Author: Daniel Williams

Two Members of Parliaments from the Conservative Party have agreed to take jobs in the UK gambling industry just prior to the pending Government review of the country’s gambling laws. As revealed by The Guardian, the jobs are worth tens of thousands of pounds. According to parliamentary disclosures, Philip Davies MP accepted a job with GVC Holdings that is to pay him £33,320, or £396 an hour, to consult the company on customer service and responsible gambling issues. The first instalment of the money was accepted by Mr Davies on…

The regulation of video games’ loot boxes and their categorisation as a form of gambling or not is among the issues that are set to be reviewed by the gambling authority in Ireland. Unfortunately, no definite schedule for the planned regulator to be established has been provided so far. Apart from that, there are no plans to immediately regulate so-called in-game purchases of loot boxes in Ireland, even though some European countries have already taken steps towards stricter regulation of the controversial issue. According to opponents of in-game items, millions…

Losses generated by UK gamblers could face a £100 limit a month as part of the local authorities’ attempt to make gambling operators more responsible when it comes to tackling problem gambling in the country. The proposal has been unveiled recently and is currently being reviewed by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC). It has come as part of the push for stricter regulation to be imposed on the sector in order to make sure that local residents, and especially the ones who find it hard to control their gambling, will…

A new submission made by Mid and East Antrim Borough Council to a public consultation regarding gambling regulation in Northern Ireland revealed that up to 40,000 people in the country may be facing a gambling problem. For the time being, Northern Ireland is considered to have the highest occurrence of gambling addiction in the UK. According to reports, its incidence of problem gambling is four times bigger than the one measured in the rest of the UK, as well as three times bigger than the one registered in the Republic…

The UK Government is expected to speed up its review into sponsorship agreements between gambling operators and football clubs. The move is taken at a time when an increasing number of anti-gambling campaigners have been calling for the authorities to ban such sponsorships that, according to them, normalise gambling in football. Currently, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is carrying out an audit into the country’s gambling regulations, which is expected to have some serious negative consequences for the historic relationship between the gambling sector and professional football.…

The Government of South Australia has named Vix Vizion as an official solution provider of facial recognition software for the local gambling register. Under the face recognition scheme, all licenced pubs, clubs and hotels that are allowed to run thirty and more gaming and gambling machines are required to implement Facial Recognition software in case one or more of the terminals are equipped with a banknote acceptor. The move has been unveiled as part of the Government’s efforts to create and maintain an official register of the customers who use…

All betting outlets on the territory of England are set to cease operation as of November 5th as part of the new national lockdown that Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced over the weekend. The move is expected to have a massive negative impact on the local betting and racing sectors. As it was revealed, racing, along with other elite sports will be able to continue their activities behind closed doors, while there was no such option for them at the time of the first nationwide lockdown in the spring of…

According to recent research, fewer than 3% of gambling addicts are getting treatment for their problem gambling behaviour. Some top experts have shared that the statistics released on October 29th by the National Gambling Treatment Service highlighted some of the biggest flaws in the British problem gambling treatment system and exposed the negative effects that the country’s relatively relaxed regulatory regime had. Yesterday, the National Gambling Treatment Service published its latest statistics, according to which 9,008 people received professional help for their gambling addiction in the year to the end…

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has investigated three online gambling companies for alleged failures in their social responsibility and money laundering protocols as part of the regulator’s efforts to raise compliance standards through stricter enforcement action. The three online gambling operators – Games Account Network (GAN) PLC, BGO Entertainment Limited and NetBet Enterprises Limited – all saw their licences reviewed by the watchdog after a number of violations, including lack of customer protection compliance and failure to prevent criminal spend and money laundering. As a result of the reviews, the…

The Commonwealth Bank has faced a monetary fine worth AU$150,000 because it was found guilty of increasing a gambling addict’s credit limit with the customer having previously informed it about his problem gambling. At the time, the gambler had also said he was unwilling to get such a credit limit increase because he could not efficiently control his gambling habits. The Federal Court found that, with these actions, the bank had violated the responsible lending provisions of the National Consumer Credit Protection Act. Still, the court revealed that the breach…