SBC News

The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) has appointed Grainne Hurst as the new Chief Executive of the trade and standards body representing the UK gambling sector.

An expert in public affairs and corporate social responsibility (CSR), Hurst joins the BGC from Entain Plc, where she served as Group Corporate Affairs Director of the FTSE 100 gambling group.

2024 has seen the BGC restructure its corporate governance as Brigid Simmonds (OBE) ended her five-year tenure as inaugural chair of the trade body. Changes saw CEO Michael Dugher take on the role of Chairman, replacing Simmonds who will end duties with the trade body on 20 April.

Welcoming Hurst as the new CEO, the BGC underscored her proven track record in launching high-impact and high-visibility CSR campaigns and sustainability initiatives for gambling.

Of significance, Hurst oversaw the development of the Entain Foundation, the multi-million sustainability charter of the FTSE business committed to raising £100m for ESG initiative..

Bacta President John Bollom has expressed the trade association’s admiration and congratulations to YGAM.

The safer gambling charity, which is also marking a milestone 50th anniversary in 2024, was founded by Lee Willows and uses education as a tool to raise awareness and help safeguard against gaming and gambling harms.
Bolllom noted YGAM was established by Lee Willows, with Anne and Keith Evans joining the organisation in 2016 after their son Alan Lockhart tragically took his own life following years of struggling with gambling addiction.

Bollom then highlighted how YGAM has made a key contribution to the safer gambling debate delivering numerous projects, many of which have been supported by Bacta members.

He described how YGAM quickly became a ‘powerful agency’ for change working in partnership with a broad church of stakeholders including Bacta and many of our members.

“As Chief Executive of YGAM Lee was instrumental in engaging with the industry and demonstrating how it was p..

The Dutch Gaming Authority, the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), has collaborated with global server network Cloudflare to track down unregulated gambling websites.

This follows a detailed discussion between the two organisations that has led to strategic planning to tackle illegal gambling services offered to Dutch customers.

As an example of their collaborative work, the KSA previously investigated illegal affiliate websites nederlandscasinos.net and onlinecasinosspelen.com. After being unable to identify their owners, the regulator leveraged Cloudflare’s internet service provider status to block access to the affiliates.

Both entities will now increase the information sharing between them to combat other offerings when necessary.

During active investigations the KSA maintains the right to question Cloudflare on the hosting parties behind illegal gambling websites, which will in term ensure the safeguarding of the Dutch market.

“It is forbidden to offer games of chance in the Nethe..

As an unusual April heatwave engulfs the streets of Bulgaria’s capital, passing by the doors of the Parliamentary House in the heart of Sofia might leave one with the impression that the heat is coming from its halls.

Bulgaria’s brightest minds tirelessly pace back and forth in preparation for another day of debates to defend their electorates’ interests – and this time gambling is on the agenda.

Kostadin Kostadinov: BG Parliament
As 2023 came to an end, the last thing that Kostadin Kostadinov and his nationalist party Revival (Bulgarian: ‘Vazrazhdane’) did before signing off for the holidays was to draft a proposal that amends certain legislations in the country’s current Gambling Law for a better aligned framework.

One significant point of interest was the almost complete overhaul of advertising rules, which Vazrazhdane thinks is necessary to push back against an ‘onslaught’ of gambling adverts that roam freely across TV, radio and other electronic media, thus reaching minors a..

Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), the Gambling Authority of the Netherlands, has stated that it has tracked over 1.1 million gambling accounts participating in the regulated KOA market.

The figure is the headline finding of the KSA’s ‘monitoring factsheet’ on Dutch online gambling trends under the mandate of the Remote Gambling Act (KOA Act) – the framework that legalised Dutch online gambling as of October 2021.

Monitoring KOA developments, KSA observes: “The number of accounts played has increased to 1.1 million in 2023. A year earlier, there were 970 thousand. Since players can use more than one account, the number of accounts does not directly indicate the actual number of players.”

In light of duplicate accounts, KSA estimates that on average the KOA market registers 448,000 players per month. However, in the second half of 2023, KSA recorded that 726,000 players were active with legal providers – a figure which reflects that 5% of Dutch adults have gambled online.

Data for 2023 detai..

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) and bet365 have settled on a fine of £582,120 related to anti-money laundering and social responsibility failures of its bingo and casino business.

These failings were discovered during a Commission compliance assessment in March last year.

In total, Hillside (UK Gaming) ENC, which holds a licence for bet365’s bingo and casino products, must pay £343,035, whilst the remaining will be paid by Hillside (UK Sports) ENC – which holds a licence to offer betting.

Kay Roberts, Executive Director of Operations at the UKGC, described the policy and procedural failings as ‘not as severe’ as those at other gambling businesses in recent years, but emphasised that they were failings nonetheless.

He said: “We expect high standards from operators in terms of keeping gambling safe, fair and crime-free, and will always take action to correct any failings. This operator is very aware that a repeat of these failings will result in escalating regulatory action.”

One..

In his final tenure as Chairman of the Dutch Gaming Authority (KSA), René Jansen signed off the regulator’s new problem gambling report for one last time.

One for the road
Jansen will step down from his duties later this year and used the report’s foreword to reflect on the KSA’s most recent achievements in terms of preventing illegal gambling and protecting the Dutch regulated market.

“When I took office, the KSA was still a relatively unknown ‘niche player’. At the time, the illegally abundant online gambling offer also received relatively little attention,” Jansen wrote.

“Those days are well and truly over. The legalisation and regulation of online gambling, the subsequent wave of advertising and the growth in the number of players since October 2021 have resulted in penetrating discussions in politics, media and society.

“The most important of these are the concerns about (personal and social) financial and health risks as a result of immoderate gambling. The prevention of g..

Bacta’s Technical Standards Group has announced that it will be working in partnership with colleagues from the Bingo Association’s Gaming Machine Working Group.

Headed by MERKUR UK’s Alan Claypole, the new mission is to produce a set of industry recommendations on enhancements to existing regulations which will enable the machines sector to remain ‘competitive’ and uphold the ‘highest standards of consumer protection’.

Bacta National President John Bollom shared his delight that the Gambling Commission has responded positively to the organisation’s request to provide insight and input to the current regulations covering technical standards.

“In partnership with the Bingo Association we are drawing up a concise six-point plan to update those areas where we believe that changes could be explored whilst always upholding our unswerving commitment to safer gambling,” he said.

“The focus of the Technical Standards Group led by Alan Claypole is to supply the Commission with a set of prop..