The National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) Board of Directors has announced the departure of Keith Whyte from his position as Executive Director after 26 years in the role. Whyte left the role last week (January 13) for a new career as a responsible gambling consultant. “After more than 26 years as Executive Director of…
The Dutch National Information Centre for Gambling Players (Slicks) has set up a new support hub for problem gambling victims in Amsterdam.
This comes as part of a new pilot project funded by the Addiction Prevention Fund (VPF), exploring the benefits of a localised targeting support strategy.
VPF is managed by the Netherlands’ gambling authority Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), and was set up as a result of the Remote Gambling Act (KOA) that kickstarted the Dutch online gambling market back in 2021.
The fund has several spending goals, one of which is the research of gambling harm prevention projects.
One of the projects supported by VPF in 2024 was a grant competition launched by Dutch healthcare researcher ZonMw as part of its 2023-2029 “Prevention of Gambling Addiction” programme.
As per the pilot in Amsterdam, local residents experiencing problem gambling will be able to visit a walk-in facility on Keizersgracht city canal. There, they’ll be able to get advised on available supp..
Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) Chair Michel Groothuizen has promised tough action against any licensee that violates its advertising regulations in the Netherlands gambling market.
Published on the Dutch Gaming Authority’s website, Groothuizen’s speech to the online industry was delivered at the Annual Gaming Industry Event at the Koninklijke Industrieele Groote Club in Amsterdam.
During the speech, the KSA Chair highlighted the authority’s recently published Supervisory Agenda for 2025 and its key points of focus being advertising compliance, minors and young adults, duty of care supervision and combating the illegal market.
For advertising, Groothuizen emphasised that the authority is going to be tougher on those who look to “push the boundaries” and that one licence holder has already received a hefty fine this year, although that licensee was not named.
“We’re going to crack down harder on parties that push the boundaries again and have also imposed a hefty fine on a license holder t..
SBC Media’s first Canadian Gaming Business magazine of 2025 focuses on expanding existing horizons and looking towards new ones.
Featuring insights from the likes of BetMGM, PointsBet, AGLC, BCLC, OLG, H2 Gambling Capital, Vixio Regulatory Intelligence, Paramount Commerce, Snuneymuxw First Nation, Fitzdares and more, the issue touches on several of the biggest topics from all corners of the Canadian gaming industry.
A key focus is Alberta, which was one of the biggest storylines of 2024 and is likely to continue in the same vein in 2025. In our cover story, we speak to BetMGM and PointsBet’s Canadian experts Scott Woodgate and Scott Vanderwel about the allure of the province and their eagerness for the ball to drop.
Meanwhile, taking a look at the yearly reporting of iGaming Ontario and OLG paints a picture of how the province’s regulated market continues to boom as we close in on the three-year milestone. As for the grey market in Ontario and elsewhere, H2 Gambling Capital data shi..
The Ethical Gambling Forum brings together compliance and responsible gambling professionals with regulators, lawyers, HR professionals, marketing experts, researchers and treatment organisations for an inspiring ESG bootcamp. You can expect an imaginative agenda with speakers who are unafraid to talk on controversial and difficult topics such as gambling-related crime; children and gambling; lived experience of…
Tax adjustments to specific gambling segments have been incorporated into Italy’s 2025 Budget Law, signed off by President Sergio Mattarella on 9 January.
The provisions of the 2025 Budget Law have elicited both positive and negative reactions from Italian gambling stakeholders.
The Budget confirmed the decision by the Ministry of Finance (MEF) to extend existing concessions for online gambling licences for an additional tax year.
Additionally, concessions for land-based gambling venues, which were set to expire in December 2024, have been extended by a further two years as the government continues reorganising laws related to retail betting, horse racing, bingo, and gaming machines.
For online gambling, the extension will allow several operators to maintain their current status for an additional fiscal year before transitioning to a new licence regime. The new regime will impose a €7 million authorisation fee and operating fees of 3%.
Italy’s new licence regime was launched on 19..
Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), the Dutch Gaming Authority, has issued a fine of €1.275m to Winning Poker Network (WPN) for allowing Dutch players to play on its websites without the necessary licence.
In a statement, the KSA noted that players in the Netherlands could access WPN’s americascardroom website and gamble illegally. The authority then informed WPN that it intended to impose a penalty payment order and block access to the website.
The authority’s statement said that WPN owns several websites, including truepoker, which are illegal in the Netherlands. The KSA stated that this website remained available to Dutch people, so it still imposed a penalty payment and said it would stop all WPN sites.
Alongside the penalty payment, the KSA also said that sanctions can be imposed for the length of time in which the illegal offer was available, which it says is also the case here.
Through its investigation, the KSA stated that it found eight violations of aggravating circumstances by WP..
Seven new cases of advertising violations have kept the Dutch gambling regulator busy in the first weeks of the new year.
Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) reported that the issued violations were in relation to marketing campaigns that had the potential to influence young people – a target group the KSA closely guards due to a higher risk of problem gambling among its members, with an updated young people protections framework coming into force in 2025.
One of the cases was a result of a cooperation between an unnamed operator and a partner organisation, both of them involved in the organisation of a certain motorsport event.
A car that was part of the event had the gambling provider’s logo on it. However, it was not removed once the event was over, and the car was seen together with the logo on public roads, according to a KSA investigation. This constituted a form of non-targeted advertising.
In another case, the logo of a land-based gaming venue was digitally advertised on screens in..
The Seimas of Lithuania will vote on Tuesday (14 January) on the implementation of new gambling controls to be applied via national banks.
A new set of gambling controls has been proposed to the Seimas, which includes new checks and duties to be carried out by all banks (foreign and domestic) licensed by the Bank of Lithuania.
The new controls will require Lithuanian banks to monitor all gambling transactions and provide direct reports to the LPT, the Gambling Control Authority of Lithuania.
Banks must comply with the new duties to ensure that payments to illegal gambling websites registered on the Gambling Control Authority’s blacklist are blocked.
Payments to illegal operators must be terminated within 24 hours of receiving a directive, with fines ranging from €1,800 to €3,800 for initial violations and up to €6,000 for repeat offences.
The LPT supports applying direct controls on banks as the best measure to monitor black market activities, having already banned 1,600 websites ..
The Singapore government has cracked down on illegal gambling by banning over 3,800 illicit websites.
Assessing that the banned websites target Singapore gamblers, the Ministry of Home Affairs has blocked the websites as of 31 December 2024.
Singapore’s Government suggested that the websites may have contributed to more than 145,000 illegal gambling transactions involving the Singapore public, amounting to approximately SGD$37m (£22m).
“These blocking measures have impeded access to illegal online gambling to some extent,” a statement from the Ministry of Home Affairs read.
“However, this approach is clearly not foolproof as illegal operators can easily create new websites, and we do not have the ability to know of every gambling website.
“We encourage members of the public to report illegal gambling websites, apps, and advertisements, as well as bank accounts used by illegal gambling operators, to the police.”
The Government body also responded to a question from a Mr Yip Hon..