The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has ordered AG Communications Ltd – trading as Aspire Global – to pay £1.4m towards social responsibility causes after its second compliance failure. Target of a UKGC investigation, the operator was found to be in breach of Social Responsibility (SR) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) procedures. This is the second time that Aspire Global has faced financial reprimanding…
GamCare has welcomed the appointment of Victoria Corbishley as Chief Executive of the UK’s frontline provider of treatment support services for gambling harms. An expert in the management of public health services, responsibilities, and the delivery of treatment and care, Corbishley is a former Senior Director of the British Red Cross, where she led the charity’s health and care…
UK gambling stakeholders have been told to prepare for forthcoming regulatory changes that will take effect in April. The notice comes from DCMS Gambling Minister, Baroness Twycross, in her speech at the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) 2025 AGM. The speech confirmed that UK gambling’s new Statutory Levy for funding problem gambling research, education, and treatment (RET) will be implemented from…
The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) has announced its regulatory focus for 2025 is to enhance compliance, player protection, and sports betting integrity. In a press release it said: “Building on its existing risk-based framework, the MGA is enhancing such framework to a more evidence-driven and outcomes-focused model. This strategic approach will enable the Authority to…
The Spanish gambling regulator, the Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling (DGOJ) of the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumption and Agenda 2030, shared that it has met with representatives of licensed operators in the country to discuss the problem of identity theft on betting platforms. According to DGOJ, a report was carried out jointly with the…
Popular poker-inspired mobile game Balatro has had its Pan-European Game Information age rating reduced from 18 to 12, escalating the long-standing debate on gambling in video games. One of the most popular mobile games in 2024, Balatro incorporates elements of poker into a card game where players aim to form winning combinations, enhanced by special features such as joker…
The Senate of Italy is prepared to review the Dignity Decree of 2018 to either revoke or modify the ban on gambling sponsorship, enforced since 2019. Calcio newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport reports that Sports Minister Andrea Abodi is ready to negotiate a new sponsorship code with the Italian football clubs that will be presented to the Culture Committee of…
Svenska Spel has praised the impact of its Independent Research Council on Gambling Risks and Addiction. The programme has entered its fifteenth year since its formation as an independent body, having reached the milestone of providing over SEK 100m (€10m) in funding for projects that deliver deeper insights into the impacts of problem gambling. In 2024, Svenska Spel announced…
Traditional advertising channels across Europe are efficiently blocking the exposure of minors to gambling, according to the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA). The trade association put out a summary of an in-depth market assessment by the European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA) from December 2024, which monitored 120 individual ads from Greece, Spain, Romania and the UK. Results were…
A team of academics from the Universities of Bath, Cambridge, Goldsmiths and Edinburgh, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) have launched a scathing attack on the gambling industry in respected medical journal the BMJ. Their paper, ‘Learning from tobacco control to tackle gambling industry harms’ compares the infamous “frank statement” from…