SBC News

Croatia will move to overhaul its gambling laws as a pledge guaranteed by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and Croatia’s new government.

Yesterday, Plenković submitted the draft decree of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) to Parliament, demanding ministers back an urgent reform of Croatia’s ‘Gambling Act’.

Plenković stated that urgent reforms need to be implemented, as growing concerns had been raised by local leaders, city mayors, and municipal leaders about the high and unprotected exposure of gambling to citizens.

Prior to Croatia’s snap elections in May, Plenković and the HDZ-coalition government had been criticised by opposition leaders for failing to tackle gambling addiction “impacting the lives of +40,000 Croats“.

Croatia’s gambling regime was established in 2009 under the Republic’s Games of Chance Act, which was modified in 2015 to include new gambling activities. Although Parliament has hosted several debates on gambling amendments, no decree has been proposed until now..

SOFTSWISS has shared that gambling fraud notifications fell during the first quarter of the year.

The global technology company’s managed services’ anti-fraud team has helped operators save around €6m in H1 2024 – according to the recently published insights – which is a one-third reduction in the amount at risk in comparison to last year.

Including operator and verification requests, fraud and responsible gambling notifications, the anti-fraud team handled around 54,000 tasks during the first six months of the year, which is down 8.5% year-over-year.

Ilya Nesterov, Anti-Fraud Team Lead at SOFTSWISS, commented: “The most common types of fraud our team deals with are bonus abuse, identity theft and documents forgery, which account for almost 90% of all fraud cases.”

In addition, SOFTSWISS noted that player complaints submitted to regulators or at industry forums have risen by 12.4% YoY in H1 to 118. The firm claimed that its expertise in analysing these cases helped operators resolv..

Danish gambling will be safeguarded against ‘unlicensed marketing threats’ by a new cooperative agreement formed by Gambling Authority Spillemyndigheden, Consumer Ombudsman Forbrugerombudsmanden and the Gambling Board of Spilreklamenævnet.

The three organisations will work together to strengthen their efforts against unlicensed operators targeting Danish consumers with illegal gambling offers.

As announced, a ‘cooperative ageement‘ has been formed “to avoid duplicating efforts and to enhance the overall regulation of gambling companies’ marketing in Denmark.”

The Gambling Board, Spilreklamenævnet, will monitor Danish gambling advertising and forward cases to the Consumer Ombudsman and the Gambling Authority if gambling operators do not comply with the board’s advertising code or infringe on advertising laws.

The Gambling Advertising Board will handle complaints about breaches of the industry’s code of conduct in gambling advertising. This code aims to enhance the industry’s social ..

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has clarified data and insights related to the format of the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB).

Sanctioned in 2020, the Commission undertook two years of pilot tests and fieldwork on methodologies to develop a new format for its survey collecting data on gambling prevalence in Great Britain.

The survey is carried out independently by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) and the University of Glasgow, with the aim of providing stakeholders with “high-quality information about the gaming, betting, and playing habits, attitudes, and harms experienced across the adult population in Great Britain.”

In 2024, the Commission published the first two datasets of the GSGB titled ‘Wave-1’ and ‘Wave-2’, branded as the “largest survey about people’s gambling behaviours in the world, collecting data from a total of 20,000 respondents each year.”

As detailed, Wave-1 of the GSGB was representative of a sample of 4,801 adults aged 18 and over who ..

GamCare has confirmed the appointment of Tim Hodgetts as Director of Clinical Operations of the UK’s leading charity providing treatment support services for problem gambling.

Hodgetts brings 22 years of experience to the role, having served in multiple leadership roles within the NHS, in which he specialised in the design, management, and efficiency of healthcare networks.

Most recently, Hodgetts served as Deputy Director for Integrated Care Services with Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust – in which he was responsible for the performance management of the unit, meeting NHS objectives.

GamCare highlighted Hodgetts’ management as “Under his leadership, Tim transformed the urgent care services, including the local NHS 111 telephony and online service to become the best-performing in the country.”

Margot Daly, Chair at GamCare, adds: “I am delighted to welcome Tim, whose significant expertise, knowledge, and insights will be invaluable to the clinical leadership of the..

GambleAware has appointed Professor Sian Griffiths (CBE) as the new Chair of Trustees for its gambling harms prevention programmes in the UK.

Griffiths takes over from Baroness Kate Lampard (CBE), who is leading a government inquiry into the death of mental health inpatients in Essex.

Griffiths has been Deputy Chair of Trustees at GambleAware and Chair of the charity’s Performance and Delivery Committee since 2018.

As one of the UK’s leading physicians, Griffiths was President of the UK Faculty of Public Health (2001-2005). With a distinguished career in public health policy and network management, Griffiths has served as a Director of Public Health England and Chair of the Public Health England Global Health Committee.

“I am delighted to accept this appointment and continue ensuring gambling harms are seen as a serious public health issue,” Griffiths said.

“Due to the stigma surrounding gambling harm, it can be hard for people to seek help. We need a public health approach that r..

The Assembly of Northern Ireland is unlikely to review any changes to gambling laws, despite bipartisan calls demanding an immediate intervention.

Following Thursday’s General Election, Northern Ireland sees a new Assembly take form in which Sinn Féin will serve as Stormont’s largest party in Westminster.

The election sees a more diversified representation of Northern Ireland at Westminster, despite Sinn Féin taking no seats at the House of Commons. A new assembly is made up of six parties (and one independent) representing the 18 constituencies of the devolved nation.

In 2019, Stormont began its consultation to overhaul gambling laws of the ‘1985 Order on Betting, Gaming, Lotteries and Amusements’ – which carried no provisions for online gambling.

Despite the recognition that NI gambling laws were outdated, Stormont saw no progress on the launch of a new gambling regime or amending existing laws to improve protections.

Yesterday, the Department for Communities (DfC) responded to ..