SBC News

LeoVegas AB has confirmed the inbound appointment of Carl Brincat, former Chief Executive of the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA), as the new Director of Policy and Regulatory Affairs.

Joining in August, Brincat will form part of LeoVegas’ regulatory compliance team led by Chief Legal Officer (CLO) Abby Cosgrave.

An expert in all disciplines related to igaming policies, licensing, and the development of regulatory safeguards, Brincat served as Chief Executive of the MGA from 2021 to 2024.

Of significance, his tenure saw the MGA apply new systems and controls to enhance money laundering protections, customer care duties, and tighter inspection of licences.

As detailed, Brincat will “spearhead the Group’s policy efforts and coordinate relationships with industry trade bodies to support LeoVegas Group’s rapid global expansion.”

Commenting on the appointment, Abby Cosgrave, LeoVegas Group Chief Legal and Compliance Officer, said, “I’m very happy to welcome Carl Brincat to LeoVegas Group. ..

Professor Sian Griffiths (CBE) has called on the Labour Government to ensure that a robust national strategy protects Britain from gambling harms.

Appointed as the new Chair of Trustees of GambleAware, Griffiths, a former Faculty President of Public Health England (PHE), is recognised as a distinguished public policy expert in the management and administration of healthcare networks.

Writing in the Commons news source PoliticsHome, Griffiths stated that the General Election tainted by the gambling scandal serves as a “stark reminder of how normalised gambling has become in our society”.

“In Britain, up to 4.8 million people experience harm from their own or someone else’s gambling – but how did we get here?”

As such, the Labour government must rectify the Gambling Act of 2005, which liberalised gambling within British society. This framework, implemented during Labour’s last tenure in office, has had devastating impacts compounded by further governments.

A comprehensive national s..

The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) has put out a statement following the publication of the Gambling Survey of Great Britain (GSBG).

A BGC spokesperson explained that the methodology used in this survey is different to those previously conducted into betting and gaming.

Their statement emphasised: “As a result, the Gambling Commission has been clear, GSGB should not be used to make direct comparisons with results from prior surveys, as a measure of addiction, or to gross up problem gambling prevalence to the whole population.”

The survey collects the official statistics on gambling behaviour in the country, and is one of the largest surveys of its kind in the world, collecting data from 20,000 respondents each year.

The spokesperson added that BGC members are ‘concerned these findings may be unreliable’ because there is a significant risk GSGB overstates gambling participation and gambling related harm.

“Surveys using predominantly online self-completion consistently produce hig..

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has published the year-one statistics and datasets of the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) for 2023.

The survey is a key directive of the Commission, which in 2021 launched a pilot programme to re-model how data is collected on “adult gambling participation and problem gambling prevalence statistics”.

Adopting a new methodology and data-collection approach, the survey will replace previous datasets provided by the NHS on problem gambling prevalence.

As noted: “The Gambling Commission has today launched a new gambling survey which is set to become one of the largest in the world and establish a new baseline for understanding gambling behaviour in Britain.”

Commission CEO, Andrew Rhodes, has supported the application of the re-modelled survey as the most comprehensive evaluation of gambling participation undertaken by a regulatory authority.

Speaking at December’s GambleAware conference, Rhodes noted: “The Gambling Survey for Great Britain h..

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has published the year-one statistics and datasets of the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) for 2023.

The survey is a key directive of the Commission, which in 2021 launched a pilot programme to re-model how data is collected on “adult gambling participation and problem gambling prevalence statistics”.

Adopting a new methodology and data-collection approach, the survey will replace previous datasets provided by the NHS on problem gambling prevalence.

As noted: “The Gambling Commission has today launched a new gambling survey which is set to become one of the largest in the world and establish a new baseline for understanding gambling behaviour in Britain.”

Commission CEO, Andrew Rhodes, has supported the application of the re-modelled survey as the most comprehensive evaluation of gambling participation undertaken by a regulatory authority.

Speaking at December’s GambleAware conference, Rhodes noted: “The Gambling Survey for Great Britain h..

English football will adopt a new Code of Conduct on ‘Gambling Related Agreements’, safeguarded by the FA, EFL, Premier League and Women’s Super League.

The Code, which will apply to the football authorities and clubs in the professional game, will be implemented at the start of the 2024/2025 season. Leagues and clubs must abide by the following four general principles on gambling sponsorships to ensure protection, social responsibility, reinvestment, and integrity.

The principles of the Code were agreed upon by football leagues and authorities in response to the Gambling Review, in which the government instructed football to ensure gambling is promoted in a socially responsible manner.

As stated: “Following detailed cross-sport dialogue, the following Code has been drafted by the Premier League, The English Football League, the Women’s Super League (the ‘Competitions’), and the FA as part of that commitment, to be applied across all of professional football and those matches played..

Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), the Netherlands Gambling Authority has established a Duty of Care Online department to enhance the supervision of online gambling operators’ with regards to up-keeping their customer safeguards and protections.

The establishment of a Duty of Care Department follows KSA investigation conducted last September into ten online gambling providers regarding their interpretation of duty of care rules. The investigation revealed significant differences between the operators and identified shortcomings on the rules of the Remote Gambling Act (KOA).

Since then, the authority has amended its Responsible Gaming policy, and the expansion of supervision of an online provider’s duty of care has followed suit with the creation of the new department.

The KSA stated that the duty of care expansion includes extensive file research on providers that stand out in the control data, as well as on the basis of signals received from players.

Additionally, the department will monit..

GambleAware has informed the media that the Charity Commission has closed its case against the organisation and its trustees with no complaint summoned.

In March, a case was filed by The Good Law Project against GambleAware, citing that the charity had failed in its regulatory duties as chief commissioner of gambling harm research, education, and treatment (RET) projects, services, and organisations in the UK.

The Good Law Project, a public policy non-profit, criticised GambleAware for spreading false information on gambling-related harms and suicides and questioned the effectiveness of treatment services commissioned by the charity.

GambleAware refuted all allegations, with CEO Zoe Osmond commenting: “The Charity Commission has written to GambleAware to confirm the case has been closed without criticism or findings against the organisation.

The regulator has stated unequivocally that they are ‘assured that the trustees have taken appropriate steps to both ensure its [GambleAware’s..

Romania will implement a new strategy to tackle and minimise addiction harms across its administrative regions.

On Friday, President Klaus Iohannis promulgated a decree co-authored by Romania’s Ministry of Health and Ministry of Justice to launch eight ‘regional centres for the treatment of addictions’.

The project will see Romania adopt a new strategy to combat, minimise, and research addiction harms across its eight administrative regions.

The new strategy aims to address current ‘treatment inadequacies’ for drug, alcohol, and gambling addictions within Romania, particularly for those under 25.

Minister of Justice, Alina Gorghiu, endorsed the project, citing that the current framework to combat addictions left Romanians exposed as treatment options were primarily offered by private clinics and NGOs.

Gorghiu stated: “I’m glad that the party I belong to, PNL, initiated this law because in Romania the state could not properly treat these big problems that are especially among the y..

In spite of previously stating it wasn’t on their agenda, Labour’s U-turn on digital ID could pave the way for a new era of onboarding and KYC in the UK.

During the King’s Speech on Wednesday, to the surprise of many it was revealed that the government was planning to introduce the Digital Information and Smart Data Bill, focusing on legislation for digital identification.

Roger Redfearn-Tyrzyk: IDNow
Roger Redfearn-Tyrzyk, Vice President Global Gaming at IDnow told PaymentExpert that their introduction could “change the way users onboard to gambling operators in the UK”.

He continued: “In general, prospective players can be verified with the help of database checks (i.e. credit reference agency data), document checks and/or biometric checks to safeguard players and operators against suspicious or fraudulent activity. IDnow offers all these methods within its portfolio.

“In the UK gambling sector, player onboarding via database checks is still the most common verification method to..