SBC News

Glücksspielbehörde (GGL), the Federal Gambling Authority of Germany, has initiated its legal review of loot boxes and in-game video purchases. In its evaluation, GGL stated its support for the current initiatives aimed at effectively regulating loot boxes to protect children and youth in Germany.

The specifics of loot box reward mechanisms and related activities like skin betting are under scrutiny to determine if they qualify as gambling.

Research will commence with a workshop on February 28, orchestrated by Professor Martin Maties of the University of Augsburg and esports legal expert Dr. Lennart Brüggemann.

Stakeholders were briefed that the event’s goal is to enrich the legal scrutiny of loot boxes within gambling law and elucidate all legal arguments in the ambiguous zone between gaming and gambling. Feedback from this event is expected to provide a robust base for GGL’s decision-making process, with additional expert discussions planned in collaboration with federal states.
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The Charity Commission has received a complaint made against GambleAware for providing false information to the British public on gambling-related harms and suicides.

The complaint has been submitted by The Good Law Project, an independent non-profit organisation led by public policy expert Will Prochaska, the former Strategic Director of Gambling with Lives (GWL).

In its mission statement, The Good Law Project (GLP) cites that it seeks to use law for positive change and better public outcomes, with reforming UK gambling laws among its key objectives.

Prochaska’s new non-profit claims to fight dangerous misinformation about gambling and accuses GambleAware of being supported by an industry that preys on the public. The campaign is backed by Annie Ashton, a widow bereaved of her husband Luke Ashton, a former gambling addict who took his own life in April 2021, a case in which the “coroner concluded that his death was caused by a gambling disorder”.

GPL states it is “supporting Luke’..

Franc Weerwind, Legal Protection Minister of the Netherlands, has informed the President of the House of Representatives about his intentions going forward in regards to the upcoming evaluation of the country’s Remote Gambling Act (KOA) taking place in October.
The letter to Martin Bosma is a follow up to Weerwind’s previous alert on failing player protection measures of the Remote Gambling Act (KOA) highlighted in his letter from December 21, 2023.
Past talks
In the December communiqué, Weerwind brought forward an investigation by the Dutch Gambling Authority Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) into the duty of care by providers which established that there is a “cause for concern about the protection of vulnerable players”.
The Legal Protection Minister asserted that this alone meant that the existing online gambling regime first enforced in 2021 is structured with “a high level of abstraction” that pushes player protection responsibilities into the background rather than front and centre.
Lo..

The National Assembly of Slovenia has been warned that “there are many more violations of online gambling” than previously assumed.

The warning came from the Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia (FURS) carrying out its annual inspection of gambling activities and licences.

The agency reported that “more and more online organisers are illegally organising games of chance in the field of gambling”.

As cited: “In order to organise games of chance in Slovenia, you must have a valid concession from the government. Violators are subject to fines in accordance with the Gambling Act of 1995.”

A subsidiary of the Ministry of Finance, FURS monitors Slovenian gambling activities, and stated that while it had observed 115 violations in 2023 by unlicensed online operators, it had submitted “34 actions against violators, who did not heed the warnings”.

Furthermore, the financial authority noted that 28 violators had continued to offer illegal services despite being issued cease ..

Banco Central do Brasil has been authorised to expand the Pix payment platform internationally to accommodate cross-border transactions for Brazilian businesses.

The decision was taken following a meeting of the Central Bank’s policy advisors on how to maximise global cross-border payment authorisations and efficiencies helping expand Brazil’s international network and resources for business.

Pix was first launched by the central bank in 2020 but its relatively short operating history has seen the instant payments platform become widely utilised in Brazil for both day-to-day consumer and business payments, more so than both debit cards and credit cards.

The system has already been taken multinational to some extent, as Brazilian tourists in the country’s neighbours Uruguay and Paraguay are able to use their Pix digital wallets to pay for services such as restaurants and hotels via a QR code.

However, the central bank is interested in taking Pix even further afield, beyond the borde..

Yesterday’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) showcased the distinct opinions of key political actors at the centre of delivering the change needed to future-proof UK gambling.

“There is never a dull moment in our industry,” stated BGC CEO Michael Dugher, opening the proceedings of the AGM held at the Institution of Civil Engineers in Westminster.

Dugher acknowledged the breakneck 12-months of developments since last April’s publication of the Gambling Review’s White Paper and its proceeding consultation phase to settle the terms of UK gambling’s regulatory future. Preceding the AGM, on Monday MPs had debated the affordability checks scheme as proposed by the White Paper, recognised as a key mandatory protection but dividing opinion on the feasibility of its mechanisms.

Michael Dugher: BGC
Michael Dugher: BGC is the best vehicle for change

“I’m sure we all watched the debate on Monday, certainly no dull moment in Parliament,” echoed Dugher, “By a..

Through the lens of his personal experiences of gambling addiction, Lee Willows, Founder & Executive Chair of ESG Gaming – a non-profit social responsibility, sustainability and harm minimisation group – discussed consumer protection, player integrity and safeguarding.

At a session in the Esports Betting Conference during ICE London 2024, Willows expressed how he used this knowledge of gambling harms to do greater good, establishing one of the major charities in the space.

Openly discussing sensitive topics such as suicide and being at ‘rock bottom’, the Founder emphasised that, particularly with the esports community, operators and publishers must be more mindful as the fanbase tends to be younger.

“There is a lot of excitement around the potential of gambling operators getting involved with esports which is great, but also, like alcohol, gambling can be an incredibly addictive substance,” he said.

Taking us back 11 years, Willows described going to the casino for the very first t..

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has achieved a principal objective, publishing the first datasets of the Gambling Survey of Great Britain (GSGB).

Following consultations undertaken between 2020 and 2021, the Commission launched the GSGB project to change how data is collected on “adult gambling participation and problem gambling prevalence statistics.“

Today, wave one of the GSGB datasets was released, centered on gambling participation, focusing on gambling activities that adults participate in and their reasons for gambling. The Commission stands by the methodology of research and data collection, to improve the tracking of gambling trends over time on the public, offering frequent and consistent data collection among adults in Great Britain.

As detailed by Research Director Ben Haden: “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 behavior among th..

The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) will persist in advocating for the government to comprehensively evaluate the implementation of financial risk checks on UK gambling customers.

The demand was underscored by BHA CEO, Julie Harrington, following Monday’s parliamentary debate concerning affordability checks, as proposed by the Gambling Review’s White Paper – a discussion tabled by UK Racing stakeholders.

MPs were implored to abandon the UK Gambling Commission’s (UKGC) endorsed plans to adopt mandatory affordability checks on player accounts that experience a net loss of £125 a month or £500 per year, and establish a further threshold for accounts that incur losses exceeding £1,000 within 24 hours or £2,000 within 90 days.

UK Racing voiced its apprehensions on Monday, asserting that such checks could potentially deplete its finances by up to £50m annually over the ensuing five years, consequently precipitating substantial job losses in rural areas.

Harrington emphasised the imp..

Finland’s Institute of Health and Welfare (THL) has expressed detailed concerns about the increasing instances of gambling-related disorders, even as Finland experiences a decline in gambling participation.

The observation was made by the Health Institute during its public survey to ascertain the prevalence of moderate and problem gambling risks among Finnish adults.

The Institute, responsible for monitoring records on disorders or abuse related to all forms of addiction, has conducted the “Gambling Population Survey” every four years, starting in 2007.

The 2023 survey, which involved 5,977 participants, revealed that 4.2% were engaged in moderate risk or problem gambling, equating to approximately 151,000 people at the population level. This represents an increase from 3% in previous THL surveys.

Despite THL’s findings showing a decline in gambling participation to 70% of Finns engaging in gambling activities in the past 12 months (65% of women and 75% of men) – which amounts to..