The Christian Democratic Appeal party’s push to ban all gambling advertising in the Netherlands has fallen short, as the Dutch parliament voted against the party’s mandate.

Led by CDA MP Derk Boswijk, the mandate pushed for a blanket ban on all Dutch gambling advertising to form part of the upcoming safer gambling amendments to the Remote Gambling Act (KOA Act).

Unfortunately for the CDA, the mandate fell narrowly short of a 76-vote majority in the House of Representatives, with support from 70 out of 150 MPs not enough to get it over the line.

However, Dutch ministers within the Kamer (parliament) agreed that ‘overarching playing limits’ must be included in the ongoing amendments to the KOA Act.

The CDA’s proposal had support from various parties, including ChristenUnie, Socialist Party, New Social Contract, and the SGP.

Three mandates related to amending the KOA Act were voted in the House, aiming to reshape the Act which has governed the Netherlands’ online gambling market si..

GamCare has expanded the responsibilities of its Director of Communications and External Affairs Mark Weiss, appointing him as Deputy CEO.

Having been a part of the GamCare team since May 2022, Weiss brings over 10 years of health policy and communications experience to the Deputy CEO position.

Since joining GamCare, Weiss has helped the gambling charity with its external engagement and communications programme, leading its response to the government’s White Paper, as well as reflecting the views of the lived experience community on how the government could help make gambling safer.

Working closely with Executive Chair Margot Daly, Weiss will offer strategic leadership and direction across GamCare’s services in his new role, in addition to serving as a GamCare ambassador, raising the charity’s profile and that of the people it supports.

Commenting on his new role, Weiss said: “I am delighted to take on the role of Deputy CEO. Since joining in 2022 I have seen first-hand the incr..

GambleAware is looking to fund a research project to develop a new framework for gambling-related harm in Great Britain.

The goal of the project is to build on the previous findings from a scoping review published in July 2023 conducted on behalf of GambleAware by the National Centre for Social Research and the University of Plymouth titled ‘Frameworks and Measurement of Gambling Related Harm: A Scoping Study’.

The new research project will “address identified issues with the Problem Gambling Severity Index in the screening and assessment of harm” and “build on and adapt other frameworks that have been established in other jurisdictions and adjacent policy areas”.

GambleAware noted that the scoping study focused “on individual behaviour and overlooked a variety of socio-environmental factors which contribute to gambling-related harms, with methodologies often lacking robustness and failing to engage with people with lived experience”.

The gambling charity added: “The reliance on t..

Spillemyndigheden, the Danish gambling authority, has declared a year-over-year improvement of over 22 per cent across the industry in December, but only a slight increase across 2023 as a whole in comparison to the previous year.

Publishing its data for December 2023, Spillemyndigheden noted that the total GGR amounted to DKK 665m (€89.23m), up 22.6 per cent YoY (December 2022: DKK 543m). December’s figure is also an improvement on November’s GGR of DKK 606m.

For the full 2023 year, the gambling authority posted a GGR of DKK 6.8bn, up one per cent in comparison to 2022’s DKK 6.7bn.

December GGR was driven by growth across betting, online casinos and land-based casinos, but gaming machines did decline slightly in comparison to the same month in 2022.

In terms of GGR share, online casinos led the way with a 45.85 per cent share, followed by betting with 34.02 per cent, gaming machines with 14.93 per cent and land-based casinos with 5.2 per cent.

December’s online casino GGR came in..

SkyCity Entertainment Group has been informed by the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs that it intends to file civil penalty proceedings against the operator for non-compliance with the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act.

To be filed in the High Court on February 16 against SkyCity Casino Management, the penalty outlines five separate causes of action which allege “significant compliance issues in relation to the act”, mostly related to historical matters, but some refer to previously self-reported non-compliance incidents as well.

SkyCity Casino Management is a subsidiary of SkyCity and the casino operator licence holder for the SkyCity Auckland, SkyCity Hamilton and SkyCity Queenstown casinos in New Zealand.

SkyCity noted that it is “disappointed that it has not met the standard to which it needs to hold itself”, resulting in the penalty filing, and that it wishes to engage constructively with the department to resolve the matters expeditiousl..

Dutch gambling advertising could soon be a thing of the past as a mandate has been filed to ban all gambling advertising ahead of the parliamentary vote on the Remote Gambling Act later this week.

Following calls for an overhaul of Dutch gambling advertising laws led by Derk Boswijk of the Christian Democratic Appeal party, the mandate will look to remove and ban all advertising before further safer gambling amendments are voted into the RG Act.

Franc Weerwind, Minister for Legal Protections, continues to face pressure to revise the amendments of the RG Act, otherwise known as the KOA Act, initiating a review of the Netherlands’ online gambling marketplace since it opened in October 2021.

In February, the Dutch parliament, the Kamer, will vote on Weerwind’s recommendations to impose a compulsory monthly financial risk check on player accounts that spend over €350. Weerwind has further endorsed that a €150 spend limit be applied on the gambling accounts of customers younger than 2..

Colombia’s online gambling tax measures are set to be reviewed as the Senate of Colombia continues to overhaul public welfare and healthcare systems in the nation.

Scheduled to begin on Friday, February 16, the debates will be led by Senator Antonio Correa of Partido de la Union.

Colombia revamped its Gambling Act (2001) back in 2016, approving new laws to govern online gambling products and services. This saw the country become the first in South America to launch a regulated and taxed online gambling regime in 2017, open to foreign and domestic businesses.

In the upcoming debates, senators in the upper house will review the current tax framework for online gambling, which currently charges a 15 per cent GGR rate on licenced operators that maintain an RTP of 83 per cent of total stakes.

For those companies that register an RTP percentage above 83, a 17 per cent GGR rate is charged.

The overhaul of Colombia’s public welfare and healthcare systems is recognised as the principal ..

GamCare has reported that the Safer Gambling Standard will continue its work under a different structure outside of the gambling treatment charity.

The decision for this change was made by GamCare’s board in December last year. A strategic review will be undertaken by its leadership team to facilitate the change.

GamCare noted that the outcome of the review will be announced in due course.

Launched in 2019 and accredited by UKAS, the Safer Gambling Standard is an independent quality standard that evaluates measures by gambling companies to protect people from gambling-related harm.

GamCare also stated that the Safer Gambling Standard team is reviewing the “very serious recent development in relation to online gambling operator, Gamesys, to see whether there have been any breaches of the Safer Gambling Standard requirements”.

Back in January, Gamesys was ordered to pay a £6m penalty by the UK Gambling Commission after an investigation discovered social responsibility and anti-mone..