SBC News

A near 10-hour sports betting outage in Germany has prompted criticism from the German Sports Betting Association (DSWV), one of the biggest gambling trade bodies in the country.

Local sources revealed that customers across the whole of Germany were unable to place deposits with betting providers for 10 hours straight last Saturday after a failure at a key regulatory system. Licensed firms are concerned this may have driven some customers to the black market.

This was hinted at by Mathias Dahms, DSWV President, who addressed the issue by saying: “This is not just about considerable economic damage.

“If legal sports betting offers cannot be used by customers from Germany on a Bundesliga Saturday, the illegal betting providers, who are very happy to accept new customers and deposits, will benefit first and foremost.

“There is no player protection in the black market. The German tax authorities are also left empty-handed.”

Reason for the outage
Online gambling providers in Germany..

Romania’s Gambling Office has made a key determination on cross-platform self-exclusion rule, opening a path for player compensation…

ONJN, the National Gambling Office of Romania, has determined that licensed operators must uphold self-exclusion as a “single account principle.”

The determination was published on Thursday, 13 March, to close a loophole that allowed self-excluded players to switch platforms and continue to gamble.

According to ONJN, if a customer self-excludes from one account on an operator’s platform, the exclusion must automatically apply to all other accounts held by the customer with that operator — even if the player did not specifically request exclusion from each individual account.

The determination carries consequences for operators that failed to enforce self-exclusion under the single account principle. Customers may now seek compensation for losses incurred on platforms that did not properly apply the self-exclusion measure across all linked accounts.

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Ireland’s new gambling authority to prioritise compliance and conduct on gambling harms reduction.

The Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI) will use a ‘full toolkit’ to ensure operators’ compliance with regulations and combat problem gambling, which it believes is much higher than previously expected.

In a double interview with the Irish Examiner, Anne-Marie Caulfield, Chief Executive of the newly formed regulatory agency, stated that rates of harmful gambling in Ireland are ‘10 times higher than had been previously thought’ according to recent data.

This is a worrying figure for the GRAI as it embarks on what it set to be its first year of regulatory activity. The authority was brought into existence by recent legislation, the Gambling Regulation Act 2024, which sought to modernise Ireland’s nearly century old gambling regulation.

Addressing problem gambling has been earmarked as a priority for the regulator, and the responsibilities operators shoulder in meeting this c..

The Republic of Croatia will begin implementing the measures and protections of a new Gambling Law, to be in full effect by early 2026.

The Sabor of Croatia (parliament) has received a mandate to “Combat Addiction to Games of Chance and Betting” by introducing new player protections, tightening rules on gambling venues, eliminating aggressive advertising and increasing gambling taxes.

The mandate was drafted by the HDZ government in coordination with the Croatian Institute of Public Health and professors from the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation.

The proposed changes carry political significance, as Prime Minister Andrej Plenković has vowed to overhaul Croatia’s gambling laws as part of his third-term mandate, addressing previous failures to tackle gambling addiction — an issue affecting the lives of 40,000 Croats.

Insights from the Institute of Public Health reveal that drastic measures are needed to curb a crisis of gambling disorders impacting Croatia communities. Data sh..

Spelinspektion, the Swedish gambling authority, has found GG.Bet to be in breach of Swedish gambling law.

After an investigation, the regulator found that when accessing the domain owned by ASG 360 Services Ltd from a Swedish-based IP address, the pre-selected currency was Swedish Krona (SEK).

Additional details around the investigation revealed that Swedish-based customers were in no way prevented from opening an account with ASG 360 Services. The company currently has no licence for the Swedish market.

Headquartered in Cyprus, the company also operates 20 additional domains that were listed by Spelinspektion. Some have been found to offer marketing in Swedish, the regulator further noted.

Sweden’s rulebook
The Swedish Gambling Act strictly prohibits any type of gambling targeting the Swedish market unless the necessary requirements – one of which is having a local license – are met.

It is within Spelinspektionen’s powers to request the ceasing of unregulated services with i..