Dan Waugh of Regulus Partners has spotted a change in the public policy discourse on gambling. The Good Law Project’s complaint to the Charity Commission has sparked something of a rebellion on social media, as those in the lived experience community grow tired of the anti-gambling lobby’s dirty tricks
Vergunde Nederlandse Online Kansspelaanbieders (VNLOK) is taking legal action against Meta and has filed a complaint with the European Commission over illegal gambling advertisements appearing on its social media platforms.
Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf has also reported that some of the illegal adverts included images of international football stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Virgil van Dijk.
VNLOK stated that Meta’s measures in tackling illegal gambling ads on Facebook and Instagram are ‘structurally inadequate’, that vulnerable groups are being reached in large numbers and that the company is refusing to enter substantive dialogue.
However, VNLOK also believes other companies, such as Google, as well as relevant banks and game providers, can do more to tackle the activity of illegal gambling operators in the Netherlands, including advertising.
VNLOK: Meta needs to do more
The trade association noted that an average of over 70,000 gambling ads targeting the Netherlands were visible o..
As expectations around player safety continue to evolve, operators face increasing pressure to detect signs of gambling-related harm earlier and implement more effective interventions. Against this backdrop, the Player Protection Symposium will examine the tools, policies, and partnerships needed to strengthen player protection efforts.
Taking place on Wednesday, 30 September, the symposium will bring together regulators, operators, responsible gambling specialists, and technology providers to examine how the industry can shift from a compliance-focused mindset to a more preventative and player-centric approach.
Through a series of expert-led discussions, the symposium will focus on three key areas of player protection: balancing regulatory objectives with efforts to combat the black market, the role operators play in safeguarding players, and the growing role of technology in identifying and supporting at-risk players.
“Gambling harm prevention is a challenge shared by every regula..
The Conservative Party’s Nick Herbert has joined the long list of figures to hit out at the Gambling Commission’s affordability checks for the UK.
Speaking at the House of Lords, the former MP for Arundel and South Downs and Baron of South Downs called on Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy to revisit the “ill-targeted policy, which, after all, was not the government’s in the first place”.
With the speech, he has become another member of what seems to be an ever-growing list of people making noise to prevent these checks from coming into place, which includes gambling reformist James Noyes and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.
The Gambling Commission are set to meet regarding the implementation of Financial Risk Assessments (FRAs) tomorrow, the second and most stringent level of its affordability check solution, but Herbert has urged for a halt on this.
“On Thursday, the Gambling Commission will decide whether to approve the roll out of affordability checks on online betting,” he said.
“..
The incoming regulatory chief for the French betting industry will not shy away from further tightening of the screws on online bookmakers.
Pascal Chevremont was nominated by the French Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, to take on the presidency of the Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ), the National Gambling Authority, earlier this month.
The veteran civil servant made his case for candidacy to a committee of the National Assembly on 17 June. Legislators subsequently appointed him to take on the lead regulatory role for the French betting industry.
In his statement to the committee, Chevremont made it clear that he would make it a priority for the ANJ to assert its control over French betting and gaming and further clamp down on illegal activity.
“The gambling sector is rife with contradictions,” Chevremont told the committee during his confirmation hearing.
“The internal security code establishes the principle of a ban on activities, and yet they are practiced by one in two Fre..
In this episode, SBC Media Director Martyn Elliott is joined by Shawn Fluharty, Chair of the Better Gambling Forum. Together, they discuss how collaboration, regulation, and innovation are shaping the iGaming sector to drive sustainability, player protection, and responsible growth. Key Topics: The mission of the Better Gambling Forum and its global approach The importance…
The UK Government is considering a major shake-up of social media regulation, including a ban on under-16s using major platforms and potential restrictions for older teenagers. But could these measures help tackle another growing concern: illegal gambling operators targeting young people online? In this episode of iGaming Daily, Charlie Horner is joined by SBC News…
Stakeholders in the licensed gambling sector will be painfully aware of the marketing shenanigans by black market operators running free across major social networks.
For some time now, the case has been that all social media platforms – from X, through Facebook and Instagram, to TikTok – have seen an infestation of illicit gambling ads in one form or another.
Black market operators leveraging these communication channels to target domestic market consumers has been a widespread practice in the UK in particular, with even Google – although not your traditional social media platform – hosting lists of available unlicensed casinos.
It is obvious that these Big Tech companies have a significant role to play in curbing the multi-billion-pound black market.
However, in an exclusive interview with SBC, Tim Miller, Executive Director of Research and Policy at the UK’s Gambling Commission, sounded more frustrated rather than satisfied with the cooperation he’s seen from Big Tech over the ..
Sweden’s channelisation rate in 2025 dropped to 84% as the country, like many others across Europe, continues to battle the threat of the black market.
The 84% figure, representing a 1% year-on-year drop, serves as the proposed indicator for the national budget bill and is an average derived from two main measurement methods – player surveys, which estimated an 89% channelisation rate, and internet traffic turnover estimates, which estimated 78%.
Spelinspektionen, the Swedish Gambling Authority, highlighted that players who are self-excluded or suspended from licensed sites are the main perpetrators of using unlicensed platforms.
Other reasons given for punters using the black market were players believing that they have a higher chance of winning or those looking for games unavailable in the Swedish market.
A few black market bettors in Sweden (6%) interestingly used the reasoning of unlicensed operators offering skin betting.
Skin betting uses virtual cosmetic items from comp..
The Dutch Gaming Authority (KSA) has continued its strong compliance focus, this time taking aim at Betnation for failures related to the Cruks self-exclusion system.
The KSA issued Smart Gaming, the operator of Betnation, an official warning after it failed to verify whether a group of players were on the Cruks exclusion register between January and March 2026.
As a result, these players were able to gamble without being checked, including one who had previously self-excluded.
The regulator said in a statement: “The KSA considers it highly reprehensible that the Cruks checks were not carried out. Players who register themselves in Cruks do so to protect themselves and must be able to assume that, as a result, they cannot gamble at licensed providers.”
Betnation attributed the failure to a ‘technical error’ which meant the checks were not performed.
The operator said that it manually checked the players affected. However, it was unable to determine whether a small group of playe..
Sweden’s Administrative Court has made decisions regarding fines that two different operators – Videoslots and LeoVegas – received from Spelinspektionen last year in relation to the duty of care.
Roar Vegas, trading as LeoVegas, saw its March 2025 warning and SEK 8m penalty fee (approximately €734,000) for ‘deficiencies in the duty of care’ from the Swedish gambling regulator overruled by the court.
The court stated that LeoVegas ‘has not clearly and distinctly breached the duty of care’ and so the decision from Spelinspektionen was annulled.
However, the Administrative Court took the opposite stance with the decision regarding Videoslots, which received a warning and a SEK 12m sanction fee (approximately €1.1m) for ‘deficiencies in the duty of care’ in April last year.
The court noted that it shared the regulator’s assessment of Videoslots that, for the majority of players examined, the company ‘clearly and distinctly breached its duty of care’ and so rejected its appeal, finding ..