UK Gambling Harms Research Centre to assess efficacy of regulations 

Gambling Commission admits faults but backs credibility of Young People and Gambling Survey

France adds new obligations to sign off gambling ad campaigns 

Sky Bet reprimanded by ICO sweep of unlawful cookies

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Sky Betting and Gaming (Sky Bet) has been reprimanded by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for unlawful data processing practices.

This morning, the ICO revealed that following an investigation, it had concluded that Sky Bet had processed personal data through advertising cookies without providing users’ consent.

The investigation was launched following a complaint submitted to the ICO by gambling reform campaigners Clean Up Gambling.

The complaint, which was publicised by the Financial Times and Daily Mail, accused Sky Bet of illegally gathering data to build “detailed and intimate profiles of individuals, often without their knowledge.”

Clean Up Gambling’s complaint demanded that the ICO investigate whether Sky Bet was deliberately using personal data without consent to target vulnerable gamblers – “such profiles include indicators of personal vulnerability and addictive behaviours, which can then be used to target the most vulnerable.”

The ICO investigation found that..

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Sweden’s BOS commissions Advisense survey to strengthen AML efforts

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The Swedish Trade Association for Online Gambling, Branschföreningen för Onlinespel, has commissioned a survey to strengthen its efforts against money laundering and terrorist financing.

This autumn, consulting firm Advisense will conduct the AML State of Play survey, asking BOS member companies questions on AML and terrorist financing to see what needs to be done in response to the increased risk following the rise of the internet, smartphones and new platforms being used for online gambling.

Gustaf Hoffstedt, Secretary General of BOS, commented: “The gambling market should be a place for joy, entertainment, and excitement – and the occasional big win. Criminal activities must be eradicated. Our tolerance for money laundering in the gaming industry is zero.

“Together with Advisense, we are now setting a spotlight on ourselves to identify how we can improve our work against money laundering.”

BOS highlighted that current challenges in online gambling are “reflected in recent sanct..

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Ireland told to impose child protections in Gambling Regulation Bill

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The Government of Ireland has been warned to recognise children’s exposure to gambling marketing in media and sports when finalising the regulatory terms of the Gambling Regulation Bill of Ireland (GRB).

The warning comes from BMC Public Health, a research agency conducting a “qualitative study exploring children’s exposure to and understanding of gambling marketing, risks, and harms in Ireland.”

Research was commissioned due to increased concerns about the “normalisation of gambling in sports” and reports from Irish public health agencies of a “significant increase in underage gambling.”

In its abstract, the report notes that Ireland currently has insufficient evidence on how gambling advertising is consumed and interpreted by children: “To build this evidence base and provide granular broad-level data, this study explored the sport consumption habits and views of Irish children (aged 14–17 years) on their exposure, awareness, and perceptions of the relationship between sport and g..

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SAFE Bet Act wants federal oversight of regulated US sports betting

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Rep. Paul Tonko and Sen. Richard Blumenthal announced details of their new Supporting Affordability and Fairness with Every Bet (SAFE) Bet Act during a press conference on Thursday.

Bill would create federal oversight of state-run sports betting

The overarching idea of the bill is to let states continue to regulate and oversee sports betting but to implement a set of federal minimum standards that state regulators and operators need to meet. States would be required to apply to the Department of Justice in order to get the greenlight to run a regulated market.

Those federal standards cover a wide range of topics related to responsible and problem gambling. Unlike Tonko’s previous bill, the Betting on Our Future Act, which sought to ban all electronic advertising of sports betting, this version would allow it, but with several limitations.

The bill would prohibit advertising during primetime hours as well as during live sporting events, implement language restrictions on words like ..

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UKGC continues evolution into new era of data 

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The UK Gambling Commission has continued its mission to “establish a new baseline for understanding gambling behaviour in Britain” by publishing the second part of its Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB).

It marks a transformation in the way data is collected and presented by the body as it adopts new methodologies.

A sample size of 5191 adults aged 18+ was analysed by the National Centre of Social Research (NatCen) for the period of January-to-April for the wave 1 research.

While the Gambling Commission was keen to underline that the latest results aren’t comparable to previous results due to an evolution of methodology, it revealed that the main reason respondents gambled was ‘for the chance to win big money’ and ‘because it’s fun’. 

Furthermore, the UKGC detailed that participation in gambling currently stood at 48%, falling to 27% if removing those who have only played lottery products in the past four weeks.

In terms of demographics, participation is at its peak for ..

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UKGC nets consistency on gambling participation rates of new GSGB

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The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has published wave-1 datasets of Year-2 (2024) of the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) providing statistics on gambling participation.

The redesigned survey forms part of the Gambling Commission’s new operating structure monitoring UK gambling prevalence and activities under a new methodology and approach to data collection.

As previously noted, the Commission supports a new survey “to establish a new baseline for understanding gambling behaviours in Great Britain.”

The Commission stands by its new methodology to provide the most comprehensive evaluation of gambling participation undertaken by a regulatory authority.

For 2024, wave-1 datasets on gambling participation have been published for fieldwork conducted on a sample size of 5191 adults aged 18+, by the National Centre of Social Research (NatCen) for the period of January-to-April.

Once more, the Commission reminds stakeholders that datasets of the GSGB are not comparable with previo..

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AGA, operator partners unveil new RG Intervention Effectiveness Scale

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The American Gaming Association (AGA) is attempting to make it easier to evaluate the effectiveness of responsible gambling messaging with its new Responsible Gaming Intervention Effectiveness Scale (RG-IES).

The AGA, in cooperation with Bally’s, BetMGM and FanDuel, announced the RG-IES on Sept. 11. The scale has been developed by professors Dr. Jonathan Ross Gilbert and Dr. Marla Stafford, whom the AGA and the three operators provided with funding and access to thousands of players to test certain RG messaging.

The scale provides academics, industry members and others interested in responsible gambling with a new, research-based tool they can use to evaluate responsible gaming messages.

“While no single scale or measurement tool can fully capture effectiveness in this area, we believe this new scale is an important starting point in evaluating whether or not a message has the potential to resonate with the public and are grateful to the researchers who led this important effort,” ..

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Campaign for Fairer Gambling research slammed as ‘silly, insane and vaguely Marxist’

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Anti-gambling activist Derek Webb and his Campaign For Fairer Gambling has released a fourth research paper with ​​National Economic Research Associates (Nera) assessing the economic impact of online gambling. The paper has come in for criticism for its unconventional economic analysis, which concludes that the public’s expenditure on online gambling takes away revenue from “more…

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Massachusetts regulators finally hold roundtable on limiting sports bettors

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The much-anticipated meeting of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission where the group discussed the practice of limiting bettors was certainly more informative than the first effort.

For starters, every retail and online operator actually showed up, as opposed to a May meeting where they rescinded their participation after they learned they would not be able to discuss what they believed were proprietary secrets about how their trading rooms work.

This time around, the trading team was not particularly well represented, but compliance and counsel for operators appeared to discuss the issue. While they did not go into explicit detail, the group did offer the commissioners several explanations of situations where limiting takes place.

Operators also offered some insight into just how many people were being told they could not bet as much as they wanted.

Operators allege limiting impacts an extremely small population

BetMGM representatives said roughly 1% of Massachusetts patrons had b..

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