out of the Indian Ocean between Mozambique and Madagascar, is a corner of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-807640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}