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On April 23rd, the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) has announced two ongoing key initiatives as part of its engagement to make sure that gambling advertising in the country remains responsible. It issued a warning to all gambling operators that offer their services on the territory of the UK to be particularly cautious when advertising esports betting, as it could potentially be found appealing by young audiences. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has confirmed that the CAP has undertaken thorough measures associated with the esports betting sector in order to…

The peak organization of poker machines clubs and operators in Australia’s New South Wales has filed a suit against a former employee who exposed an alarming money laundering problem earlier this year. Troy Stolz is accused of breaching a confidentiality agreement he signed while working for the association. ClubsNSW, a trade organization representing nearly 1,200 RSL, sporting and other clubs in the state, is now suing Troy Stolz for giving an internal ClubsNSW board document to independent Federal MP Andrew Wilkie. The news was reported this week by ABC News,…

Nigel Huddleston, the UK sports minister, has called for the largest betting operators in the country to make sure they accompany their adverts with “safer gambling” messages to protect customers. In a letter sent to the chief executive officers of Flutter Entertainment, GVC Holdings, William Hill, bet365 and SkyBet, the sports minister called for them to go beyond the measures proposed by the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) in the 10-point pledge, which it has recently unveiled and which was earmarked as “weak” by Members of Parliament. The British Government…

Last week, British mortgage lenders issued a warning over the risk associated with local problem gamblers at a time when a credit card ban on gambling services has already been deployed in the country. A campaign group of several mortgage lenders has warned that the suspension implemented by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) on credit card use for gambling purposes could pose a significant risk to them in case British banks do not manage to confront the rising problem gambling rates in the country. According to campaigners, the ban that…

The gambling sector in Australia has responded to the country’s measures to fight Covid-19 pandemic with massive closures of its casinos, pubs and clubs. The shutdown has seen 194,000 poker machines in the country stop operation, with neither the venues nor the machines hosted there being expected to reopen in the near future. Apart from that, the massive closures mean that the 15-25% of Australian residents who use poker machines will not be able to access the terminals during the lockdown, with the pokies set to lose approximately AU$7.5 billion…

The popular poker machines hosted in bars and hotels across New Zealand have not been operational for several weeks as authorities ordered the closing of thousands of businesses to curb the current coronavirus epidemic. Along with the direct impact on the economy, however, the measures may negatively affect the local communities in a surprising way. Contributions from gambling have stopped and charities and communities across the country are expected to lose millions of dollars. Every year, gaming societies provide more than $300 million in funding for New Zealand’s communities. The…

The British self-regulatory organisation, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), announced today its ruling on several investigated gambling-related advertisements by TVBet, a B2B provider of live-games for online sports betting and casino sites. The regulatory watchdog investigated the ads after receiving a signal from the Lithuania-based supplier of live dealer games, BetGames.tv. The complaint was upheld by the ASA. The ads in question were shown at an SBC trade show that took place at the Kensington Olympia exhibition center in September 2019. The ads appeared both on a media screen and…

The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), the organization that rates the content of video games and assigns labels, will include a new notice, warning users about loot boxes. The new rating is introduced with the specific purpose of notifying parents of the randomized nature of in-game purchases before buying or downloading a game. The ESRB has announced in a blog post on Monday that it would be adding the new description In-Game Purchases (Includes Random Items) to its labels. With this move, the US-based ratings board aims at helping users…

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has maintained its decision to stick to stricter measures in terms of the use of credit cards for all gambling transaction. The watchdog sticks to its 2020 regulatory agenda, with the ban on credit card use for gambling transactions taking effect on April 14th, as originally announced. Back in January 2020, the UKGC highlighted the fact that a so-called blanket ban on the use of credit cards for gambling was essential as it provided what the watchdog called a “further layer of protection”. The measure…

Australians are known as the biggest gamblers, losing around $24 billion a year on poker machines – more than any other country in the world. Still, the majority of people are now overwhelmingly in favour of the complete industry shutdown driven by the COVID-19 crisis. Since March 22, communities across the country have saved $800 million by not playing pokies – or an average of $38 million a day. Although it is still unclear when the ban on non-essential services and businesses would be lifted, gambling losses are expected to…