BetStop, the National Self-Exclusion Register of Australian gambling, will undertake its first statutory review.

As confirmed by Communications Minister Michelle Rowland, the government has appointed Richard Eccles to conduct the review, evaluating BetStop’s progress against its founding objectives.

BetStop came into existence in August 2023 to serve as a national, unified gambling self-exclusion scheme available across all six federal states.

The register is operated by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), who, in 2022, were granted new federal controls on safer gambling duties across Australia.

As agreed by the gambling authorities/boards of the Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, the Northern Territory, and Tasmania, all licensed operators must register their player databases with BetStop, regardless of the state in which they are licensed.

The ACMA reports that since its launch in August 2023, over 30,000 Australians have signe..

Jake Pollard
Jake Pollard reports that an amendment introduced over the weekend will kick off the regulatory process that could see the last major western European market regulate its online casino sector.

The French government introduced an amendment over the weekend to regulate online casino and has set in motion the process that could see France become a regulated iCasino market, but the regulatory format that has been outlined has led the country’s land-based casinos to say that it is “tantamount to signing their death warrant”.

The amendment paves the way for the legalisation of the vertical, which stakeholders have been calling for for many years, and, if passed, would see France become the last major western European market to host a legal and licensed online casino sector.

With new Prime Minister Michel Barnier seeking to raise revenues to address the country’s debt levels, which currently stand at 112% of its gross domestic product while its public deficit is at 5.5% of GD..

The government is considering new policies and strategies to reduce gambling harms, including a review of new research on gambling advertising.

Stephanie Peacock, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) responded to questions on the DCMS’s assessment of “the potential impact of gambling companies advertising through sports clubs on problem gambling.”

On sponsorships, Peacock stated that all major UK sports bodies have established individual Codes of Conduct on Gambling Sponsorships, which set minimum standards and duties for gambling partnerships to follow.

The coverage of gambling sponsorships in UK sports will be significantly reduced by the Premier League’s pledge to ban front-of-shirt sponsorship by gambling firms by the end of the 2025/26 season.

Labour trusts ASA codes and controls
With regard to broadcast and media advertising, the government upholds the codes of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) as the independent body responsible for regulating ..

Roumen Spetsov, Director General of Bulgaria’s National Revenue Agency (NRA), has expanded the country’s online gambling blacklist with 52 more operators.

After an exhaustive investigation by the national gambling regulator, its specialised branch – the Electronic Audit of Systems of Gambling Operators (EASGO) – concluded that the websites in question were targeting Bulgarian users without having an active licence under the gambling law.

Upon visiting the websites, some of which were bearing domains from Armenia (.am) and Kazakhstan (.kz), customers were met with advertising banners and accompanying text inviting users to participate in the illegal games by creating a player profile and then opening an account for deposits and withdrawals – all of which made easily accessible.

Roumen Spetsov/LinkedIn
“I order for the provision of online games on the following websites operating without a licence under Bulgarian law to be suspended within three days of this decision,” Spetsov said i..

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has set out its approach to combat unlicensed gambling threats, viewed as a source of crime impacting society.

The mandate is led by Chief Executive Andrew Rhodes as the Commission upholds its “corporate strategy to increase investment, resources, and capacity to tackle illegal gambling”.

Unlicensed gambling is viewed as a crime and an economic threat as illegal operators contribute no tax and undercut a legitimate market, thereby failing to protect consumers.

To date, the Commission’s enforcements against unlicensed operators have focused on disrupting illegal operations by blocking URLs, denying payments, and making illegal products inaccessible.

Cooperation with wider authorities, technology partners, and international regulators has seen the UKGC impose over 750 cease-and-desist notices. Over 78,000 URLs have been referred to Google and Microsoft, with 50,000 removed and 255 websites taken down.

As UK gambling adjusts to new rules and technica..

KELA, the Social Insurance Institute of Finland has revised its policy on gambling and social benefits effective from October 2024.

The Institute serves as the general provider of economic assistance and securities for Finnish communities and citizens.

With the new policy, KELA will now examine both winnings and gambling expenditures when assessing economic support for individual recipients.

Previously, KELA only considered gambling winnings in its evaluations of social assistance. This policy change comes from KELA’s decision to monitor gambling expenditure to reduce financial difficulties caused by gambling.

The updated guidelines aim to prevent social assistance recipients from being unfairly impacted by gambling winnings and to help address financial issues linked to problem gambling.

Starting in October, KELA will assess customers’ gambling accounts by calculating the difference between stakes and winnings, focusing on gambling activities over a longer period rather than just..