The Ethical Gambling Forum brings together compliance and responsible gambling professionals with regulators, lawyers, HR professionals, marketing experts, researchers and treatment organisations for an inspiring ESG bootcamp. You can expect an imaginative agenda with speakers who are unafraid to talk on controversial and difficult topics such as gambling-related crime; children and gambling; lived experience of…
Tax adjustments to specific gambling segments have been incorporated into Italy’s 2025 Budget Law, signed off by President Sergio Mattarella on 9 January.
The provisions of the 2025 Budget Law have elicited both positive and negative reactions from Italian gambling stakeholders.
The Budget confirmed the decision by the Ministry of Finance (MEF) to extend existing concessions for online gambling licences for an additional tax year.
Additionally, concessions for land-based gambling venues, which were set to expire in December 2024, have been extended by a further two years as the government continues reorganising laws related to retail betting, horse racing, bingo, and gaming machines.
For online gambling, the extension will allow several operators to maintain their current status for an additional fiscal year before transitioning to a new licence regime. The new regime will impose a €7 million authorisation fee and operating fees of 3%.
Italy’s new licence regime was launched on 19..
Seven new cases of advertising violations have kept the Dutch gambling regulator busy in the first weeks of the new year.
Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) reported that the issued violations were in relation to marketing campaigns that had the potential to influence young people – a target group the KSA closely guards due to a higher risk of problem gambling among its members, with an updated young people protections framework coming into force in 2025.
One of the cases was a result of a cooperation between an unnamed operator and a partner organisation, both of them involved in the organisation of a certain motorsport event.
A car that was part of the event had the gambling provider’s logo on it. However, it was not removed once the event was over, and the car was seen together with the logo on public roads, according to a KSA investigation. This constituted a form of non-targeted advertising.
In another case, the logo of a land-based gaming venue was digitally advertised on screens in..
The Seimas of Lithuania will vote on Tuesday (14 January) on the implementation of new gambling controls to be applied via national banks.
A new set of gambling controls has been proposed to the Seimas, which includes new checks and duties to be carried out by all banks (foreign and domestic) licensed by the Bank of Lithuania.
The new controls will require Lithuanian banks to monitor all gambling transactions and provide direct reports to the LPT, the Gambling Control Authority of Lithuania.
Banks must comply with the new duties to ensure that payments to illegal gambling websites registered on the Gambling Control Authority’s blacklist are blocked.
Payments to illegal operators must be terminated within 24 hours of receiving a directive, with fines ranging from €1,800 to €3,800 for initial violations and up to €6,000 for repeat offences.
The LPT supports applying direct controls on banks as the best measure to monitor black market activities, having already banned 1,600 websites ..
BetBlocker has expanded its blocking software to support Bemba, Nyanja and Tonga languages.
The news marks the company’s first initiative aimed at users in Africa, providing a ‘critical resource’ to under-served communities in the region.
Duncan Garvie, BetBlocker Founder and Trustee, said: “For BetBlocker, it’s critical to be able to reach users in a language that they can comfortably engage in to ensure a smooth and speedy set-up process.”
The brand is now focusing its gambling tool on the three most prominent languages spoken in Zambia.
The project is funded by Entain and looks to aid the lack of gambling harm support services compared to more developed jurisdictions.
“Native languages also help us step past cultural barriers, showing that BetBlocker isn’t simply available to these communities; it’s actively working to support them,” Garvie continued.
“This is especially important in under-served and under-supported markets, like many of the African countries.”
Meanwhile, ..
EPIC Global Solutions has agreed to a landmark deal with a NCAA Division III conference.
The London-based gambling harm consultancy has reached an agreement with the Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC) making the conference the first DIII conference to offer a gambling harm education program through EPIC. The agreement, which includes an initial six-month consultancy period, will provide education on sports betting issues to student-athletes and staff, including athletic directors, from all PAC member schools.
“Since sports betting became legal and so accessible online, the PAC and administrators in our conference have been searching for a way to educate our student-athletes and staff about the potential dangers of online gambling,” said PAC Commissioner Joe Onderko. “This partnership with EPIC Global Solutions will help provide our conference schools with the tools to help our athletes be better informed about possible issues that can be brought on by online gambling.”
EPIC will ..
UK regulator in industry first as it reviews Evolution Gaming’s licence related to its supply of games to unlicensed websites
The Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), the Gambling Authority of the Netherlands, will adopt stricter scrutiny of duty-of-care interactions by licensed operators with young customers (under 24s).
This demand headlines the ‘Supervision Agenda 2025’, which sets out the regulatory objectives of the KSA and its oversight of Dutch gambling and licensed entities.
The agenda adheres to the KSA’s long-term supervisory principles, initiated in October 2021 following the launch of the Remote Gambling Act (KOA) as the regulatory framework governing the Netherlands’ new online gambling marketplace. These principles include preventing gambling addiction, protecting and informing consumers, and combating illegality and crime in the gambling sector.
For 2025, the KSA has identified new areas requiring “extra attention” in its oversight of Dutch gambling licences. In October 2024, KOA licences implemented new deposit limits of €700 for player accounts over the age of 25, and a €300 deposit threshold for pla..
Poland seeks for EU member states to “harmonise and deepen” collaborative efforts to combat illegal online gambling, which is reported to cost Eurozone nations an estimated €7.2bn in lost tax revenues.
Since 1 January, Poland has held the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, setting the agenda for the first half of 2025 for the bloc and its economic union, in which it has chosen to raise the EU’s exposure to online gambling threats via the black market.
The EU’s growing exposure to illegal online gambling is viewed as an integrity and economic threat, with member states limited in binding solutions to arrest and prosecute black-market actors.
Poland calls on member states to view illegal online gambling as an EU-wide threat, which requires harmonised regulations and enforcement practices to combat illegal entities targeting EU consumers with no binding restrictions.
Poland has proposed the creation of a dedicated working group under the European Commission to tackle ill..
The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has fined Greentube Alderney Ltd £1 million for failing to meet anti-money laundering (AML) and social responsibility standards.
Greentube Alderney, which operates the Admiral Casino brand, breached AML rules for the reported period of September 2022 to June 2023.
The Commission deemed that Greentube had failed to properly scrutinise information, causing delays in identifying and escalating money laundering or terrorism financing risks. It also ignored its own policies on “risky occupations”, such as failing to flag a customer’s role as a finance manager, which could suggest access to misappropriated or laundered funds.
The company did not act promptly to investigate and escalate suspicious accounts. In one case, it overlooked an account linked to another customer with the same address and surname, who had a conviction for supplying Class A drugs.
John Pierce, the Commission’s Director of Enforcement, said this penalty follows a compliance assessme..