CasinoBeats

Spelinspektionen has declared a slight year-over-year drop in Sweden’s gambling market turnover for the fourth quarter and across the full year of 2023, with state-owned casino games undergoing the biggest decrease.

Combining data with the Swedish Tax Agency, the gambling authority reported that gaming companies with a Swedish licence reported a 2023 turnover of SEK 27.1bn (€2.41bn), a 1.2 per cent decline in comparison to the previous year (2022: SEK 27.4bn).

Per vertical, Casino Cosmopol state-owned casino games saw the biggest turnover decrease over the year, falling by 11.4 per cent to SEK 475m (2022: SEK 536m). State-run lotteries and slot machines also dropped, falling 3.6 per cent to SEK 5.6bn (2022: SEK 5.8bn).

Commercial online gaming and betting turnover fell by 0.7 per cent to SEK 17bn (2022: SEK 17.1bn), games for public purposes and national lotteries stood at SEK 3.6bn (2022: SEK 3.5bn), community games and hall bingo was SEK 199m (2022: SEK 182m) and land-based commer..

MGM Resorts International and BetMGM have expanded their support of mental health research and service provider Kindbridge as the US market enters Problem Gambling Awareness Month.

The operator has also joined the National Council on Problem Gambling in recognising PGAM, where it will display new GameSense messaging prominently throughout MGM Resorts properties nationwide, as well as in the BetMGM app.

Kindbridge Research Institute and Kindbridge Behavioral Health services help to “better understand the problems that exist within at-risk communities, delivering evidence-based treatment for gambling disorder”.

MGM Resorts has donated $100,000 to the Kindbridge Research Institute, supporting a voluntary medication trial for veterans experiencing gambling addiction in Las Vegas, a first-of-its-kind treatment to help “reduce gambling urges and symptom severity among veterans with gambling disorder”.

Treatment providers at the Las Vegas Veterans Affairs Residential Recovery and Renewal..

The UK Gambling Commission has published the first datasets of its Gambling Survey of Great Britain, focusing on UK adults’ gambling participation and reasons for gambling.

The GSGB was initiated following consultations that took place in 2020 and 2021, with the Commission launching the project to change how “adult gambling participation and problem gambling prevalence” data is collected.

Yesterday, the GSGB’s ‘wave one’ datasets were revealed, looking at gambling participation with a focus on gambling activities that adults participate in and their reasons for gambling.

Research Director Ben Haden explained: “The GSGB provides a consistent and frequent way of collecting data among adults in Great Britain and will provide regular data outputs to help us understand changes in gambling behaviour among the population and among subpopulation groups.”

Using 4,800 respondents aged 18 and over to collect data from July to November 2023, the first datasets found that 48 per cent of surv..

Kaizen Gaming has launched a charitable initiative in its home nation of Greece, unveiling the Kaizen Foundation to support non-profit organisations.

Acting as the foundation’s sole financial backer, Kaizen Gaming’s charitable campaign will support organisations in undertaking initiatives across each country the gametech company operates in, including Greece, Malta, Romania, Portugal and Bulgaria.

Kaizen Gaming Co-Founder and CEO, George Daskalakis, commented: ”Since we embarked on Kaizen Gaming’s journey, we have seen a lot of our dreams turn into reality. We are a company with over 2,500 people across the globe. We have supported dozens of athletes trying to conquer their goals.

“Today we realise one more dream, through the establishment of the Kaizen Foundation, as we are now in the position to contribute to society in a more meaningful way than ever. The inauguration of the foundation is accompanied by the largest donation we have ever made, which will drastically change for t..

Kansspelautoriteit has imposed a fine of €19.7m on Gammix Limited for offering online games of chance in the Netherlands without a licence.

The €19,679,000 fine is the biggest fine imposed by the Dutch gambling authority since its inception.

The KSA noted that Gammix offers illegal online gambling games to players in the Netherlands on several websites – rantcasino, betoriginal, bluvegas, cashimashi, goslot, nordslot, vegadream and scatters – and has “not taken any measures to ban players” in the country from playing.

The authority added that this €19.7m fine follows a previous penalty of €4.4m imposed on Gammix in June 2022 for illegal offerings on rantcasino and nordslot.

These illegal offerings were not stopped and the KSA collected this penalty at the beginning of 2023. Gammix has objected to this collection.

René Jansen, Chair of the KSA, commented: “Dutch players must be protected: that is why we are cracking down on illegal offers. We see that illegal providers often pay li..

Industry experts have expressed their concerns regarding online slot stake limits set to be introduced in the UK later this year in a recent CasinoBeats Summit webinar.

An SBC webinar titled ‘What’s at stake? Adapting to lower statutory slot limits – A CasinoBeats Summit discussion’, discussed the UK government’s announcement last week that from September there will be a maximum stake limit of £2 for online slots for people under the age of 25, as well as a £5 limit for anyone aged 25 or over.

Kwiff CRO Ian Perrygrove, L&L Europe Ltd CEO Christopher Dalli and Kindred’s Head of Corporate Affairs – UK & Global Tom Banks took part in the webinar moderated by Sarah Ramanauskas, Co-Founder of the Game Safety Institute.

At the start of the conversation, each participant was asked by Ramanauskas if they thought the stake limits were good, bad or somewhere in between.

Dalli was against the stake limits, Perrygrove thinks it is “quite good to have the clarity” and that “a decision has final..

Quality Marks Responsible Affiliates International has approved six igaming affiliate websites from Leadstar Media and Gaming Innovation Group.

Launched at the beginning of February, the QMRA aims to act as a quality mark for igaming affiliate websites to ensure that they comply with relevant affiliate laws in their respective jurisdictions.

To begin with, the QMRA approved four websites to coincide with its launch, including BetterWorldCasinos.com and Game Lounge. This then saw GiG decide to launch its own German affiliate offering that complies with QMRA regulations.

Now, six more websites have been added to the QMRA roster, with four Germany-facing websites from Leadstar Media gaining approval: Kickfieber.de, MySportwetten.de, MyWettbonus.de and MyWattanbieter.

Additionally, GiG’s Swedish affiliate site Casinotopplistan.com and UK-facing site Casinosherlock.com, have both been approved by the QMRA.

The QMRA launched off the back of the KVA’s success, which is the Dutch equi..

Spillemyndigheden, the Danish gambling authority, has stated it has been successful in blocking 83 illegal gambling websites in Denmark.

Blocking the recent websites in the Næstved court, the authority noted that it is the tenth time it has gone to court to block illegal websites, in which it has blocked 359 illegal websites since the Danish gambling market was partially liberalised in 2012.

With Spillemyndigheden intensifying its efforts to block illegal websites that offer betting and online casinos without permission in Denmark, the 83 sites blocked means 2022’s high of 82 websites has already been surpassed.

“We have intensified our work to shut down the illegal sites so that we now get them blocked twice a year instead of once as previously,” noted Anders Dorph, Director of Spillemyndigheden.

“In this way, we can get hold of even more sites and minimise the period when Danish players are exposed to games that are offered illegally in Denmark.

“Children and young people in ..

Jackpocket Casino, the online casino offering of US lottery app Jackpocket, has become the first US operator to receive Internet Compliance Assessment Program certification.

Provided by the National Council on Problem Gambling, the certification is said to represent ‘the highest standard’ of US online responsible gambling and has been handed to Jackpocket due to its ‘demonstrated dedication to player safety’.

The certification will be valid for two years and has been administered following a ‘rigorous evaluation’, coming in the form of an audit completed by responsible gambling consultancy firm Gambling Integrity.

“Our mission to provide a fun and responsible online casino experience rests on ensuring the highest levels of safety and security. Every step we take is with the goal of safeguarding our users,” said Jackpocket CEO and Founder, Peter Sullivan.

“We are proud of the fact that with Jackpocket Casino, players can confidently participate in their favourite games, knowing ..

Sweden’s Ministry of Finance has put forward proposals for a more comprehensive ban on using a credit card to gamble to enhance player protection.

However, the proposal has received pushback, as the Swedish Trade Association for Online Gambling – Branschföreningen för Onlinespel – has expressed disappointment in the government’s decision since it will hand “another competitive advantage to the unlicensed gambling market”.

According to a statement on the Regeringskansliet’s website, the Ministry of Finance’s memorandum proposes a more comprehensive credit card ban for gambling to “prevent gambling for money from leading to indebtedness” since gambling problems and over-indebtedness are closely connected.

Niklas Wykman, Minister of Financial Markets, stated: “Gambling for money on credit can lead to great financial difficulties. Therefore, we are now stopping that possibility.

“It is not reasonable for gambling companies or gambling agents to contribute to individuals taking such la..