For more than a month, thousands of employees of Evolution, an online gambling company, have been on strike in Tbilisi, Georgia, protesting wages, harassment allegations and unsafe working conditions.
The strike began on July 12, but intensified in August. Initially, according to Giorgi Diasamidze, head of the LABOR workers’ union, the company threatened that a strike would force it to withdraw from the country altogether. Cut 1,000 jobs (after the strike was announced). But when striking workers escalated their protest by attempting to block the entrance to the building in mid-August, Diasamidze and employees who spoke to WIRED reported that plainclothes private security personnel hired by the company beat the strikers.
“They are hiding their identities. They don’t care about gender.[I know people]who have bruises, who have difficulty walking,” Diasamidze says. Images and video shared with WIRED show bruises and welts apparent from the guards’ aggressive behavior toward workers, and one guard violently pulling a bank worker out of the way.
A handful of workers, including Mahare Patashuri, went on a hunger strike. “I can’t believe I’m still alive,” Patashuri told WIRED in August. Last week, Patashuri was taken to the hospital after 28 days without food.
Evolution spokesman Carl Linton said in a written statement that the company “has worked and will continue to work to resolve the dispute within the established process and local law. Evolution strongly supports and respects the right of workers to strike within the local legal framework.”
“The decision of the union to illegally block the entrances to workers violates their rights under Georgian law,” he continued. “We are facing difficulties in maintaining full operational capacity. Since the blockade has been maintained, disruptions have forced us to review our presence in Georgia, including through layoffs. This review has not been caused by the strike itself, but as a direct consequence of the illegal actions taken by the union.”
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Evolution is reportedly in talks with the Nevada Gaming Control Board to obtain a license to operate in Las Vegas, the most valuable gaming market in the US (the company did not comment on these talks).
While the strikes continue to attract attention locally and in Sweden, where the company is based, the company appears relatively unfazed, even as workers hope their struggles will be taken into account by U.S. regulators.
Evolution has licenses to operate in a handful of US states, as well as in several European countries. But Nevada would be a particularly hard hit: the state brought More than 15 billion dollars in gambling revenue in 2023 alone. Earlier this year, Evolution has acquired table games provider Galaxy Gamingthrough which he requests the license to operate in Las Vegas.
Kirk Hendrick, chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, said licensing procedures are confidential and declined to comment further when contacted by WIRED about Evolution’s application.
The Nevada Culinary Workers Local and the Bartenders Union, which collectively represent about 60,000 casino workers in Las Vegas and Reno, have thrown their support behind the striking workers. A representative for the culinary union shared the group’s shared view. Public statement in which it “urges the Nevada Gaming Commission to deny Evolution’s application if it continues to refuse to treat its employees with respect and provide them with living wages and safe working conditions.”
