SBC News

Uruguay has doubled down on its commitment to strengthening the country’s responsible gambling strategy, with policymakers in the capital of Montevideo signing a long-term agreement with the Faculty of Medicine at the University of the Republic.

The municipality’s decision follows that of the national Directorate of State Casinos, which strengthened its efforts against gambling harm by teaming up with the faculty after a report commissioned by the educational body highlighted that “in Uruguay there are more than 35,000 people who are gamblers and almost twice as many suffer from the problematic game”.

As reported by SBC Noticias, the government of Uruguay will look to expand its 2009 Program for the Prevention and Treatment of Pathological Gambling by placing a magnifying glass on Montevideo’s population.

The program itself provides therapeutic support services at no cost to bettors who are experiencing problematic gambling disorders.

Furthemore, the Faculty of Medicine added tha..

Lottstift, the Gambling Authority of Norway, has expanded its funding coverage to support volunteer groups treating gambling addiction.

The authority has reminded volunteer groups and related organizations of its 31st January deadline to secure financial support for the treatment of gambling harm.

The directive is part of the Norwegian government’s 2022-2025 action plan, which tasks Lottstift with expanding a network of stakeholders to improve early interventions for gambling risks and harms.

Organizations eligible for financial support under the program of grants, effective from January 1, 2023, include voluntary support groups for gambling addicts and their relatives, and groups addressing gambling and compulsive gaming addictions.

For 2024, up to NOK 4.1m (€400k) will be available for grants, contingent upon criteria established by Norway’s Ministry of Culture and Lottstift.

The program will review grants for operational support and for project-specific support related to impro..

An agreement has been reached between the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) and the Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) to extend their Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

The AGCC was first established in 2000 as Alderney’s gaming regulatory body responsible for the supervision of the gaming sector, overseeing the licensing and regulatory enforcement procedures on the island.

Malta’s regulatory body, on the other hand, recently announced Charles Mizzi as the successor of the regulator’s current CEO Carl Brincat, who will step down from the role at the end of January.

Both regulators first signed the MoU into power back in 2013 with the goal of strengthening their collaboration.

With the renewal now in fruition, the MGA and AGCC can deepen their commitment towards achieving their common objectives for a better regulated gaming sector, and continue working on joint initiatives that put the focus on crime prevention, consumer protection and gambling harm reduction.

Brincat comm..

GambleAware has stated that the government must prioritise the development of the National Strategy for the Prevention and Treatment of gambling harms in its ongoing review of gambling laws and duties.

The statement was made by GambleAware in its response to the Statutory Levy consultation as proposed by the Gambling Review’s White Paper, authored by CEO Zoë Osmond.

Under consultation, GambleAware is set to be replaced by the NHS and UK Research and Innovation as the chief commissioner of funding for Research, Education, and Treatment (RET) projects and organisations.

As outlined in the White Paper, the government aims to raise £100m per year by 2027 for gambling research, education, and treatment (RET) across England, Scotland, and Wales, proposing a 1% fee on gross gambling yield for online operators, with land-based betting shops and casinos paying around 0.4%.

GambleAware reiterated its support for the introduction of a statutory levy needed to bring clarity in funding and supp..

The German gambling regulator, Gemeinsame Glücksspielbehörde der Länder (GGL), has secured financing for the country’s free gambling addiction hotline of the Federal Center for Health Education – BZgA – for the next few years.

The GGL declared that the main associations of the German gaming industry have jointly- backed the BZgA hotline with further funding. Covering a third of the funding will be the German lotto and totoblock DLTB and the German slot machine industry DAW.

Additionally, financial support will also be provided by the country’s sports betting association DSWV, the online casino association DOCV, the federal association of private individuals casinos BupriS, the casino association DSbV and the lotto association DLV.

The GGL noted that the hotline’s financing is regularly renegotiated, but the regulator is committed to ensuring it is permanently secured.

“Free telephone advice on gambling addiction is an important offer for those affected,” emphasised GGL board membe..

If state-of-the-art technology and marketing expertise can be used in combination as a highly-effective player acquisition tool, they can do exactly the same for player protection, Entain’s Group Operations Director Peter Marcus told Issue 27 of SBC Leaders magazine.

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Entain’s Group Operations Director Peter Marcus
When a member of the Entain’s management team says that, “the board are 100% supportive of it. I would say I get more questions each month from the board than anyone else on how’s it going”, you could be forgiven for thinking that the project he oversees is a new revenue-generating powerhouse.

What Group Operations Director Peter Marcus is actually talking about is the company’s safer gambling efforts and in particular its state-of-the-art Advanced Responsibility & Care (ARC) player protection programme.

The importance that the board and C-Suite have attached to ARC is illustrated by the fact that it was Entain’s second biggest project globally in 202..

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has issued a reminder to healthcare professionals on prescribing Aripiprazole, a drug which can lead patients to develop compulsive behaviours such as problem gambling.

Branded as ‘Abilify’ or ‘Aristada’, Aripiprazole can be prescribed by GPs and healthcare professionals to treat schizophrenia and extreme cases of bipolar disorder.

However, as noted by the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA), patients must be warned of developing compulsive urges or cravings such as addictive gambling, excessive eating, spending, or high sex drive.

Tracked by the MHRA’s Yellow Card scheme, the DHSC has received 69 reports of gambling disorders related to Aripiprazole in the last 14 years, with 32 reports in 2023 alone.

“Thirty-two of these reports were received between 1 January and 31 August this year. In March 2023, the MHRA asked gambling clinics to report any suspected cases which may account for some of the rise,” DHSC noted.

Healt..

Obtaining the required personal financial information is the greatest barrier licensed betting & gaming operators face when onboarding players and the industry fears that mandatory affordability checks will make the situation worse, a new SBC study, commissioned by IDnow, has concluded.

The finding emerged as part of the SBC Media Challenges in Compliance Survey, which saw senior compliance representatives from operators in Europe, North America and Latin America share their thoughts on the major issues they face. The full report will be published in February 2024.

One of the survey’s questions was, ‘at what stage do you currently see the biggest drop-off rates in the onboarding process?’ Just over 50% of respondents identified ‘Document Submission – Personal Financial Information’ as their most significant problem area.

The scale of the reluctance of players to share financial documentation was emphasised by the other answers to the question. The second and third most common drop-o..

GamCare is spreading awareness of the links between cryptocurrency investment and the betting and financial harms that it may cause.

The problem gambling charity commissioned a research project from YouGov that examines investments made by the UK public. A survey of 4,200 adults found that 40% of people lost money on cryptocurrency, in comparison to 34% who made financial gain.

Drawing parallels to gambling, GamCare also cited that people experiencing harmful gambling are more likely to own cryptocurrency than the general population. The quantitative difference was shown in statistics of 51% against 11%.

Raminta Diliso, GamCare Financial Harm Manager, commented: “For many consumers, cryptocurrency purchases are a way to diversify their investment portfolio.

“However, what we have seen on the National Gambling Helpline over the past few years is that serious harm can occur if it goes too far and it’s not always the get-rich-quick opportunity some people may think it is.

“The volati..

Glücksspiel (GGL), the Federal Authority of German Gambling, has awarded its “Gambling Advertising Study” to eye square GmbH, a media research group.

As announced on 10 August, the GGL published its tender requirements for a “study coordinated with Germany’s 16 federal states,” titled “Gambling advertising on television and on the Internet in the area of conflict between channeling and addiction prevention.”

The ‘Gambling Advertising Study’ forms part of the GGL and Bundestag ongoing evaluation of the Fourth Interstate Treaty on Gambling (GlüNeuRStv), implemented on 1 July 2021. The treaty introduced a new regulatory framework for online gambling across Germany’s 16 federal states.

The tender winner, eye square GmbH, is a Berlin-based media and marketing agency, which is reported to have “prevailed against four competitors.”

GGL announced that the “study will run for two years” as part of the evaluation of the Fourth Interstate Treaty on Gambling (GlüNeuRStv), needed to determine h..