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 

Brazil Banks seek SPA guidance to fight gambling crimes 

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Febraban, Brazil’s Federation of National Banks, has outlined that it will work with the Ministry of Finance (MEF) and the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting (SPA) to eliminate money laundering from gambling activities.

The statement was made by Febraban President, Isaac Sidney, following a meeting with Ministry of Finance leadership and Regis Dudena, President of the SPA. Dialogue focused on safeguarding Brazil’s regulated betting sector from economic crimes amid concerns that criminal organisations are using online platforms to launder illicit funds, deemed an ‘economic liability’ impacting society.

Febraban, which represents the biggest financial institutions including Bradesco, Banco do Brasil, and Itaú, stressed the need for a coordinated “public-private action plan to prevent the misuse of digital payment systems”, such as Pix, by illegal gambling operators.

Sidney warned: “Online betting platforms are a high-risk channel for money laundering. The public sector and private institutions must act decisively to prevent organised crime from using these tools to expand their financial operations.”

He also called for immediate limits on Pix-based betting transactions: “If banning Pix is not feasible in the short term, then maximum betting limits must be established as the Central Bank already does for night-time transactions.”

The meeting brought together key representatives from Brazil’s banking AML/CTF units, including compliance directors, national managers, and security chiefs, reinforcing the sector’s alignment with federal regulators.

The discussions come as the Ministry of Finance considers increasing the Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) tax rate on fixed-odds betting from 12% to 18%, part of a broader tax reform to boost public revenues and enhance sector transparency.

Separately, in May 2025, Febraban also met with the Associação Nacional de Jogos e Loterias (ANJL) to deepen cooperation. ANJL President Plínio Lemos Jorge warned that illegal operators pose the greatest money laundering risks. He welcomed Febraban’s support and called for closer collaboration between banks and licensed betting operators to protect market integrity.

“We must not lose sight that the real risk lies with unregulated platforms. A unified strategy between the banking sector and licensed operators is essential to build a transparent and compliant gambling ecosystem,” said Jorge.

Chamber proposes funding measure for Deaf Sports

Meanwhile, the Chamber of Deputies continues to review new legislative proposals. Among them, Bill No. 448/2024 would allocate 0.1% of online betting revenues to the Brazilian Confederation of Sports for the Deaf (CBDS), diverting part of the current funding from the Ministry of Sport.

Federal Deputy Flávia Morais (PDT-GO), the bill’s rapporteur, underscored the social value of the measure: “The CBDS plays a vital role in promoting sport among the deaf community. These resources will allow the organisation to expand its work, support more athletes, and strengthen inclusive sporting programmes across the country.”

Taken together, these developments signal Brazil’s determination to strengthen its regulatory framework as the gambling market matures — balancing increased taxation, financial compliance, and social responsibility.

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Online sports betting leads to new injury reporting process for ACC

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A Power Four conference is making changes amid the influx of wagering on college sports.

ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips announced at the 2025 ACC Football Kickoff this week changes to the conference’s reporting process for football injuries. Starting this upcoming football season, ACC member institutions will provide public injury reports at least 48 hours before all conference games to protect student-athletes from individuals attempting to obtain insider information used for gambling. The change in procedure will mirror the NFL’s injury reporting process, which applies certain injury designations to athletes.

“There’s stresses on our student-athletes from individuals that are trying to garner information,” said Phillips. “Sometimes it’s pretty innocent because they just want to know, they’re a big fan, but other times it really does trickle and lead yourself to the gambling and sports wagering kind of path.”

The ACC’s rule change requires athletic departments to categorize their fo..

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Romania seeks ‘local controls’ as part of gambling overhaul

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Gambling reforms continue to be proposed to the newly assembled coalition government of Romania.

On Friday, Cseke Attila, the Minister of Public Development and Administration, announced that he will propose for local authorities to have direct control to authorise-or-refuse gambling localities.

The Minister believes that his proposal should form part of President Ilie Bolojan‘s new strategy for the economic development of Romania’s rural towns and provinces

The new proposal would grant city halls the right to decide whether to approve gambling activities in their jurisdiction. If permitted, local authorities will also have the power to determine where such activities are located and to impose a special annual tax on licensed operators.

According to Attila, this tax would be unrestricted in scope: “We will not propose limits for the annual tax — it will be up to the city hall to decide.”

The reforms are a central feature of a broader programme by Romania’s Pro-EU Social Democrat coalition to fix the growing economic disparity between cities and rural towns. The coalition’s infrastructure-driven approach is focused on rewarding communities that can responsibly manage development and generate new forms of public revenue. Under the proposed legislation, towns that approve gambling activities can retain revenue through a localised gambling tax.

“Local communities should have the right to decide if they want gambling — and if so, to benefit from it directly,” Attila stated, describing the initiative as both a regulatory and economic development tool. The reform is intended to empower rural municipalities to determine whether gambling aligns with their social interests, while also offering a new financial lever to invest in public services.

Concerns over rising rates of problem gambling in disadvantaged rural communities previously led to national-level intervention. In one of his final acts in office, former Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu authorised the executive order known as Legea Păcănelelor (The “Pannel Law”), which banned slot machines and betting shops from operating in towns with fewer than 15,000 inhabitants.

The order reflected growing public pressure to protect vulnerable communities from the social harms linked to gambling expansion.

Meanwhile, sweeping reforms are also being prepared at the national level. Upon forming the government, Finance Minister Alexandru Nazare announced that Romania would undertake a comprehensive review of its gambling tax regime.

This includes the introduction of a new tax scale on both the income of gambling licence holders and customer winnings. Nazare believes that such reforms could raise more than €1bn annually in additional revenue.

The forthcoming legislation marks what will be Romania’s sixth revision of its gambling tax framework in 2018, underscoring the complexity and volatility of regulating the sector.

In parallel, scrutiny of the gambling sector’s governance continues to mount. The current regulator, ONJN (National Office for Gambling), faces pressure from coalition partner USR, which argues that oversight must be transferred to a newly created agency under the Ministry of Finance. USR has also proposed that, during a transition period, customer gambling spend should be capped at 10% of individual income.

Despite the array of reforms under discussion, the government has so far agreed to move forward with only one immediate legislative change: the introduction of uniform federal rules on gambling self-exclusion, which all licensed operators will be required to implement.

A transitional period of six months will be granted to gambling operators already active in localities, during which they must reapply for permission from local authorities. Without such approval, existing venues will be forced to cease operations.

The proposed decentralisation of gambling controls is expected to form part of the second fiscal reform package currently under development. Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan has confirmed that a decision on adoption will be made by the end of July.

“In the next week and the week after… a decision will be made in the coalition on how these packages will be adopted from a legal point of view,” he said.

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White label casino deals causing an AML headache for UK govt

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The British Home Office has declared that there has been an increase in illegal casinos targeting the UK in its latest National Risk Assessment (NRA).

Citing this and other factors the Home Office has raised the anti-money laundering (AML) from low to medium, though the risk for terrorist financing remains low.

The risk level was maintained at low in the 2017 and 2020 Home Office’s NRAs, but the department has opted to raise it due to a number of changes it has observed over the past five years.

Changes in customer, geographical and transaction risks are the main reasons cited by the Home Office. The government is particularly concerned with the increase in funds moving through online casinos, new ways to play casino games and an updated assessment of casinos as Money Service Businesses (MSBs).

In this latter case, not all casinos function as MSBs and the Home Office has noted that the number of casinos offering services like foreign currency exchanges and cheque cashing services has declined, some still do.

MSB services heighten the money laundering risk faced by UK casinos, the Home Office asserts. The 2025 NRA stresses that MSB services attract higher risk customers using higher risk transactional methods, such as those making transitions to and from high risk jurisdictions.

White labels under spotlight
The connectivity between the UK casino sector and counterpart industries in more high risk financial jurisdictions has been causing a headache for British authorities, and those of other jurisdictions, for some time.

Even more alarming for the government is the alleged connections between some UK casino companies and illegal overseas operations. White label deals have been cited as being of particular concern here.

White label deals are commonplace in the UK, whereby companies pay a white label partner to operate their UK domain for them under said partners’ licence. The Home Office is concerned about some cases where operators have relied on unlicensed third parties for compliance.

“In these cases, the licensee would remain responsible for compliance, although they did not always have sufficient oversight,” the National Risk Assessment details.

“These arrangements are now less common, but risks remain where white-label providers offer large numbers of websites, as failure by a single remote casino to control the ML risks relating to their white-label partnerships can impact a significant number of websites.”

White label deals have been the subject of some negative press over the past couple of years. Much of this publicity has been around Isle of Man-based companies, with TGP Europe in particular getting a lot of attention.

Last year, the licence for TGP Europe-operated Kaiyun Sports expired, leading the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) warning the company’s then football partners, Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace, to reconsider the sponsorships.

TGP Europe would later shut down all of its brands in April 2025, surrender its operating licence and have to pay a substantial fine to the Commission, which accused the firm of failing to carry out sufficient due diligence against its partners, among other licensing breaches.

This came after years of mourning concerns at the Isle of Man government around the island’s targeting by international criminal groups. The Crown Dependency’s government shared concerns previously raised by the UN about the extensive activity of East Asian and Southeast Asian illegal gambling and cryptocurrency operations.

The UK Home Office risk assessment has not singled out any particular geographic region. However, the Home Office has noted that Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) around illegal activity related to casinos have increased from 2020, rising from 6,000 in 2022/23 to 7,500 in 2023/24.

“Illegal casinos continue to attract new customers, heavily targeting online advertising with offers that entice new customers to gamble with them,” the NRA read.

“As they operate illegally, they will not be supervised by the Gambling Commission, nor have a requirement to implement MLR controls. The use of cryptoassets in illegal casinos is also increasing.”

Illegal casinos have been met with regulatory and enforcement action. The report notes that the UKGC issued 1,158 stage one cease and desist notices relating to online casinos, referred 118,181 URLs to Google and Bing and had 81,292 URLs promoting casinos from search engine results between April 2024 and March 2025, for example.

Further challenges are on the horizon though, particularly technological ones. The NRA highlights the use of AI as a key example, with deepfaked documentation commonly used to bypass compliance checks.

The Home Office has also cited the use of in-game currencies as presenting fraud and money laundering risks and crash games being offered by some licensed casinos as presenting a money laundering opportunity for criminals.

The timing of this report is apt, coming at the same time that the licensed betting industry both in the UK and in other European nations continues to make the case that a gambling black market is posing significant risks to regulated gambling sectors.

However, while the NRA has noted the increase in prevalence of illegal gaming, something licensed operators have been highlighting for years, it does also point out some flaws in the regulated industry that operators may want to address if they want their black market concerns to be taken seriously.

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Welsh NHS preparing for gambling harm treatment and prevention duties

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Work on gambling harm prevention and treatment programmes funded by mandatory industry payments is underway in Wales, the country’s government has announced.

According to Sarah Murphy MS, the Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing with the Welsh Labour government, NHS Wales Performance and Improvement and Public Health Wales have already been working on treatment pathways and interventions.

The public health bodies’ work has included a focus on prevention opportunities. It is early days on the projects, however, and it is likely that they will be stepped up from October onwards when the final research, education and treatment (RET) levy payments are made.

The RET levy is one of the key measures of the Gambling Act review, a two-and-a-half year review into the 2005 Gambling Act which concluded with a White Paper published in April 2023.

The levy will see online betting and gaming firms pay 1.1% of revenue and land-based casino and betting firms pay 0.5% of revenue to support education, treatment and prevention initiatives, whether operated by the NHS or the UK’s already extensive charity sector.

The government expects to raise around £100m a year via the levy, of which £20m has been committed to research with £5m to be distributed in Wales. Murphy has clarified that UKRI, lead UK research commissioner, will ‘work closely’ with the Welsh government and Public Health Wales “to ensure Wales’ interests are represented fairly and robustly”.

“The UK government confirmed its intention to introduce a new levy on the gambling industry to tackle gambling harm last year,” Murphy said. “We strongly supported this as it is an important step to ensure work to tackle gambling harm is sustainably funded and independent of the gambling industry.”

In line with the wider remit of the UK-wide NHS to act as the main funding commissioner for the RET funds, the Welsh government has named the aforementioned Public Health Wales and NHS Wales Performance and Improvement as ‘Lead Prevention Coordinator’ and ‘Lead Treatment Coordinator’ respectively.

A parting gift for GambleAware
The decision to name the NHS the lead commissioner for RET funded-activities has been met by some scepticism, however. Firstly, GambleAware, the UK’s largest treatment charity which has for many years been the de facto commissioner of gambling treatment and prevention initiatives via yearly voluntary industry donations has been effectively unseated.

GambleAware had been one of the biggest voices in calling for a mandatory RET levy. However, the charity envisioned an RET levy that would see it retain its position as funding commissioner.

On top of this, there have also been concerns that charities which receive funding through GambleAware would be impacted by these changes. In addition, some have expressed concern that giving the NHS another weighty responsibility after years of pressure building on the service, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, may not be a good idea.

Taking note of some of these concerns, Murphy said: “One of the consequences of the UK Government’s decision to introduce a levy is that GambleAware will no longer be funded in the same way.

“I know some Welsh organisations, such as Adferiad and Ara, receive some of their funding through GambleAware to provide services to people suffering from gambling-related harm.”

To compensate, NHS England, the outgoing agency which has been overseeing the creation of the RET levy in England on behalf of the UK government, has committed to make £11m of levy funding available to support GambleAware throughout 2025/26.

This has been agreed with the Scottish and Welsh governments and so is a UK nationwide initiative. However, it is not permanent, with Murphy herself clarifying that it will only apply to the 2025/26 financial year and that it “does not represent a continued funding commitment to GambleAware”.

The Welsh government’s announcement reaffirms the role the NHS will play in the RET levy, and can serve as a reminder to the gambling industry of the RET levy’s introduction. Operators have been required to make payments from 6 April with the final deadline for said payments falling on 1 October.

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UKGC won’t make any changes to VIP and HVC schemes for now

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The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has published the results of an updated exercise which looks at the ongoing impact of policy change related to VIP or High Value Customer (HVC) schemes.

In a blog post, the UKGC’s Head of Evidence Assurance and Evaluation, David Taylor, detailed that such VIP and HVC schemes were “no more commonplace” in 2024 than they were in 2021 after the regulatory change, which changed how an operator can make a customer a VIP so that they wouldn’t be used to exploit gamblers.

Operators can only make customers VIPs now once they have checked that their spending is affordable and sustainable as part of their leisure spend; assessed if there is evidence of gambling-related harm or heightened risk linked to vulnerability; make sure they have up to date identity, occupation and source of funds evidence; and continue to verify information provided and conduct ongoing gambling harm checks on each individual.

Individuals at operators are also made personally accountable for the scheme’s management via a senior executive who holds a personal management licence.

In response to the High Value Customer and VIP Scheme Monitoring Report‘s publication, Taylor noted that the report, based on 2024 data, followed a similar process to the report from 2021, so the results can be considered comparable.

However, it was added that the new report “benefits from the addition of further questions and a consideration of whether HVC or ’VIP’ schemes are referenced in Commission casework”.

Land-based casinos

Alongside the fact that the schemes are no more commonplace than they were previously, the number of people in such schemes has remained consistent, with every HVC scheme having a senior executive appointed to oversee operations as well.

The report also found that HVC schemes were “less often assessed as being a contributory factor in issues under investigation within Commission casework”.

The UKGC calculated the proportion of gross gambling yield which is produced by HVC schemes in the sample as being around 3%.

Yet, there was a significant difference between operators and sectors, with land-based casinos having “a greater reliance on scheme members as a proportion of GGY”.

The Commission did acknowledge that staff supervision and interventions can help provide gambling harm support when necessary, and that the vast majority of customers in high-end casinos are high-net-worth individuals based overseas.

Taylor stated: “This factor, in particular, may have led to the difference in GGY proportions compared to other sectors and it’s worth noting that this finding isn’t accompanied with any allegations of consumer harm, but it is something that can be factored into the Commission’s assessment work.”

Outlook

In his closing comments, Taylor noted that while the intended impact of the VIP and HVC scheme changes is being accomplished, it’s important to remember that the exercise was “reasonably modest in scope”.

“Limitations are detailed in the report and include details about the sample of operators and how this is intended to provide a relatively high-level overview of the policy’s effectiveness. It’s also worth noting that the impact of this policy is also influenced by other changes to regulatory requirements on topics such as customer interaction, for example.”

Taylor concluded that, for now, no additional changes will be made to VIP and HVC schemes, but the UKGC is still ready to step in when required.

“Although evaluation exercises like this will never be able to give total assurance, it does provide an indication that the regulatory objectives have been delivered and further changes are not currently required.

“Where operators fail to meet requirements, we will continue to take action.”

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Japan initiates new ‘strategy of enforcement’ to tackle unlicensed casinos

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From 1 September, the National Police Agency of Japan (NPA) will initiate its new ‘strategy of enforcement’ against unlicensed online casinos.
The campaign runs parallel to new laws implemented by the Diet (Parliament) to combat the exposure of unlicensed gambling, as the promotion of offshore gambling platforms will become a criminal offence.
Yet despite imposing harsher penalties, concerns remain that the police and government are criminalising the wrong parties in the fight against illegal gambling. Japan’s legal stance on online casinos has long been unyielding.

Set by Japan’s Penal Code, all forms of gambling outside state-regulated industries—such as horse racing and pachinko are illegal. But in recent years, offshore operators have exploited digital loopholes and linguistic accessibility to capture millions of Japanese consumers.

The government’s legislative response, passed in June, is Japan’s most sweeping to date: outlawing not only the operation and use of unlicensed gambling sites, but also the advertising, promotion, and referral to such platforms through any online medium.

The updated law criminalises a wide array of previously unregulated activity. Influencer endorsements, affiliate websites, ranking lists, banner ads, smartphone apps, and even user-generated content are now deemed illegal if they direct traffic to gambling websites not licensed within Japan.

Media platforms are being put on notice, with ISPs and app stores expected to comply with takedown requests. To bolster its reach, Japan has appealed to foreign regulators including those in Malta, Curaçao, the Isle of Man, and the Philippines—to block access to Japanese users or remove Japanese-language support from gambling services.

The NPA’s language is unambiguous. “The use of online casinos—regardless of server location—constitutes a criminal act under Japanese law,” it declared. The Ministry of Justice, meanwhile, frames the reform as a matter of national sovereignty in the digital age: a pushback against “vice markets” that prey on the social and financial vulnerabilities of Japanese citizens.

日本国内では、オンラインカジノに接続して賭博を行うことは犯罪です。また、日本国内にいる人を賭博に誘引する行為は、海外からでも違法です。絶対にやめましょう。#警察庁 #オンラインカジノ #アフィリエイト #ボーナスコード #暗号資産　 https://t.co/lBVcp2rz9J pic.twitter.com/GVupAO4IiV
— 警察庁 (@NPA_KOHO) May 13, 2025

Fighting a Trillion-Yen habit

The government’s newfound urgency is rooted in sheer scale. A 2024 survey conducted by the National Police Agency revealed that approximately 3.37 million people in Japan—nearly 3.4% of the population have used offshore casino websites at least once, with an estimated 1.97 million active users.

The average annual wager per user sits at a striking ¥630,000 (approx. €3,900), placing the total volume of illegal online gambling at around ¥1.24 trillion (approx. €7.7 billion). This figure dwarfs the legal betting markets, and has led lawmakers to view offshore gambling not just as a moral concern, but a fiscal one.

The picture darkens further when viewed through a social lens. Nearly 40% of users surveyed did not realise that gambling on offshore casino websites was illegal in Japan. Among regular gamblers, 46% reported having incurred debt, with many borrowing money or using high-interest consumer credit to finance their bets. As the financial consequences spill over into family life, public institutions are under mounting pressure to respond. But the state’s answer has not been to offer support—it has been to punish.

Enforcement has surged. In the first half of 2025 alone, Japanese police made 279 arrests tied to online gambling, more than double the tally for the whole of 2024. And while much of the law’s language appears directed at operators and facilitators, the overwhelming majority of those arrested were individual consumers. The scale of enforcement, critics argue, is not only unprecedented but strategically misdirected.

Prohibition over Protection

Despite launching Japan’s first Integrated Resort in Osaka—complete with a multibillion-yen casino floor—the government shows no appetite for legalising online gambling. The prevailing logic in policymaking circles is that to regulate is to legitimise, and that legalisation would only increase exposure and normalise risk-taking behaviours.

Ministries such as Finance, Health, and Internal Affairs view gambling as a regulatory burden, not a potential revenue stream to be managed or monetised. There is no political momentum to reframe gambling policy through a commercial or public health lens.

Unlike neighbouring states, which permits tightly controlled state-run online betting via Singapore Pools, or Hong Kong Jockey Cub (HKJC) type business. Japan has never formally proposed or consulted on launching a national, state-owned online gambling firm. The very idea remains anathema to the country’s legislative culture, which treats gambling not as a taxable utility but as a social hazard.

Yet the policy emphasis on criminality has exposed deeper contradictions. Public messaging around the new law focuses almost exclusively on deterrence. There is no state-backed campaign addressing gambling addiction, nor significant investment in treatment or financial rehabilitation programmes. As a result, critics warn, Japan is tackling a behavioural health issue with a criminal justice toolkit.

The cultural context makes the problem harder to untangle. In Japan, addiction is rarely discussed openly and often perceived as a moral failure rather than a health condition. The social stigma is so strong that few seek help voluntarily. This silence has been mirrored in policy, with addiction support conspicuously absent from the NPA’s rollout plan.

Whether this strategy can succeed remains uncertain. In a globalised digital economy, borders mean little to offshore platforms with Japanese-language support and crypto payment systems. If Japan continues to criminalise behaviour without providing alternatives, it risks not only driving users further underground—but also undermining public trust that cannot be won by enforcement alone.

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Online casino ads: Be careful what you click on

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Open social media or scroll a website these days in Canada, and you may well find yourself staring at an advert for an online casino. Many of them are not what they seem.

In recent months, we’ve seen numerous warnings from law enforcement, gaming regulators, crown corporations and regulated caisnos about fraudulent ads. These adverts, many of which use names and photos of reputable casinos to masquerade as licensed gaming entities, look to suck the public into clicking on the ads and ultimately yielding their sensitive information.

It’s by no means a Canada-only issue. Several individual U.S.-based casinos have issued warnings in their respective states of this kind of activity, and some state regulators have issued consumer protection alerts urging residents to look out for fake online casinos.

But it’s certainly a problem pervading Canada from coast to coast.

‘Predatory and sophisticated’
As just some examples: Last year, Ontario’s Casino Rama’s name and image were used to direct the public to a website belonging to an unlicensed online casino registered to Curaçao. Earlier this year, Lotteries and Gaming Saskatchewan (LGS) was forced to remind the public that none of that province’s land-based casinos have a legitimate online version after advertising purporting to be from Dakota Dunes Casino, Casino Regina, Casino Moose Jaw and others spread on social media. And the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) published a notice that “predatory and sophisticated scams” using the BCLC logo were claiming to offer exclusive bonuses and promotions for anyone who clicked and registered.

The fraud can also get remarkably innovative. One particularly bold social media ad took an old CityNews video report and altered the footage to use the name of Alberta’s River Cree Resort & Casino to try to attract clicks.

As Canadian Gaming Association President and CEO Paul Burns said last year, “virtually every land-based casino brand in the country has had its brand hijacked to promote fraudulent online sites.” And the number of mainstream media reports and official communications to the public would seem to suggest the problem is worsening. Or, at least, it’s not getting better.

‘A game of Whac-A-Mole’
For Great Canadian Entertainment, which operates more than 20 retail casinos across four provinces, the issue has become so troublesome that it goes as far as to keep a list on its website of known fraudulent advertising attempts concerning its properties. In the last 12 months, the company’s River Rock Casino Resort, Casino Nova Scotia, Casino New Brunswick, Casino Resort Toronto, Pickering Casino Resort and others have all been targeted numerous times, mostly via ads on Meta’s social media platforms Facebook and Instagram.

Chuck Keeling, Great Canadian’s executive vice-president of external relations and business development, told Canadian Gaming Business recently that “battle” is an apt term for the fight to tackle the issue.

“It’s a game of Whac-a-Mole. If one is forced down, another pops up.”

Great Canadian Entertainment’s Chuck Keeling

“It’s a never-ending cycle and it does seem to have picked up in recent months, based on what we’re seeing as it relates to some of our brands,” Keeling added. “And these online sites that pretend to be casinos are not operating in the shadows, either. It’s in broad daylight.”

Taking advantage of consumer confusion?
Keeling noted one example of a fraudulent ad that used “Woodbine Casino” branding to try to lure in unsuspecting people. That was never the name of that venue, which was formerly known as Casino Woodbine and was replaced by Great Canadian Casino Resort Toronto branding in 2023.

That, Keeling suggested, is indicative of the fact that the people and companies behind fraudulent casino advertising may be looking to use the public’s lack of deep knowledge about the Canadian gaming industry to their advantage. “It takes advantage of the confusion in the marketplace as to what’s a legitimate site and what isn’t.”

Great Canadian as an operator brand has “no direct online presence, full stop,” Keeling stressed.

“If they can rip off a brand like ours to give themselves an air of legitimacy, why would they not?”

Keeling

The problem is that people who are not well-informed gamblers or attentive to the industry may not know that. Similarly, not every social media scroller knows that in Ontario, all regulated commercial online casinos have to include the iGaming Ontario (iGO) logo in their adverts.

Burns said at last year’s Canadian Gaming Summit that, “in a lot of cases, the public doesn’t actually know what to look for.”

Damage both reputational and financial
It’s a problem on several fronts. As well as the evident risks to the public, whose financial details and personal information become vulnerable if they click on malevolent advertising, there’s a risk of reputational damage to the legitimate gaming operators whose names and logos are used in the fake ads.

“It really does have an impact on the reputation of the industry,” Keeling said. “But who’s getting hurt the most from this? It’s the consumers who get duped by it.”

In many cases, these adverts will use fake email addresses, domain names and website links that are very similar to the legitimate versions, sometimes even sending text messages or other alerts to people who click on links and provide basic information. Great Canadian and other operators have warned that they will never contact someone directly and ask for personal or financial information.

Still, you can’t stop every potential case.

“We get emails from people complaining that they have lost money on these sites, and there’s nothing we can do,” Keeling added. “Thankfully, we don’t get a lot of those messages but that’s the worst manifestation of this, that people are actually getting taken advantage of and losing money as a result of it.”

What can be done?
Operators like Great Canadian work closely with law enforcement to try to tackle the issue.

Those efforts are both reactive, wherein customers or observers flag instances to the relevant casino operator or to law enforcement, and proactive. Keeling noted that the Great Canadian team has taken to conducting media scans “just to see what we can pick off ourselves.”

The B.C. Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General told Canadian Gaming Business that one responsibility of the Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch (GPEB) is to investigate any conduct or activity connected to gambling that could threaten the integrity of the industry. Once instances are identified, the GPEB investigates complaints or potential violations of the Gaming Control Act or the Gaming Control Regulation.

“GPEB’s Enforcement Division has been working with BCLC to identify the owner(s) of a series of social media scams impersonating B.C. casinos, along with the associated social media accounts,” said a ministry spokesperson. “We know this issue is not unique to B.C., with partners in other jurisdictions highlighting similar concerns.”

The Enforcement Division continually monitors and probes such scams and vows to take enforcement action if violations of the Gaming Control Act are identified. In some cases, the matter is referred to police if there are potential violations of the Criminal Code of Canada.

Do tech companies need to step up?
The CGA and other stakeholders have been vocal in the past in suggesting that tech giants such as Meta and Google need to take more responsibility in vetting the adverts they allow on their sites.

While Meta recently announced some more stringent requirements for gambling advertisers, Keeling acknowledged that fake casino ads are likely not top of those firms’ list of priorities. But without a firmer hand from that end, you’d say that constant game of Whac-A-Mole is likely to continue. Operators and regulators can report instances and law enforcement can pursue action in individual cases, but beyond that, the problem persists.

“It does have an impact on the reputation of the industry. But who’s getting hurt the most? The consumers who get duped.”

Keeling

“Does it trigger greater action going forward? I don’t know,” mulled Keeling. “Maybe, if the problem continues to escalate. I would like to think so because it seems so egregious and it happens in other consumer sectors too. I would like to hold out hope that the Metas and Googles will be more diligent about who is using their platforms. Ultimately, they’re the gatekeepers.

“I don’t know what else we do beyond what we’re doing already. We’re the tip of the spear. But it certainly merits attention. People are getting ripped off.”

A version of this story appears in the Summer 2025 issue of Canadian Gaming Business magazine.

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Ontario regulator warns casinos that ‘free play’ must mean free play

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The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) has warned all licensed land-based casinos and charitable gaming operators in Ontario that they must be careful when using the term “free play” in any promotions or advertising.

The province’s market regulator issued a statement this week reminding operators that offers advertised as “free play” must comply with Standard 2.2.2 of the Registrar’s Standards for Gaming, which requires that players should not need to risk or spend their own money to access any bonus, inducement or credit described as “free.”

“If you promote something as ‘free,’ it must genuinely be free,” wrote the commission.

The AGCO stressed that promotions that fail to meet this condition are considered misleading and may be subject to regulatory action such as financial penalties. The statement adds that, whether intentionally misleading or not, “free play” advertising could undermine responsible gambling efforts by encouraging players to overspend.

As an example of a non-compliant offer, the AGCO posed a hypothetical scenario in which an operator offers new reward members the chance to earn $100 in free play by signing up for the casino’s rewards program, playing using their rewards card before Aug. 1, 2025 and receiving any losses before Aug. 31 back in the form of free play credits of up to $100.

In that example, players would have to spend and lose their own money before receiving the “free” credits. Because a financial risk is required, the offer cannot truthfully be called “free” and would therefore violate regulations, stressed the AGCO.

The regulator strongly encouraged all registrants to review current and planned marketing materials to ensure they fully comply with the Standards. Future non-compliance may result in regulatory action, including monetary penalties or other sanctions.

Operators have fallen afoul of the AGCO for marketing regarding “free play” in the past. In one instance early in the regulated market’s lifespan, in 2022, PointsBet Canada was fined $30,000 for advertising two gambling inducements for customers to play for free, one via posters on trains and in multiple products and the other via posters at two train stations. In that case, the violation was of Standard 2.05, which restricts the advertising of inducements, bonuses or credits, except when they are on an operator’s site or through direct advertising and marketing issued after receiving active player consent.

AGCO shuts down unapproved gambling machines in convenience stores
Also this week, the AGCO has revoked the lottery seller registrations of a number of retailers in the Greater Toronto Area that were found to be offering unapproved electronic gambling machines under the Prime Slot brand.

“Over the past decade, unregulated gaming machines have increasingly proliferated across North America,” said the regulator. “While they largely rely on chance like traditional slot machines, manufacturers have claimed they are games of skill and have installed terminals in convenience stores and other locations where gaming machines would otherwise be prohibited.”

“Unapproved gambling machines have no business being in convenience stores or other locations, particularly those that are available to children and youth,” said AGCO CEO and Registrar Dr. Karin Schnarr.

The AGCO said it will continue to take every action within its authority to protect the public against the risks posed by unregulated machines, particularly in locations easily accessible to children and youth.

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Easter bunny and robot DJ adverts land Play’n GO in hot water with ASA

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Three adverts with an Easter bunny, a robot DJ and cartoon princesses have landed Play’n GO Malta in hot water with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

Play’n GO has been criticised by the ASA for the adverts, which appeared alongside email inboxes, including those that belonged to children, as their imagery was deemed likely to have a strong appeal to people under 18 years of age.

Two complaints were received by the authority about the casino gaming content provider’s adverts seen beside their own or their child’s email inbox. These complaints challenged whether the ad’s content was likely to be of strong appeal to under-18s. The three banner ads from Play’n GO were seen in April 2025.

Adverts in question

Advert A, seen beside the email inboxes of two children, showed a cartoon Easter bunny in a superhero outfit holding a silver egg in one hand and a basket of eggs in the other with text stating “MYSTERY EGG SURPRISE”, “Easter Eggs” and “EASTER EGGSPEDITION”.

Advert B, shown next to an email inbox, featured a cartoon robot DJ with a purple screen for a face, displaying white pixels, with one arm raised and the other hovering over a turntable. It included text which said: “SPINNING RECORDS INTO THE BEAT”.

Advert C, seen next to a child’s email inbox, included three anime-style, cartoon princesses with text that read “Moon Princess Origins”.

All the ads featured the Play’n GO logo and an 18+ symbol, while the latter two adverts also included the UK Gambling Commission and BeGambleAware.org logos.

Play’n GO’s response

In its response, Play’n GO stated that each advert was for a separate slot title – the Moon Princess series; Spinnin’ Records into the Beat; and a game with an Easter theme – and designed to appeal to players of legal age across various jurisdictions.

While the provider admitted that adverts could be appealing to children, they believed the images were popular with adults and that gameplay “required an adult mindset” and so couldn’t be attractive to children.

The adverts were also run through AdRoll, a programmatic advertising platform, didn’t carry age restrictions, and were identified as related to gambling during the bidding process for advertising space to make sure they were only served to websites that had opted to include such adverts.

Play’n GO mentioned that users who visited their website could be retargeted with their ads on other websites, but a cookie-consent banner on their website meant “tracking or retargeting activities were only undertaken with a user’s consent”.

Despite not being an operator or offering gambling opportunities on its website, visitors are still required to confirm they are of legal gambling age in their respective jurisdictions when visiting the Play’n GO website, according to the ASA report.

The provider viewed this as “an additional safeguard to help ensure that re-targeted ads were subsequently directed towards individuals aged 18 and over in the UK”.

Play’n GO did note that an adult user “could previously have visited their website and provided consent, and then a child could see the retargeted ad alongside a free, web-based email account because they were using the same device at the same IP address”, describing it as an “acknowledged limitation within programmatic advertising”.

As such, Play’n GO stated the adverts had been appropriately audience-targeted, but acknowledged they had been “inadvertently served alongside a child’s mailbox due to factors beyond their direct control”.

Adroll added that the provider “took measures to deter players under the age of 18 through the age-gate on the website”, and that they didn’t serve ads to try and reach individuals under 18 and believed the ads “were not directed at, or likely to appeal to, those under 18, and had been either a “lookalike” prospecting or retargeting campaign”.

ASA’s assessment

However, in its assessment, the ASA has upheld the complaint against Play’n GO, as it considered all the ads were likely to be of strong appeal to under-18s. The adverts must not appear again in their current form, and Play’n GO Malta has been told not to include imagery that was likely to have a strong appeal to those under 18 in their future ads.

The authority said the Easter bunny in Advert A suggested the Easter bunny was dressed as a superhero taking part in an Easter egg hunt, which is popular amongst children, and there likely to strongly appeal to under 18s.

For Advert B, the ASA made the same case that it was likely to be of strong appeal to under-18s, as the authority stated that a cartoon robot DJ-ing is an activity likely to appeal to young persons.

For Advert C, the ASA noted that the colourful costumes and the anime styling of the cartoon princesses were likely to have a strong appeal to under-18s as well.

“We considered that it would have been acceptable for the ads to appear in a medium where under-18s could, for all intents and purposes, be entirely excluded from the audience,” stated the ASA.

“That would apply in circumstances where those who saw the ads had been robustly age-verified as being 18 or older, such as through marketing lists that had been validated by payment data or credit checking.

“We considered that the targeting measures used by Adroll, which relied on self-declaration of age of users entering the Play’n GO website and retargeting based on that data, as well as prospecting targeting using browsing behaviours, were not sufficiently robust to ensure under-18s were entirely excluded from the audience. We also understood that two of the ads had been served to space alongside the email inboxes of children.

“We therefore considered that Play’n GO Malta had not excluded under-18s from the audience with the highest level of accuracy required for gambling ads, the content of which was likely to appeal strongly to that age group.

“For those reasons, we concluded that the ads were irresponsible and breached the Code.”

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