In this episode, Charlie Horner and Ted Orme-Claye dissect the latest developments in UK gambling regulation, including opposition to financial risk assessments, proposals from the Social Markets Foundation, and the political landscape under Prime Minister Andy Burnham. Key Topics:
Are tighter gambling regulations always better for player protection or could they push players towards the black market? In this episode of The Safe Bet Show, Martin Lycka is joined by Scott Burrows, Director of Technical Compliance at Super, to discuss UK regulatory changes, black market risk, technical compliance and the future of safer gambling.…
Rep. Josh Gottheimer is leading a legislative effort in Congress to ensure prediction markets and online sportsbooks to verify they accept only age-appropriate users via facial recognition.
On Wednesday, Gottheimer (D-NJ) introduced the Facial Recognition to Protect Children Act, a measure that would require prediction markets and licensed online sports betting operators to deploy facial recognition technology to verify the age of users who want to trade or wager.
Gottheimer introduced the bipartisan bill amid concern regarding the availability of trading and gambling to consumers under the age of 18. According to data provided by Common Sense Media, about 40% of boys aged 14 to 17 have gambled in the past year.
“We’re asking our kids to self-police their way past a system built entirely on the honor code. A kid can log into a parent’s, an older sibling’s, or a friend’s account and place a bet with no verification at all. Nobody checks. That’s it. That’s the whole system,” said Gott..
Overall gambling participation in Great Britain dipped slightly in 2025, according to the latest Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB).
The Gambling Commission’s publication revealed that 59% of adults gambled in the past 12 months, down marginally from 60% a year earlier.
Participation over the previous four weeks edged down from 48% to 47%, while online gambling remained unchanged at 38%.
Excluding National Lottery-only players, gambling participation slipped from 41% to 40% over the past year, and down from 28% to 27% over the previous four weeks.
The National Lottery remained the country’s most popular gambling product, with 31% of adults purchasing tickets, while participation in other charity lotteries held steady at 16%. Scratchcard participation fell slightly from 13% to 12%.
Problem gambling rate dips … slightly
One of the big talking points since the inaugural GSGB in 2023 has been the rate of problem gambling in the UK.
The survey showed a modest decline in the pr..
1xCare, the non-profit responsible gambling initiative established by the owner of the global operator brand 1xBet, has created a four-member independent Advisory Committee chaired by Simon Westbury to strengthen the oversight of its player protection programme.
Westbury will be joined by experts in gambling regulation, public policy, programme governance, and sports integrity, who will all contribute to 1xCare’s ambitious programme.
The team will oversee 1xCare’s four core pillars – EduCare, TechShield, Support and Well-Being, and its Research Hub – expanding the Committee’s remit to funding allocation, ethical standards and compliance, focusing on regulated markets.
Looking at the individual Committee members, Westbury will leverage his role as Chairperson to provide strategic leadership, act as the primary spokesperson and monitor the ethical standards and NGO compliance.
Quirino Mancini, Partner at corporate law firm WH Partners and former President of the International Masters..
A coroner’s court in the UK has found that gambling disorder played a part in the suicide of 40-year-old Gareth Evans in 2021. William Hill’s responsible gambling processes came under the microscope due to Evans’ history of gambling with William Hill online and in its shops. Evans’ death occurred in November 2021, while William Hill…
Canada is a sports-mad nation. Hockey is a national religion, the Toronto Blue Jays captured imaginations with their World Series run last year, this summer’s FIFA World Cup had the entire country watching, the NFL, NBA, CFL, and European soccer all have an eager following, to name but a few.
This enthusiasm for sports has paid off well for the regulated sports betting industry in Ontario. And with Alberta joining its fellow province in launching a regulated market on July 13, the same can reasonably be expected there.
With the emergence of new betting markets and continued expansion of the industry, challenges always come. The conversation around sports integrity is constant, and it has been at fever pitch since last year amid numerous high-profile incidents of alleged match-fixing in North American pro and college sports.
For integrity monitoring and compliance firm Integrity Compliance 360 (IC360), preserving sports betting integrity is a way of life.
“The broader conversation g..
As more states reassess the state of play of their gambling industries, there is a push on multiple fronts happening in Pennsylvania right now for the state to implement a range of new measures aimed at protecting online gamblers.
The bipartisan Joint State Government Commission released a report on Monday that proposes a number of changes, and the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) has put forth suggested regulatory amendments of its own.
What are Pennsylvania legislators suggestions for gambling?
The bipartisan and bicameral research agency of the state General Assembly published a lengthy study on July 13, after being mandated by House Resolution No. 60 to review how sports betting and iGaming are affecting the state and its population.
The ‘Sports Betting and Related Interactive Gambling in Pennsylvania‘ report was written by staff and overseen by the commission’s assistant general counsel. It cites several studies as evidence that increased gambling addiction in Pennsylv..
Gamstop has reported that May 2026 was a month which saw self-exclusion rates on its platform at an all-time high.
The UK organisation further confirmed that under 25s are the most conscious about their online gambling behaviour in light of the problem gambling charity’s latest H1 2026 report.
For the period January-June, Gamstop saw an uptick of 16% in YoY registrations, with May going in the history books as the charity’s most active month on record in terms of new signees.
In that month alone, a total of 12,236 sign-ups were recorded, unlike the rest of the period where registrations have been consistent historically on a month-by-month basis. Gamstop expects the number of new signees in July to “eclipse” May, though, as it confirmed a surge is usually seen after a big football tournament or after England being knocked out.
Matt Burgiss, Head of External Affairs at Gamstop Group, warned: “There is a real risk that people have increased their gambling during the World Cup and on..
Greece has approved a “key cooperation” to allow sophisticated and reactive web-blocking and domain closures against illegal gambling websites.
As announced by the Hellenic Gaming Commission (EEEP) a new strategy has been enabled with Hellenic Telecommunications and Post Commission (EETT) to prioritise “DNS-based” web-blocking and domain name enforcement.
The Commission states that the legislation introduces “a faster, more technically documented and more effective system” for identifying and blocking unlicensed online gambling operators.
The cooperation forms part of the ‘new Gambling Framework’ bill drafted by Minister of National Economy and Finance Kyriakos Pierrakakis, to modernise Greece’s gambling laws and enforcement capabilities against the growing threat of black market gambling.
DNS-based enforcement
The new enforcement will change the EEEP’s approach to how it monitors and penalises illegal gambling websites, which to date have led to illegal websites being solely bla..