Author: Daniel Williams

The coronavirus pandemic in Australia has helped foreign sports betting operators take advantage of the situation and gain market value worth tens of billions of dollars during the past year. This information has fuelled some calls for new stricter regulatory rules to be imposed on sports betting advertising. The owner of Sportsbet, global gambling giant Flutter Entertainment, managed to gain approximately AU$30 billion in value during the coronavirus pandemic outbreak. The company registered a 46% surge in its turnover, as well as a 59% increase in its revenue in Australia…

About a year after the use of credit cards for gambling transactions was made illegal in the UK, Paddy Power became the first betting company that ceased accepting credit card bets from its Irish customers. In an email to its users, on April 1st, the bookmaker informed them that it had made the decision to stop accepting bets funded with credit card transactions as part of the company’s commitment to stick to safer gambling. For the time being, none of the other top gambling companies has implemented similar measures. Debit…

According to a recent study that has put more fuel into calls for stricter regulation of in-game items, so-called loot boxes are clearly linked to problem gambling. Researchers analysed a total of 13 studies into the behaviour of gamblers to spent real money on loot boxes – a feature available in video games allowing players to purchase randomised awards, often without previously knowing what they would get in return. The rewards can help players make faster progress in the game or enhance their characters by making changes in their appearance…

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has announced its new 3-year Corporate Strategy to set out the regulator’s focus as it is still protecting the players and the wider public from possible gambling-related harm. The new Strategy has been released alongside the regulator’s Business Plan for 2021 to 2022. The UKGC shared that it will be delivered through five priority areas, including ensuring a fairer gambling market and more informed players; keeping criminal activity out of the UK gambling industry; improving gambling regulation; protecting underage and vulnerable individuals from gambling-related harm…

The Star Casino is taking a Singaporean billionaire to court after he fled the country after falling into a massive AU$40-million debt to the gambling operators in just three days. According to allegations, the well-known high-roller Yew Choy Wong dishonoured a blank cheque following a five-day losing streak while he played baccarat at The Star Gold Coast in July 2018. As revealed by the documents that the gambling company filed in the Queensland Supreme Court, the VIP player came to the casino after being brought there by a marketing junket.…

Denise Coates, the boss of the leading UK gambling operator bet365, has continued her string of record-breaking salary and dividend payments after receiving almost half a billion pounds in 2020. This took her total pay from 2016 until now to almost £1.3 billion. The gambling operator took an unusual delay when filing its accounts at Companies House but still, it became clear that the company’s highest-paid director – Ms Coates – was granted a total of £421-million salary and dividend payment last year. This makes an hourly payment of £48,000…

UK gambling operator Entain has revealed its intentions to put some further restrictions on problem gamblers and to unveil automated credit checks at a time when the local gambling sector is trying to improve its customer protection policies in an attempt to delay stricter regulation. Earlier today, the group, which is the owner of some of the most popular sports betting brands in the country – Ladbrokes and Coral – said that it would be the first gambling operator in the UK to launch personalised stake limits and credit checks…

Online casinos that offer their services without an Australian licence and target local gamblers have still not been suspended, although the country’s communications regulatory body has unveiled stricter enforcement policy against illegal gambling operators. Reportedly, ten online casinos that apparently target Australian gamblers with their services that are being run without an operating licence, can still be accessed by customers two months after the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) revealed for Guardian Australia that it had found that the platforms are part of the watchdog’s compliance priority activities. Many…

At a shareholder meeting set to take place later today, Premier League clubs are set to discuss the impact of their sponsorship agreements with gambling companies. A year ago, a House of Lords committee called for the UK Government to ban sponsorship deals between gambling operators and professional football clubs under which sports teams advertise their gambling sponsors on their kits as of 2023. The meeting will be held at a time when the UK Government is having a massive review of the country’s gambling legislation. The review was given…

The director of the British anti-gambling campaign group Clean Up Gambling, Matt Zarb Cousin, has called for Government action against Football Index after hearing multiple stories from customers who lost massive amounts of money as a result of the gambling operator’s collapse earlier this month. Mr Zarb-Cousin told JOE that the company’s crash had devastated tens of thousands of lives, with the losses accounting for hundreds of thousands of pounds. Surprisingly, on March 5th, Football Index made an announcement of a significant reduction in the payouts of its dividends –…