Author: Daniel Williams

The losses generated by the residents of the Australian state of Victoria on pokies continue to rise despite the fact that the poker machines’ number is being reduced. Local citizens lost approximately AU$2.7 billion on poker machines over the last fiscal year, reaching a record high in a decade, with latest figures showing that players in some of the poorest communities across the state generating the largest losses. According to information revealed by the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR), the last financial year has seen the largest…

A mind-blowing amount seems to be spent by Japanese gamblers on an annual basis on pachinko, as the vertical pinball-like slot machines are known. Each year, local citizens spend approximately $200 billion on the game, with the amount being 30 times larger than the annual gambling revenue generated by Las Vegas casino industry, Business Insider reports. Despite the fact that most gambling activities are suspended in Japan, pachinko is still operating in a legal grey area in the country and is currently one of the most popular forms of gambling.…

South Tyneside Council has launched a consultation to find out more about local people’s opinions on a new gambling policy on public health that is expected to be rolled out across the borough. For the time being, it is the South Tyneside Council which is responsible for issuing operating licenses for all premises used for offering gambling services, including racing tracks, bingo halls, as well as clubs and pubs offering gaming machines. In addition, under the Gambling Act of 2005, local councils must take care of a number of objectives,…

The mayors of five key councils in the state of Victoria which have actively been part of the process of dealing with problem gambling are joining a group that has urged for a reform brought in the regulation of local poker machines ahead of the upcoming state election. The group headed by Tim Costello, The Alliance for Gambling Reform, was joined by the mayors of Whittlesea, Moreland, Yarra, Wyndham and Darebin who will back its 2018 election platform. Mr. Costello welcomed the commitment of the five councils’ mayors to the…

Only a couple of days after Japan’s Diet passed a bill legalizing opening of so-called integrated casino resorts, a Kyodo News poll showed that almost two-thirds of the survey’s respondents opposed the new piece of legislation due to concerns that the gambling expansion could end up seeing an increase in local crime and problem gambling rates. The poll was conducted over the telephone in the weekend and showed that a total of 64.8% of the participants in the research do not approve of the so-called Integrated Resorts Implementation Bill set…

On Thursday afternoon, the ruling coalition in Japan – the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito – managed to pass a casino resort bill through the Cabinet Committee of the House of Councillors, Jiji Press reports. The Government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is now determined to have the long-awaited bill finally enacted at the upper house session on Friday, in order to have the proposed piece of legislation passed until the end of the session which has already been prolonged. The current Diet session was first due to close on…

Yakuza organised crime groups are planning to gain access to casinos in unlawful ways in case that legislation which would officially greenlight so-called integrated casino resorts is finally passed in the ongoing Diet session later this week. The information was provided to The Asahi Shimbun by a gang member. If the proposed Integrated Resorts Implementation Bill gets the Diet’s approval, it will make casino gambling legal for the first time ever in the history of Japan. However, the soon-to-be-opened market could turn out as too attractive not only to regular…

A former Galway GAA star who had confessed stealing an amount of €300,000 from his employer in order to fuel his problem gambling behaviour has avoided going to jail for the second time, in spite of the fact the efforts of prosecutors to see him imprisoned. The 27-year-old Mark Hehir had admitted his wrongdoings and had pleaded guilty after making a confession that he had stole the afore-mentioned amount from his previous employers Galway City Bin over a period of six months in 2016. He revealed that the stealing resulted…

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), which is the media regulatory body of Australia, has revealed that it is checking the legality of several offshore gambling websites which use local web addresses. As revealed by ABC, the investigation is affecting a number of offshore betting websites which use web addresses from the Cocos Islands, an external Australian territory situated in the Indian Ocean. The islands are currently under the regulation and control of Australia but have a separate Internet country code (.cc). The websites in question offer a variety…

The British viewers of the World Cup were exposed to extensive gambling advertising at the time of the tournament, with this raising concerns in regards to the children who were targeted with messages enticing them to place a bet. As revealed by The Guardian, ITV aired over eight and a half hours of advertisements from the beginning of the World Cup 2018 to the semi-final clash between the teams of England and Croatia, of which gambling adverts equalled to almost an hour and a half. According to estimates, this equals…