An Australian advertising industry creative director has created what he calls ‘the losing sound’ to combat slot machine addiction. After a relative lost A$150,000 ($107,000) in one year on Australian “pokies” (slot machines), Neil Walshe teamed up with Rumble Studios and Milos Photography when he realised that pokies only have a winning sound. The reason…
A group of bipartisan lawmakers is making a legislative effort to provide federal funding to support prevention, screening and treatment services for gambling addiction to the public.
Reps. Erin Houchin and Andrea Salinas have introduced House Bill 7875, a piece of legislation that aims to provide a pool of dedicated funding for people experiencing gambling-related harm and to support those who are at risk of problem gambling.
The Providing Opportunities for Individuals In Need of Treatment & Support (POINTS) Act aims to close a gap in addictive disorder treatment, as federal funding is allocated toward alcohol and drug addiction, but not gambling.
“As sports betting and online gambling continue to expand across the country, we have a responsibility to ensure people struggling with addiction are not left behind,” said Salinas.
“Gambling addiction can devastate individuals and families, yet too many communities still lack the resources needed to provide prevention, treatment, and re..
A piece of legislation that would overhaul the regulated gaming market in Massachusetts is moving forward after receiving a favorable vote by a state joint committee.
Senate Bill 302 was passed by the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies on Monday by a 5-0 vote, resulting in the measure being referred to the Senate Ways and Means Committee for further consideration. The bill, sponsored by Sen. John Keenan, aims to implement new standards in Massachusetts that address economic, health and social harms related to the availability of sports wagering.
SB 302, coined as The Bettor Health Act, was first introduced last year but took its first major step forward on March 9, 2026.
It would make sweeping changes to gambling rules related to tax rates, prop and live bets, TV advertisements, responsible gambling funds and deposit limits. The piece of legislation is familiar to lawmakers as the bill was under consideration in the House and Senate in 2025 and carried..
The Ministry of Consumer Affairs of Spain has raised concerns over a noticeable growth in the number of women engaging in online gambling.
New insights published on 2024 data by the Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ), Spain’s Directorate of Gambling, recorded a 23% increase in the number of female players, representing the addition of almost 64,000 new women engaging in online gambling over the course of a single year.
Deeper analysis points to the Ministry’s concern that 60% of the total segment are aged under 35. The DGOJ was instructed to explain why it had recorded such an exceptional trend in 2024, and whether it reflects an anomaly in Spanish gambling participation or signals a structural shift in player demographics.
As cited: “The number of female players increased by 23.53%, meaning that almost 64,000 more women gambled online in Spain. This percentage is also higher than the growth in the number of male players during that same period.”
The Directorate under..
Entain’s Stella David has issued a criticism of the damaging consequences of the rise of prediction markets, claiming they facilitate underage sports betting in the US.
Many states across the US require players to be 21 to gamble. However, platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi, which are federally regulated through the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), have a minimum age requirement of 18.
Given that the platforms are currently offering markets on sports events, they are effectively bypassing state gambling laws, according to the Entain executive.
Updating investors yesterday, she stated: “Let me be clear, when people play the prediction markets in sports, it looks like a sports bet, it sounds like a sports bet, and it acts like a sports bet. I don’t think anybody should be in any doubt. It’s sports betting.
“In the US, you’ve got to be 21 to play, [but] 18 to 21-year-olds are playing prediction markets, and they’re playing prediction markets in non [online sports betting..
Regulated online casinos are edging closer towards reality in New Zealand, as the Online Casino Gambling bill has passed its second reading in the country’s Parliament.
The rubber stamping of the regulation is scheduled to be completed in June; however, there are still a few hurdles that are left to be overcome.
Support was shown for community returns from the online casino gambling market in the second reading, as offshore gambling duty (online gambling duty once the bill passes) will increase from 12% to 16%, with approximately 4% ring-fenced for community benefit.
Further scrutiny is set to come for the bill, as it now progresses to the Committee of the Whole House, which will consider the legislation in detail, debate each of its clauses and make any changes if necessary.
Once the clause review is complete, the bill will return to the House of Representatives for its third and final reading. The House will then vote and decide if the legislation should become law. If the bil..
On a busy day in the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond on Wednesday, Senate lawmakers gave final approval to a bill to ban the use of credit cards for sports betting.
A little more than a month after House Bill 515 passed the House by a 94-3 vote, senators unanimously approved it 40-0.
The bill would remove credit cards from the list of approved account funding methods for sports wagering operators who are licensed to do business by the Virginia Lottery Board. The Lottery already prohibits credit cards for lottery play.
The three no votes on the House floor are the only rejections the idea has faced in the legislature this year. It was approved unanimously by multiple committees in each of the House and the Senate over the last six weeks, as well as on the Senate floor on Wednesday.
The Senate-approved version has one small amendment, made in the Senate General Laws and Technology Committee two weeks ago, to add that sportsbooks must be held accountable in taking “reasonable mea..
Liquor & Gaming New South Wales (L&GNSW) has given gambling operators a heads up that the use of social media influencers will be a key enforcement focus in 2026.
The regulator, which monitors online wagering and gaming machine advertising visible to the NSW community, will closely examine operators’ marketing and customer retention practices, including affiliate and promotional arrangements involving social media personalities.
Hospitality and Racing Deputy Secretary, Tarek Barakat, said operators would be held accountable for advertising carried out on their behalf.
“We are putting gambling operators on notice that a key priority for us this year is examining their marketing and customer retention practices, including the use of social media personalities,” he said.
“Gambling operators should be careful about any affiliate or partnership arrangements as we are holding them responsible for the advertising of their products.
“The things we are targeting include paid and unpaid pr..
A new multi-stakeholder campaign has been launched in Australia which demands that the government takes action on “tightening advertising of unhealthy products” – the gambling industry in particular has been placed in the spotlight.
The nationwide initiative, titled “Give Us an Ad Break”, has been launched by the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE) and has already received “the backing of more than 130 organisations and public health leaders spanning health, sport, research and social services.”
FARE is urging federal ministers to support the introduction of a Harmful Products Marketing Act – legislation that would impose clear legal limits on when, where and how harmful products can be advertised, particularly in environments where children may be exposed.
Its proposal is modelled on Australia’s tobacco advertising framework and seeks to curb the visibility of gambling, alcohol and unhealthy food promotions across broadcast, digital and outdoor media.
Campaign org..
Louisiana’s 2026 legislative session begins on March 9, and legislators are already lining up a queue of gambling bills to discuss once the state Senate and House convene in Baton Rouge.
From banning prop bets and in-play micro markets to banning sweepstakes and legalizing iLottery, here are some things on the docket.
Time to prohibit props?
Senate Bill 354, which was pre-filed by Sen. Katrina Jackson-Andrews and has been provisionally referred to the Committee on Judiciary B, would change Louisiana’s sports betting statutes to remove the term “proposition bets” from the list of authorized wagers. It defines a prop as “a side wager” on a part of a sport or athletic event that does not concern the final outcome of the event.
While the list of authorized sports wagering markets includes “in-game wagering” and “in-play bets” SB 354 would also establish a brand-new definition for a “sports micro-bet,” meaning a prop bet that is placed while a sports event is in progress and which conce..