SBC News

The ongoing debate on how Australia will choose to reform its gambling advertising laws has reached the boardrooms of TV networks.

This weekend, the Alliance for Gambling Reform (AGR) launched a campaign targeting the shareholders of Australian TV networks to support a blanket ban on gambling advertising.

The campaign is led by the ‘chief advocate’, Reverend Tim Costello, who is the brother of Nine’s former Chairman, Peter Costello, as gambling advertising conflicts turn into family affair.

The campaign urges shareholders of Nine and Seven West Media (SWM) to bring forward a resolution for a blanket ban on gambling advertising to be voted on at the broadcasters’ upcoming AGMs.

The AGR states that it requires 100 shareholders to mobilise and propose its shareholder resolution to Nine and SWM as a matter of ethical investing and shareholder advocacy.

The investors and boards of Nine and SWM will decide whether to end all gambling advertising across the broadcasters’ networks, includ..

Glücksspielbehörde (GGL), the Federal Authority of German Gambling, has initiated a new coordination strategy with state authorities to combat gambling addiction.

Coordination meetings began last week as GGL Chairman Ronald Benter met with Konrad Landgraf, Managing Director of the State Office for Gambling Addiction in Bavaria (LSG).

Benter is scheduled to speak with individual state authorities to improve cooperation and exchange ideas on how to strengthen the laws of the Fourth Interstate Treaty on Gambling (GlüStV) to combat gambling addiction.

The GGL’s individual meetings aim to “better understand the challenges faced by state coordination offices and to develop joint approaches for intensified cooperation.”

The leadership of the GGL identified coordination challenges during its first meeting of interstate authorities in Halle in January 2023, shortly after the Saxony-Anhalt agency assumed the role of Federal Authority for German Gambling.

Seeking to apply a new strategy, Ben..

The National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) has published its evaluation report on the ‘Credit Card Ban for Gambling in Great Britain’.

In April 2020, Great Britain became the first nation to implement an outright ban on the use of credit cards for gambling transactions. The ban was implemented based on evidence that the use of credit cards was associated with greater harms amongst people who gamble.

Research pointed to GambleAware data gathered between July 2018 and July 2019 from 139,152 gambling accounts across seven gambling operators, which detailed that 5.7% of overall deposits into online gambling accounts were made using credit cards.

Although credit card transactions remained relatively low in usage, GambleAware noted that gamblers with significant wins or high losses were more likely to use credit cards, as indicated by 26% of players with losses exceeding £5,000.

Furthermore, evidence showed that 19.8% of account holders who had received an intervention had used cre..

The government of Sweden has granted additional powers to the Gambling Inspectorate, Spelinspektionen, to intervene directly in cases of ‘excessive online gambling.’

Yesterday, the government announced that the Inspectorate would be allowed to set individual “requirements on the content of license holders’ action plans to counter excessive gambling.”

This measure was described as a ‘sharper tool’ for Spelinspektionen to ensure that operators maintain consistent online safeguards, protections, and customer care duties for gambling consumers.

“This decision represents a tightening of efforts against gambling problems and strengthens consumer protection.”

Effective from 1 October , the Inspectorate will be permitted to change or modify the action plans of individual licensees concerning duty of care requirements.

Under the terms of the Gambling Act, Swedish online gambling operators are required to maintain an action plan outlining their duty of care procedures, protocols, and routin..

GambleAware has named Nicola Jaques as the new Chair of the group’s Lived Experience Council (LEC).

The gambling harm charity emphasised that the LEC plays an ‘integral part’ in informing, developing and monitoring its plans. It includes a variety of people whose lives have been impacted by gambling harm, including affected others.

Jaques commented: “It’s a privilege to have the opportunity to lead GambleAware’s Lived Experience Council.

“I am proud to be part of the ongoing fight against gambling harm with GambleAware and exceptionally grateful to help guide plans for the charity which has helped improve the lives of families like mine.”

GambleAware also emphasised how the LEC builds on its commitment to ensure its work is collaborative and best placed to support the communities most in need.

Meanwhile, Robert Parker has also joined the LEC and is the first member from Wales. He joined the LEC to share and use his personal journey of gambling harms to provide hope to others.

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Gambling harm prevention charity GambleAware has reported around £300k in Research, Prevention and Treatment (RET) donations received between April and June (Q1).

With the exact total standing at £294,722.99, the contributions list generally follows a rule of thumb where GambleAware receives a relatively small proportion of donations in Q1, gradually leading up to a greater proportion in Q4 (January-March).

The biggest RET donation was made by Skill on Net Ltd – a total of £40,000 – followed by Star Racing Ltd with £27,547.37 and ProgressPlay Ltd with £24,346.

The least amount was donated by GameBeat Studio with £7, while Angus Wallace (trading as Gus Bookmakers) made a total of £10 in Q1 contributions.

It is expected that the 2024/25 fiscal year will be the last year in which operators make their donations directly to the charities listed on the UK Gambling Commission’s (UKGC) LCCP registry of approved organisations.

The change precedes the introduction of a statutory levy th..

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has provided a technical update on its upcoming pilot for financial risk assessments for customers.

As announced on 1 May 2024, the Commission will begin its pilot of frictionless ‘light touch’ financial risk assessments from 30 August.

The pilot will initiate the Commission’s four-stage plan to adopt regulatory changes to “remote game designs, terms and conditions on direct marketing, light-touch financial vulnerability checks, and tightening processes to support age verification checks in premises.”

On 30 August, the Commission will begin its six-month pilot on light-touch affordability checks, applied to an initial threshold of customer deposits of £500 a month.

The pilot aims to reduce the deposit threshold to £150 a month by 28 February 2025 as the mandatory limit for affordability checks to be applied by online operators.

As noted, the pilot is being undertaken with credit agencies and online gambling operators to examine the potential custo..

Svenska Spel states that it has generated 93.2% of its corporate income from ‘healthy revenues’ during Q2 trading.

Sweden’s state-owned gambling group continues to publish its ‘transparent safer gambling metrics’, alongside Kindred Group and ATG, as part of a pledge maintained by ‘Sweden’s three largest gambling firms.’

Q2 trading saw Svenska Spel generate net gaming revenues of SEK 1.87bn (€166m), of which 93% was generated from low-risk customers.

The figure represents a 1% improvement for Svenska Spel from the 92.2% income generated from healthy revenues in the previous quarter.

Healthy revenues are defined as income generated from customers who gamble responsibly with a low risk of developing gambling problems. The metric underlines Svenska Spel’s strategic focus on safely targeting recreational gamblers.

The calculation of healthy revenue is based on risk models applied within Svenska Spel’s Playscan analysis tool, which categorizes customers by analyzing their gambling habit..