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Australia’s financial intelligence unit, AUSTRAC, has expanded a partnership designed to fight back against financial crime, including illegal gambling scams.

The Fintel Alliance, established in 2017, is a private-public partnership between Australia’s law enforcement agencies and major banks, remittance service providers and gambling operators.

Following “significant law enforcement outcomes” due to the work of the alliance, AUSTRAC is now increasing its capacity through the establishment of a collaborative data analytics hub, a platform for data sharing which helps to identify criminal patterns and trends across the financial sector.

In addition, the Fintel Alliance’s capacity will be increased through additional staff, including a seconded senior manager from ANZ Bank who will help co-lead and build new pairings with the industry and government members.

“All members of Fintel Alliance continue to prioritise fighting financial crime and have strengthened our contribution to the ..

A letter from the UK Parliament’s Health and Social Care Committee has been sent to the Labour Government asking them to reevaluate the country’s gambling-related harms regulatory frameworks, including areas covering advertising, prevention and treatment.

Addressed to Labour’s Under-Secretary of State for Public Health and Prevention, Ashley Dalton MP, the letter also calls for another review of the Gambling Act to ensure the legislative framework gives “all agencies the power and responsibilities needed to deliver a total system response” to preventing gambling-related harm.

The letter was issued by the Health and Social Care Committee and signed by its Chair, Layla Moran MP, in response to the gambling-related harms evidence session held by the committee on 2 April, as well as a meeting between some of the committee’s members and the Gambling with Lives charity on 22 April.

Seven different topics were discussed in the letter: prevention, regulation and advertising; land-based gamb..

Gambling harms charity GambleAware has reported a 50% increase in self-referrals to its network of regional support providers since April 2023.

Problem gamblers have accessed the providers via the GambleAware-commissioned National Gambling Support Network (NGSN), which offers varying levels of support.

The latest figures from the charity also revealed that over 110,000 people have accessed some level of support from the NGSN since its foundation in April 2023. Brief interventions, typically a short conversation on how to reduce the risk of gambling harm, also saw a 93% increase.

Anna Hargrave, Deputy Chief Executive of GambleAware, commented: “The second year of the National Gambling Support Network presented an opportunity to take the learnings from year one and focus on how we can best support those affected by gambling harms.

“We’ve seen an increase in the number of people being supported and, importantly, an increase in brief interventions and self-referrals, which means we ca..