SBC News

France’s Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) has fined Unibet (unibet.fr) a record €800,000 for a significant malfunction in its self-exclusion system that led to thousands of self-excluded players being able to access gambling services despite having signed out of the products.

The issue affected iOS users, lasted nearly two years and led to ANJ issuing its largest fine to date, as the ANJ was established in 2020 as the “unified authority” of French gambling,

The problem arose during the period of March 2021 to early December 2022, and was corrected by Unibet. However issues reappeared due to a technical malfunction from the end of December 2022 to February 2023.

ANJ’s report explained that SPS Betting, the company that operates Unibet.fr, did not contest the findings, but said ANJ was unable to determine how many players had “actually suffered damage”.

It maintained that the numbers involved could “not have exceeded more than 100 players”, although it could not prove that was the c..

Andrew Rhodes has stated that the Gambling Commission looks forward to a year of providing transparency in regulatory developments through research and evidence.

Speaking at the Betting and Gaming Council’s (BGC) 2025 AGM, the CEO of the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) presented a ‘high-level’ overview of the year ahead for regulatory projects, programmes and initiatives.

Hosted on 28 February, the BGC’s AGM coincided with the Commission decreasing the financial vulnerability threshold for online gambling deposits from its test phase of £500 to a live environment of £150 per 30-day period.

The application of deposit thresholds will initiate a period of regulatory changes for licensed operators, who must contribute funding to a new Statutory Levy on problem gambling harms from 6 April and apply £5 and £2 stake limits on online slots from 21 May.

Rhodes noted that new online requirements come as the Commission monitors stable trends, saying: “Recent data published shows that total gros..

GamStop has raised concerns about the increasing rate of problem gambling and addiction among British students.

The warning follows the publication of the Fourth Annual Student Gambling Survey, co-commissioned by GamStop and its partner, YGAM.

Conducted by Censuswide, the survey is the most comprehensive of its kind, involving 2,000 students from universities across 17 UK cities, with 49% reporting they had gambled at least once in the past 12 months.

Findings indicate that more than one in six students who gamble fall into the problem gambling category, a significantly higher rate than the general population. Research highlights that 17% of students surveyed were classified as high-risk gamblers under the UK gambling Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI), with a further 29% placed in the moderate-risk category.

Concerns are elevated as research highlights the financial vulnerabilities of gambling on UK students’ lifestyles, in particular of young males.

As detailed: “Men’s mean ..

Lucia Gando: SBC Noticias
The SBC Summit in Rio saw leading South American gaming executives reflect on the unique integrity challenges faced by a nascent Brazil Bets regime.

Brazil Bets’ passage into existence was marked with extensive probes and revisions related to safeguarding sports integrity, recognised as the key concern of politicians and senators.

These investigations and reflections were deemed essential as Brazil’s betting market shed its grey wings to launch the single largest regulated online gambling marketplace.

At the Rio Summit a panel moderated by Fellipe Fraga, Chief Business Officer at EstrelaBet, shed insights on whether Bets can match its high integrity expectations, calming nerves of how its progress will be judged.

Felippe Marchetti: Sportradar
Sportradar’s Felippe Marchetti, a specialist in sports data monitoring technology for South American markets, set the stage by stressing the importance of direct engagement with athletes and clubs to prevent corrupti..

The Ministry of Finance of Estonia intends to update articles of the Gambling Act of 2008 but has expressed that amendments will not “lead to a tightening of gambling laws.”

Rainer Osanik: Estonia
The update was provided by Rainer Osanik, Head of Financial Policies and Intelligence at the Ministry of Finance, who is responsible for drafting a decree of amendments related to Estonia’s Gambling Act.

Addressing the Economic Affairs Committee of the Riigikogu (Parliament), Osanik outlined key policy areas and conditions that require revisions.

The Committee hears that Osanik will provide a review of feedback on gambling tax changes enacted in 2024 to update Estonia’s gambling tax framework.

Changes applied, saw Remote Gambling Tax on games of chance increased from 5% to 6% of the amount received from bets (less winnings), along with the Game of Chance Tournament Tax (for both tournament and round game formats), which also rose from 5% to 6% of participation fees. Similarly, the Toto Ta..

Online gambling players in Latin America are deeply engaged with the sector’s regional standards and politics, Playtech has reported.

With the third edition of its Responsible Gambling Report, the company has taken a deep dive into the preferences and expectations of 2,500 online players across Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Colombia – each market’s intricacies reflected in the study’s responses.

The recent launch of a regulated online gambling market in both Brazil and Peru has significantly strengthened locals’ trust in the sector, with only a combined 25% of customers still actively avoiding betting due to concerns relating to fraud and gambling harms.

Among the observed countries, Peru had the highest rate of player frequency – 92% of those who gamble online do it monthly. Meanwhile, when asked about the level of responsibility that operators should carry towards player protection, 80% of people said that they are in favour of stronger advertising regulations.

Mor Weizer, ..

DGOJ, Spain’s Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling (DGOJ), has held meetings with licensed operators to address identity theft on online gambling platforms.

According to the DGOJ, it collaborated with the State Agency for Tax Administration (AEAT) and the State Security Forces and Corps on a report that identified nearly 8,000 cases of identity theft. The report found that 91% of these cases occurred in the context of sports betting.

The Protocol for Action for Impersonated Taxpayers (PACS), launched in April 2024, revealed that nearly 5% of all individuals who won more than €100 in online gaming were victims of impersonation. This was reported by the Spanish iGaming news source Infoplay and confirmed by the DGOJ.

“The PACS serves as a tool to assist taxpayers whose identities have been misused to conceal online gambling winnings and evade tax obligations,” the DGOJ stated.

Following the conclusion of the 2024 RENTA campaign, the DGOJ analysed the collected data to me..

Traditional advertising channels across Europe are efficiently blocking the exposure of minors to gambling, according to the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA).

The trade association put out a summary of an in-depth market assessment by the European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA) from December 2024, which monitored 120 individual ads from Greece, Spain, Romania and the UK.

Results were pitted against EGBA’s own advertising standards on content moderation, managing the exposure of minors, and safeguarding minors’ access to gambling content online.

Spanning across TV, YouTube, websites, and social media channels, the analysis identified “high compliance” in TV and YouTube advertising, with key restrictions being regularly implemented.

On the other hand, while social media advertising channels also exhibited overall strong control indicators, there were some additional areas of improvement identified by EASA.

These included more consistent use of technical mea..

Svenska Spel has praised the impact of its Independent Research Council on Gambling Risks and Addiction.

The programme has entered its fifteenth year since its formation as an independent body, having reached the milestone of providing over SEK 100m (€10m) in funding for projects that deliver deeper insights into the impacts of problem gambling.

In 2024, Svenska Spel announced that it had received a record number of applications for direct funding from the council, which allocated SEK 6m (€650,000) to help launch seven new research projects.

These projects have begun investigating critical areas, including the comorbidity of problem gambling with other mental illnesses, the impact of gambling advertising, and whether micro-transactions in games influence gambling behaviours.

Endorsed by Sara Lindholm Larsson, Independent Chair of Svenska Spel’s Research Council, the 2024 projects aim to provide a broader societal context for gambling addiction, as these impacts need to be understoo..

Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), the Gambling Authority of the Netherlands, has underlined its support for a “fundamental change of course in gambling policy.”

The statement accompanied the announcement by Teun Struycken, State Secretary for Legal Protections, that the coalition government will propose a new gambling bill to the Kamer by the end of 2025.

Michel Groothuizen,, Chairman of the KSA, endorsed the State Secretary’s decision to take a new approach to regulating online gambling activities, prioritising the accountability of licence holders and the protection of individuals under 24.

Struycken’s announcement followed “in the slipstream” of the KSA publishing its review and recommendations on the effectiveness of the policies of the Remote Gaming Act (KOA) – the regulatory framework that has governed the Dutch online gambling market since October 2021.

As a regulatory agency, the KSA has urged for greater powers to scrutinise customer care checks by launching covert inspections on ..