SBC News

As an unusual April heatwave engulfs the streets of Bulgaria’s capital, passing by the doors of the Parliamentary House in the heart of Sofia might leave one with the impression that the heat is coming from its halls.

Bulgaria’s brightest minds tirelessly pace back and forth in preparation for another day of debates to defend their electorates’ interests – and this time gambling is on the agenda.

Kostadin Kostadinov: BG Parliament
As 2023 came to an end, the last thing that Kostadin Kostadinov and his nationalist party Revival (Bulgarian: ‘Vazrazhdane’) did before signing off for the holidays was to draft a proposal that amends certain legislations in the country’s current Gambling Law for a better aligned framework.

One significant point of interest was the almost complete overhaul of advertising rules, which Vazrazhdane thinks is necessary to push back against an ‘onslaught’ of gambling adverts that roam freely across TV, radio and other electronic media, thus reaching minors a..

Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), the Gambling Authority of the Netherlands, has stated that it has tracked over 1.1 million gambling accounts participating in the regulated KOA market.

The figure is the headline finding of the KSA’s ‘monitoring factsheet’ on Dutch online gambling trends under the mandate of the Remote Gambling Act (KOA Act) – the framework that legalised Dutch online gambling as of October 2021.

Monitoring KOA developments, KSA observes: “The number of accounts played has increased to 1.1 million in 2023. A year earlier, there were 970 thousand. Since players can use more than one account, the number of accounts does not directly indicate the actual number of players.”

In light of duplicate accounts, KSA estimates that on average the KOA market registers 448,000 players per month. However, in the second half of 2023, KSA recorded that 726,000 players were active with legal providers – a figure which reflects that 5% of Dutch adults have gambled online.

Data for 2023 detai..

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) and bet365 have settled on a fine of £582,120 related to anti-money laundering and social responsibility failures of its bingo and casino business.

These failings were discovered during a Commission compliance assessment in March last year.

In total, Hillside (UK Gaming) ENC, which holds a licence for bet365’s bingo and casino products, must pay £343,035, whilst the remaining will be paid by Hillside (UK Sports) ENC – which holds a licence to offer betting.

Kay Roberts, Executive Director of Operations at the UKGC, described the policy and procedural failings as ‘not as severe’ as those at other gambling businesses in recent years, but emphasised that they were failings nonetheless.

He said: “We expect high standards from operators in terms of keeping gambling safe, fair and crime-free, and will always take action to correct any failings. This operator is very aware that a repeat of these failings will result in escalating regulatory action.”

One..

In his final tenure as Chairman of the Dutch Gaming Authority (KSA), René Jansen signed off the regulator’s new problem gambling report for one last time.

One for the road
Jansen will step down from his duties later this year and used the report’s foreword to reflect on the KSA’s most recent achievements in terms of preventing illegal gambling and protecting the Dutch regulated market.

“When I took office, the KSA was still a relatively unknown ‘niche player’. At the time, the illegally abundant online gambling offer also received relatively little attention,” Jansen wrote.

“Those days are well and truly over. The legalisation and regulation of online gambling, the subsequent wave of advertising and the growth in the number of players since October 2021 have resulted in penetrating discussions in politics, media and society.

“The most important of these are the concerns about (personal and social) financial and health risks as a result of immoderate gambling. The prevention of g..

Bacta’s Technical Standards Group has announced that it will be working in partnership with colleagues from the Bingo Association’s Gaming Machine Working Group.

Headed by MERKUR UK’s Alan Claypole, the new mission is to produce a set of industry recommendations on enhancements to existing regulations which will enable the machines sector to remain ‘competitive’ and uphold the ‘highest standards of consumer protection’.

Bacta National President John Bollom shared his delight that the Gambling Commission has responded positively to the organisation’s request to provide insight and input to the current regulations covering technical standards.

“In partnership with the Bingo Association we are drawing up a concise six-point plan to update those areas where we believe that changes could be explored whilst always upholding our unswerving commitment to safer gambling,” he said.

“The focus of the Technical Standards Group led by Alan Claypole is to supply the Commission with a set of prop..

Twitch, the live streaming platform of Amazon, has come under scrutiny in Sweden following a private investigation which uncovered widespread advertising of unlicensed online casinos.

As exposed by Kulturnyheterna, the investigative team of Sveriges Television AB (SVT), a six-week investigation revealed that “eight out of ten Swedish influencers on Twitch had promoted unlicensed casinos to their audiences.”

Swedish media were informed: “For six weeks, Kulturnyheterna has reviewed the broadcasts of the most popular streamers and can demonstrate how online casino advertising is spread through hour-long live broadcasts where streamers promote unlicensed games to their followers.”

Though Twitch prohibits access to under-13s, the investigation revealed that streamers had a “collective reach of around half a million subscribers,” formed of a “primary audience of young males born in the 1990s and 2000s.”

During live streams, 60% of influencers used direct marketing strategies, including p..