SBC News

Brazil’s betting market is continuing to adjust to its grey-white transition, as are political overseers and major companies like YouTube which sit on the sidelines of gaming but are nonetheless affected by its developments.

Recent developments have seen marketing placed front-and-centre in politicians’ and tech firms’ agendas. Notably, YouTube will introduce strict new measures from 19 March which will block content related to illegal online gambling websites – though these policies are not isolated to Brazil, they do have a particular relevance to the developing market.

Luckily for the regulated industry, this lines up with its ambitions in the early days of the market. Speaking at the SBC Summit Rio last month, key stakeholders stated that addressing illegal gambling activity is a top priority.

“We need to fight illegal houses, something that really has an impact on our market. Once they are working illegally they hinder the way Brazilian people see our market,” Rafael Borges, CE..

Denmark’s gambling authority, Spillemyndigheden, has urged operators to take notice of the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) updated monitoring list.

The FATF is an international AML and CTF monitoring body that advises jurisdictions on action plans to combat criminal activity, and scrutinises those who fall behind. It was set up by the G7 group of countries, but its influence is felt globally.

Meanwhile, under Danish and EU gaming laws, licensees are required to perform enhanced customer due diligence (EDD) checks when there is cause for concern that a player has put an operator at risk of being misused for money laundering or terrorist financing.

One of these risk precursors is when a player is linked to a high-risk jurisdiction – such as one on the FATF’s ‘grey list’ or ‘black list’ of countries.

While the presence of a jurisdiction on the FATF’s monitoring list does not require an EDD check in and of itself, increased due diligence is mandatory when a country appears on the..

A Liberal Democrat peer has proposed changes to the Football Governance Bill targeting betting sponsorship in football, showing that the debate around the topic is far from over despite the regulatory developments of the past few years.

In a House of Lords debate on the bill this week, Lord Dominic Hubbard, 6th Baron Addington, who is also Vice President of the UK Sports Association, proposed four amendments to the legislation relating to betting sponsorships in football.

Lord Dominic Hubbard, 6th Baron Addington – Source: UK Parliament
“Certain sports such as horseracing tend to be dependent on gambling, but we have something of a surfeit of gambling advertising on our televisions: it is everywhere,” he said.

“In these amendments, I am suggesting that football might be one place we could do without it. The revenue might be very useful to the clubs involved, but we have already heard about the huge reach of football as a subject, and the fact that there is a huge demand for it. Can ..

Teun Struycken, the Dutch government minister responsible for betting regulation, has elaborated on the prospect of further restrictions around advertising amid public and political scrutiny on the topic.

Addressing MPs in the House of Representatives this week, Struycken, who serves as the Netherlands’ Legal Protections Secretary, stated that he will consider ‘whether further tightening of the rules is desirable’.

As it stands, Dutch betting firms are strictly prohibited from targeting people aged under 24 and from using ‘role models’ in advertising – these role models being athletes, celebrities and social media influencers, who have a stronger appeal to younger audiences.

From 1 July 2025 a ban on sports sponsorship will come into effect, similar to neighbouring Belgium. However, Dutch MPs appear alarmed at some instances of operators finding loopholes and ways around the ban in Belgium.

Struycken told MPs: “I cannot rule out that there are parties in the Netherlands that will t..

The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) has launched a ‘closed consultation’ to gather input from relevant stakeholders on proposed amendments to the financial reporting and disclosure of licensees.

The proposed amendments have been documented under the Gaming Authorisations and Compliance Directive (Directive 3 of 2018).

Feedback is required for the MGA to continue to strengthen its risk-based approach to regulating the financial conduct of licensees and to address uncertainties faced by the industry. The consultation will be open until 25 April 2025 as part of an initiative to enhance the MGA’s efficiency and regulatory effectiveness.

The Gaming Authorisations and Compliance Directive has proposed “enhanced reporting requirements” for licensees, who will be required to submit new monthly reports on ‘player funds’ and ‘managed accounts’ to the MGA.

Regarding financial reporting, the MGA seeks to apply a standardised framework requiring all licensees to submit their interim and annual sta..

Following weeks of deliberations, the National Assembly of Armenia has approved a package of legislative amendments to apply a new tax code on gambling activities.

Initiated from 1 July 2025, the new tax code will apply a 10% turnover tax on the gambling activities of casinos, online games, sports betting, lotteries and totalizers.

A further tax burden will be applied from 1 April 2025, as the licence fees of Armenian-licensed online gambling and sports betting businesses will double, with a commitment to “increase fees annually” until the government establishes a new authority to regulate Armenia’s gambling sector.

The radical overhaul of Armenia’s tax code on gambling was designed by MP Hayk Sargsyan of the Civil Contract Party, with a view to raising AMD 13bn (circa €32m) in state funds.

Hayk Sargsyan: Civil Contract
Long journey to tax settlements
In previous deliberations, the Ministry of Finance had opposed the tax increases, arguing that they could destabilise the industry a..

The government of Mexico has confirmed the appointment of Olivia Salomón Vibaldo as the new Director General of Lotería Nacional (Lotenal).

The appointment carries the support of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, for whom Vibaldo served as Business Liaison Secretary during Sheinbaum’s landslide election victory in 2024, when she became Mexico’s first-ever female President.

A figurehead in Mexican business, Vibaldo is the former founder of the real estate investment firm SyA Promotores, helping to build commercial properties and public venues in the municipality of Puebla.

In 2019, Vibaldo entered Mexican politics, having been elected as Secretary of Economy for the State of Puebla.

Her tenure is credited with raising foreign investment in Puebla and implementing a new ‘Energy Actions’ programme, recognised for reviving Puebla’s GDP growth from 0.9% in 2019 to 3.2%.

At a national level, Vibaldo has promoted the equality and social justice campaigns of “Mujer es Poder” and ..

The application of cross-operator checks and protections mandated by Germany’s Fourth Interstate Treaty on Gambling (GlüNeuRStV) has come under scrutiny.

The liabilities of the GlüNeuRStV regime were detailed by the journal Investigate Europe, which on 6 March published an article titled: “Legal, illegal, doesn’t it matter?”

The article exposes that “in Germany, state governments have circumvented the rules, allowing gambling companies free rein in their illegal business while the criminals remain unmolested.”

An investigative team has accused German federal states of allowing online operators to bypass strict financial cross-operator checks to allow customers to gamble above the deposit threshold of €1,000.

The laws of the GlüNeuRStV regime, imposed since 1 July 2021, obligate licensed operators to apply a cross-operator €1,000 deposit limit on customer accounts.

GlüNeuRStV rules allow operators to increase the deposit threshold to a higher limit of €10,000, depending on a cross-..