Steve Hoare

Children’s digital safety is gradually becoming a top concern for many European countries, with Romania being the latest to consider stringent controls.

Similarly to France, where regulations to limit under-15s access to social media have been in place since July 2023, lawmakers in Romania are considering the roll out of mandatory age checks for children up to 16 years of age, potentially even outright banning social networks for that age group.

The goal is to protect minors from content that is considered sexual or violent in nature, as well as to reduce the rates of online bullying and harassment which has become almost a given among digital youth circles.

Concerns, however, have also spilled over to gambling, with online monitoring reformists also bundling up advertising restrictions into their demands.

Save the Children, an NGO leading the online minor protections debate, has been quite outspoken against what it sees as a proliferation of child gamblers in Romania.

Data presented by the organisation shows that 48.3% of children spend more than six hours a day online. A separate Save the Children data set showcased that 14% of surveyed children have gambled at least once in their lifetime, while 40% admitted to knowing a peer who has gambled.

In light of the results, Gabriela Alexandrescu, President of Save the Children Romania, said: “We must be aware of the real risks of gambling addiction and the destructive pathological behaviors it generates.

“It is imperative to completely eliminate gambling advertising, limit the spaces dedicated to these activities, and even prohibit gambling for people under 21.”

These concerns were also shared by a number of politicians, including MP Raluca Turcan, who added: “Gambling advertisements must not invade children’s space. It is vital to ban not only gaming halls, but also billboards and advertisements near schools, parks, playgrounds, campuses, hospitals or churches.”

Political pressure to clamp down on gambling has been gradually increasing since the start of the year as a result of the major hiccup that the national regulator, ONJN, went over in February, when an audit found €900m of missing taxes.

DGOJ, the Directorate General of Gambling in Spain, has revealed further plans for player protections and centralised monitoring controls to be applied to the digital environments of Spanish online gambling licences.

The update coincides with the Directorate renewing its certification under the National Security Scheme (ENS), Spain’s central information system for public services and government agencies.

The regulator needs this renewal in order to test a principal project of the 2023 Royal Decree on Gambling Environments. This project is the deployment of a ‘Centralised Monitoring System’ tracking player activity across Spanish online gambling.

Since 2022, Spanish licences have been instructed to self-manage deposit limits independently at a limit of €600 a day. The centralised system will allow DGOJ to verify each customer deposit transacted with individual licences.

According to the draft proposals, the default limits are set at €600 per day, €1,500 per week, and €3,000 per month. SBC Noticias reports that “new monitoring will require verification of each deposit to ensure the player maintains a margin within the established limits”.

The system is yet to be tested, but DGOJ is confident it will provide “individual mechanisms” for customers to reduce limits. Licensees must remind customers of their right to limit deposits and time on platforms on each log-in.

The application of universal deposit limits forms part of the DGOJ’s technical commitment to ensure Spanish gambling consumers are protected by the centralised monitoring system.

Attached to the new monitoring system will be the launch of a new Federal Self-Exclusion Scheme for problem gamblers. This new protection is designed for problem gambling interventions and to provide direct treatment support across Spain’s 17 autonomous communities.

The DGOJ maintains its ambitions to launch an AI algorithm to trace 60 live variable indicators of problem gambling risks. The algorithm is viewed as the headline project of the Royal Decree of gambling environments, to deliver as AI will track real-time patterns linked to problem gambling behaviour and enable operators to intervene early.

In an update provided to delegates of the Gaming in Spain Conference in June, the DGOJ noted that it had begun the project based on XGBoost machine learning algorithms.

However, this September, the Directorate launched a public consultation for feedback from IT, gaming and tech stakeholders on inputs, data and intelligence needed to engineer the algorithm.

The DGOJ believes that this project, which is backed by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs of Spain, will make it the first European regulator to apply AI to customer interventions around gambling harm.

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs of Spain maintains that the Royal Decree of Gambling Environments provides the mandate for Spain to have the toughest surveillance of gambling licences in Europe.

As it stands, the DGOJ has yet to deliver on any technical project sought by the Royal Decree.

The Portuguese Parliament has agreed to reopen debates on stricter controls for gambling advertising and promotions.

On Friday, Parliament agreed to forward five initiatives from the left-wing ecologist party Livre to committee stage for further deliberation. These included measures to curb online gambling advertising, sponsorship bans, and the application of mandatory addiction warnings.

However, Livre’s proposals to prohibit sales or linit availability of scratch cards in health establishments were rejected.

MPs at the São Bento Palace will once again review whether to apply limits of advertising, a ban on gambling promotions by influencers and public figures. Elsewhere ministers will review Portuguese sports relationships with betting firms, and new obligations to toughen consumer warnings on online platforms and games of chance.

In connection with the proposals, the Socialist Party (PS) agreed to apply a non-binding resolution to urge the government to review and modernise Portugal’s gambling framework.

New initiatives would focus on the creation of a central self-exclusion system, strengthening regulatory oversight, and potentially using gambling revenues to support tourism development in the country’s interior regions.

At present, Portugal’s gambling sector is regulated under a dual system. Land-based casinos, arcades and bingo are covered by the Gambling Law of 1989, which limits operations to ‘municipal zones’ granted by the state.

Online gambling and sports betting, meanwhile, have been regulated since 2015 under Decree-Law 66/2015, overseen by Portugal’s SRIJ – Gambling Regulation and Inspection Service. Licensed operators must comply with strict consumer-protection rules and pay taxes, with online sports betting levied on turnover 8–16%, dependent on wagering tiers and online casino games on gross gaming revenue of 25% flat rate.

The 2015 decree led to many international operators exiting the market, viewing Portugal’s tax framework as unviable and favouring domestic incumbents.

However, as tax rates have risen across all Western European jurisdictions, in subsequent years Portugal’s regime has gradually come to be seen favourable. The SRIJ has since welcomed a steady flow of new licensees, broadening the market beyond its original incumbents.

São Bento divided on gambling reforms
Political reactions revealed sharp divisions over Livre’s proposals. While left-wing parties such as Livre, PCP, BE and PAN have actively pressed for tougher restrictions, parliament’s larger houses cautioned against blanket bans and other stringent controls.

The governing PSD accused Livre of resorting to “ban, ban, ban” politics without considering constitutional or proportionality issues, while the PS stressed that prohibitionist solutions risk undermining state revenues

The conservative block of Chega, IL and CDS-PP all criticised the initiatives as paternalistic and disproportionate, with Chega branding Livre’s proposals as “Stalinist tendencies, of a party seeking public attention”.

Ricardo Domingues – APAJO
APAJO: Gambling advertising is a consumer protection
The Portuguese Online Betting and Gambling Association (APAJO) quickly responded by defending gambling ads as “the only way” for consumers to distinguish between licensed and unlicensed operators.

“Advertising is the only real advantage that licensed operators have over illegal ones. And it’s the only way for Portuguese consumers to distinguish between the licensed and the unlicensed, the safe and the unsafe,” said APAJO president Ricardo Domingues in a statement circulated to Iberian press agencies.

APAJO warned that restrictions would favour the black market, citing the Italian example where advertising bans have backfired. The association accused Livre of “a clear lack of knowledge of the matter” and acting out of “ideological or personal prejudice and political opportunism”.

Domingues stressed that around 40% of Portuguese online gamblers still use illegal platforms, with three quarters unaware they are doing so. He argued that licensed operators comply with SRIJ rules, while illegal sites often allow minors or self-excluded players to gamble and have been linked to match-fixing.

Livre MPs countered that gambling is becoming increasingly “invisible” and addictive, particularly among young people using mobile phones and computers. They insist advertising must not glorify gambling or target vulnerable groups, while APAJO argues that without visibility, licensed firms cannot compete with unregulated rivals.

Up for debate…
The reopening of parliamentary debate signals that Portugal will once again reassess where the balance of gambling governance should lie between consumer protections and market viability.

Committees will now decide whether to tighten advertising restrictions in line with Livre’s vision, or to adopt the PS’s softer approach of modernising the framework with new controls, supervision and regulatory powers.

The largest turnover-based penalty fee imposed by Sweden’s regulator, Spelinspektionen, has been reduced after a Court ruling.

In June of last year, Kanon Gaming Ltd, a Malta-based operator also licenced in Sweden, found itself in the crosshairs of Spelinspektionen as a result of duty of care deficiencies.

What followed was the largest penalty fee based on a company’s net turnover ever issued by the regulator – a total of SEK 7m (£554,000). Kanon later contested the decision in Sweden’s Administrative Court.

Following a review, the Court deduced that failures were indeed present, but “not of such a serious nature” to beckon the size of the initial initial penalty. Instead, the sum was brought down to SEK 4.8m.

Part of the reasoning behind the Court’s ruling was that Kanon showed proactiveness to address the identified issues, maintaining a close collaboration with Spelinspektionen in doing so.

What’s more, the Kanon shortcomings listed by Spelinspektionen were found to have been cleared by the operator in 2023, prior to the regulatory repercussion.

“The company has had routines for contact with players even before the Swedish Gambling Authority began its supervision and has monitored the players’ communication with customer service in order to detect excessive gambling,” the Administrative Court said in its statement.

“The company is a small player in the market and has made a loss in recent years…A high penalty in this case is contrary to the objectives of the Gambling Act and is disproportionate.”

Regardless, the Court assured that the reduced SEK 4.8m penalty is still in accordance with a proportionate punishment, taking into consideration the identified deficiencies and the period of time they have lasted.

Kanon Gaming’s stance has remained unchanged throughout the ordeal, with the company stating that while it does not question Spelinspektionen’s findings of due diligence shortcomings, the initial penalty does not correlate with regulatory decisions on other similar cases.

Sweden has been putting its foot down recently when it comes to player protection, with the government putting plans in motion to amend the 2018 Gambling Act with additional measures against offshore operators.

The update will hit all unlicensed platforms with the full power of Sweden’s legislature if they are found to allow Swedish players on their platforms – even those which are not actively targeting the Swedish market.