True or False? Are we experiencing a youth gambling crisis in Britain?
Dan Waugh of Regulus Partners continues his groundbreaking series of articles that expose the myth-making around gambling and misuse of statistics
Dan Waugh of Regulus Partners continues his groundbreaking series of articles that expose the myth-making around gambling and misuse of statistics
The UKGC is set to implement widespread changes across the industry with ‘light touch’ affordability checks being triggered after a spend of £150 a month.
With the intention of ‘boosting safety and choice for consumers’, the new measures are following a myriad of white paper consultations and will be implemented in four stages: August 2024, November 2024, January 2025 and February 2025.
In a bid to smooth the transition process as much as possible, these checks will initially come into force at £500 a month from 30 August 2024, before reducing to £150 a month from 28 February 2025.
Off the back of consultation feedback, the Commission will carry out a pilot to test the details of frictionless assessments in practice, working with credit reference agencies and gambling businesses to examine the potential consumer impact.
The initial pilot period for these new measures will involve the biggest operators, in order to enable the UKGC to gain the deepest possible understanding over th..
The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) has established a new ‘voluntary code on customer checks’ to minimise frictions of financial checks and improve consistencies in know-your-customer (KYC) duties.
The voluntary code was designed in collaboration with the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) to help raise standards and reduce the need for private financial document requests when verifying customers.
As cited by the BGC, the code was designed “in response to the ongoing debate around affordability, the BGC, Government, and GC are taking action now to find practical solutions for online betting and gaming, giving greater clarity to customers and horseracing, while enhancing standards.”
Launched as a voluntary measure for BGC members, the code specifies actions required when customers’ accounts exceed net deposits of £5,000 in a rolling month or £25,000 within a 12-month period.
Members applying the code “must undertake a risk assessment of that customer to: i) understand their financial si..
Spain’s Ministry of Consumer Affairs will prioritise restoring gambling advertising restrictions as intended by the Royal Decree on Advertising.
The plan was outlined by Pablo Bustinduy, Spain’s new Minister of Social Rights and Consumer Affairs, addressing media on the current framework of federal rules on gambling advertising.
Confusion has arisen in the Spanish media, as this April the Supreme Court annulled specific articles of the Royal Decree on Advertising.
In an address to the Spanish media and the Directorate General of Gambling Regulation (DGOJ), Bustinduy intends to reintroduce and enhance restrictions on gambling advertising through legislative means, following annulments determined by the Supreme Court.
Since 2020, the Decree had limited gambling advertising on all Spanish media platforms from the early morning hours of 1 to 5 am. Further restrictions followed in 2022, as the Decree imposed a blanket ban on all forms of gambling sponsorships in professional sports, exc..
Sports bettors are more likely to binge drink and consume more alcohol according to a new study from the International Center for Responsible Gambling (ICRG).
Published in the JAMA Network Open journal, the study found its sample of sports bettors were disproportionately more likely to report binge drinking at a greater frequency over the last 12 months compared to non-sports bettors.
Led by Dr. Joshua Grubbs of the University of New Mexico, the study states that its findings underscore the need for targeted public health interventions and informed regulatory policies to mitigate the risks associated with sports betting and alcohol consumption.
“Our research highlights a troubling trend of excessive alcohol use among sports bettors,” explained Grubbs. “We must use these insights to formulate effective strategies that promote responsible gaming and alcohol consumption.”
Grubbs also noted that further investigation is needed to compare alcohol consumption between online and retail sp..
For the latest episode of the Safe Bet Show, Martin Lycka satdownwith Arthur Paikowsky, President of the International Centre for Responsible Gambling, as he revealed that fundraising has become increasingly driven by technology.
Paikowsky also disclosed how the ICRG, formerly known as the NCRG, has evolved in recent years and how the standards of excellence in fundraising involve interacting with people.
Analysing the future of fundraising, he stated: “In a lot of industries, everybody’s looking for the next best thing, the next big idea. And I have to tell you, I’m pretty old school when it comes to this, because if you find something that works, and it worked in the first 10 years of my career and the next 10 years of my career and so on and so forth.
“I’m going back to the well. I keep doing what I do best. In fact, I had a conversation yesterday with an extremely well-known senior executive in the field. And he said to me, I learned a lot about fundraising from you. To me, t..
The Dutch gaming authority, Kansspelautoriteit, has confirmed that most of its new Responsible Gaming Policy will be implemented on June 3, followed by the remainder of the policy in October 2024.
Earlier this month, the KSA announced that its amended policy would be pushed back from May 2024 to June 3, 2024, due to the response period extension it gave to gaming industry stakeholders to comment on the proposed changes, as well as the large number of responses the authority received.
In December last year, the extension was issued to give stakeholders across the gaming sector extra time to provide feedback on the proposed Responsible Gaming Policy changes, including a tightening of the duty of care of online providers for their players.
Providing an update, the authority has now confirmed that there will be two definitive dates for when parts of the policy will come into effect for providers, with most of the amended rules being implemented and published in the Government Gazette on..
IBAS, the Independent Betting Adjudication Service, has clarified its position on matters related to settling disputed bets between bookmakers and customers.
Recognised as the UK’s most referred-to Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) service, IBAS issued its response related to this weekend’s BBC article referencing its ADR service used by customers to challenge the outcome of disputed bets.
The BBC highlighted concerns by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) that wrong results were being determined by bookmakers due to inaccurate data being recorded from feeds provided by third-party partners, monitoring match events.
Of significance, disputes on bet-builder outcomes were highlighted as customers ‘felt robbed’ by inaccurate data used to determine match statistics.
The article referenced IBAS’s Richard Hayler, who detailed that “nearly 300 people tried to appeal their football data bets”, and that data disputes “made up around 15% of their workload.”
On arbitrating disputes, the BBC..
Paysafe is diversifying its offerings for online casino operators.
The payments platform announced on Monday the launch of Pay by Bank, a new product that allows iGaming players in America to fund their gaming accounts directly from their online bank accounts. Pay by Bank, which is part of Paysafe’s Gateway payments solution, also allows online bettors to cash out their winnings seamlessly to their banking accounts.
“We’re delighted to unveil our new Pay by Bank product for our iGaming solution, which will almost certainly prove very effective in both converting and retaining players for U.S. operators, with the product’s impressive transactional speed and robust security,” said Paysafe President of Global Gaming Zak Cutler. “Through Pay by Bank, we continue to grow the Paysafe Gateway by providing American operators and their customers with unparalleled payment choices, all through a single integration.”
Paysafe has launched its new iGaming solution amid demand from U.S. players fo..
The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) will probe how football betting markets are settled, following concerns over wrong results being determined by bookmakers.
The Commission confirmed to the BBC that it would “meet figures in the football betting industry over claims that wrong results are being recorded”.
The probe follows consumer disputes concerning the use of inaccurate data used to settle football wagers referencing “statistics like the number of tackles or shots in a match.”
Customers have “felt robbed” due to incidents of inaccurate data being recorded by bookmakers using third-party feeds to monitor match play and to settle final outcomes.
Andrew Rhodes, CEO of the Gambling Commission, will meet with key betting data stakeholders to ensure the settlement of football markets is both accurate and fair.
The BBC’s report cited two customer disputes related to bet-builder wagers. These disputes involved misreported shots by Mo Salah and tackles made by Sunderland FC, errors attri..