SBC News

Municipalities and administrative districts across Serbia have been instructed to enforce new laws and standards for gambling venues and franchises.

This directive follows the fast-tracking of new “protective amendments” approved by parliament under the Law on Games of Chance of the Republic of Serbia (2011).

Authorities in Serbia’s 29 districts and 190 municipalities have been tasked with reviewing and verifying the licenses and customer protection measures of local arcades, betting shops, and bingo halls.

Inspections will assess whether venues are compliant with mandatory age verification measures to enforce the prohibition of minors from participating in gambling activities.

Further requirements mandate that venues prominently display warnings about gambling addiction to customers through posters and notices, which must also provide information about certified treatment facilities.

Local authorities must ensure that venues comply with new regulations on food and beverages, whic..

Eric Konings has announced his forthcoming departure as Interim Director of NOGA, the Netherlands Online Gambling Association.

Writing on LinkedIn, Konings confirmed that he would be leaving the Dutch trade body during the first quarter of 2025.

The decision comes as NOGA’s board has progressed with its ‘strategic reorientation’, during which it will announce leadership changes and a new strategy to better promote and represent the interests of online gambling in the Netherlands.

Last summer, Konings was announced as Interim Director of NOGA, following the departure of Peter-Paul de Goeij, who ended his six-year tenure as Managing Director of the trade body.

During the transition period, Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), the Netherlands Gambling Authority, announced a raft of new regulatory protections, including new deposit limits of €700 for player accounts over the age of 25, and a €300 deposit threshold for players under the age of 24.

KSA imposed further licensing duties on customer ..

The Dutch National Information Centre for Gambling Players (Slicks) has set up a new support hub for problem gambling victims in Amsterdam.

This comes as part of a new pilot project funded by the Addiction Prevention Fund (VPF), exploring the benefits of a localised targeting support strategy.

VPF is managed by the Netherlands’ gambling authority Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), and was set up as a result of the Remote Gambling Act (KOA) that kickstarted the Dutch online gambling market back in 2021.

The fund has several spending goals, one of which is the research of gambling harm prevention projects.

One of the projects supported by VPF in 2024 was a grant competition launched by Dutch healthcare researcher ZonMw as part of its 2023-2029 “Prevention of Gambling Addiction” programme.

As per the pilot in Amsterdam, local residents experiencing problem gambling will be able to visit a walk-in facility on Keizersgracht city canal. There, they’ll be able to get advised on available supp..

Tax adjustments to specific gambling segments have been incorporated into Italy’s 2025 Budget Law, signed off by President Sergio Mattarella on 9 January.

The provisions of the 2025 Budget Law have elicited both positive and negative reactions from Italian gambling stakeholders.

The Budget confirmed the decision by the Ministry of Finance (MEF) to extend existing concessions for online gambling licences for an additional tax year.

Additionally, concessions for land-based gambling venues, which were set to expire in December 2024, have been extended by a further two years as the government continues reorganising laws related to retail betting, horse racing, bingo, and gaming machines.

For online gambling, the extension will allow several operators to maintain their current status for an additional fiscal year before transitioning to a new licence regime. The new regime will impose a €7 million authorisation fee and operating fees of 3%.

Italy’s new licence regime was launched on 19..

Seven new cases of advertising violations have kept the Dutch gambling regulator busy in the first weeks of the new year.

Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) reported that the issued violations were in relation to marketing campaigns that had the potential to influence young people – a target group the KSA closely guards due to a higher risk of problem gambling among its members, with an updated young people protections framework coming into force in 2025.

One of the cases was a result of a cooperation between an unnamed operator and a partner organisation, both of them involved in the organisation of a certain motorsport event.

A car that was part of the event had the gambling provider’s logo on it. However, it was not removed once the event was over, and the car was seen together with the logo on public roads, according to a KSA investigation. This constituted a form of non-targeted advertising.

In another case, the logo of a land-based gaming venue was digitally advertised on screens in..

The Seimas of Lithuania will vote on Tuesday (14 January) on the implementation of new gambling controls to be applied via national banks.

A new set of gambling controls has been proposed to the Seimas, which includes new checks and duties to be carried out by all banks (foreign and domestic) licensed by the Bank of Lithuania.

The new controls will require Lithuanian banks to monitor all gambling transactions and provide direct reports to the LPT, the Gambling Control Authority of Lithuania.

Banks must comply with the new duties to ensure that payments to illegal gambling websites registered on the Gambling Control Authority’s blacklist are blocked.

Payments to illegal operators must be terminated within 24 hours of receiving a directive, with fines ranging from €1,800 to €3,800 for initial violations and up to €6,000 for repeat offences.

The LPT supports applying direct controls on banks as the best measure to monitor black market activities, having already banned 1,600 websites ..

BetBlocker has expanded its blocking software to support Bemba, Nyanja and Tonga languages.

The news marks the company’s first initiative aimed at users in Africa, providing a ‘critical resource’ to under-served communities in the region.

Duncan Garvie, BetBlocker Founder and Trustee, said: “For BetBlocker, it’s critical to be able to reach users in a language that they can comfortably engage in to ensure a smooth and speedy set-up process.”

The brand is now focusing its gambling tool on the three most prominent languages spoken in Zambia.

The project is funded by Entain and looks to aid the lack of gambling harm support services compared to more developed jurisdictions.

“Native languages also help us step past cultural barriers, showing that BetBlocker isn’t simply available to these communities; it’s actively working to support them,” Garvie continued.

“This is especially important in under-served and under-supported markets, like many of the African countries.”

Meanwhile, ..

The Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), the Gambling Authority of the Netherlands, will adopt stricter scrutiny of duty-of-care interactions by licensed operators with young customers (under 24s).

This demand headlines the ‘Supervision Agenda 2025’, which sets out the regulatory objectives of the KSA and its oversight of Dutch gambling and licensed entities.

The agenda adheres to the KSA’s long-term supervisory principles, initiated in October 2021 following the launch of the Remote Gambling Act (KOA) as the regulatory framework governing the Netherlands’ new online gambling marketplace. These principles include preventing gambling addiction, protecting and informing consumers, and combating illegality and crime in the gambling sector.

For 2025, the KSA has identified new areas requiring “extra attention” in its oversight of Dutch gambling licences. In October 2024, KOA licences implemented new deposit limits of €700 for player accounts over the age of 25, and a €300 deposit threshold for pla..