News

William Hill has become the QIPCO Guineas Festival’s Official Betting Partner, as announced on April 24th by The Jockey Club. The event is set to take place from May 3rd to May 5th, and a total of 15 upcoming races have been sponsored by the betting giant, including but not limited to the Group Two Jockey Club Stakes and the £100,000 Heritage Handicaps. William Hill has long been one of the major partners of the UK horse racing scene, kick-starting the Arena Racing Company Grand Prix in 2007, which, at…

April 24th saw a Dáil Éireann (Irish Lower House) debate on whether the pre-watershed ban on gambling adverts included in the Gambling Regulation Bill 2022 should no longer apply to charities. As reported by the Irish Times’ Harry McGee, a full exemption was proposed by the Opposition, but this amendment was ultimately rejected via vote. Minister of State at the Department of Justice James Browne’s own proposal of enforcing a cap on the max wins of charity draws that could be promoted prior to the watershed was also defeated. This…

The New South Wales Independent Casino Commission (NICC) has deemed Crown Resorts fit to once again welcome patrons to its Sydney-based casino under an unrestricted gambling licence. This result is the outcome of a wide range of remediation measures that saw the business improve drastically in the past years. What originally led to Crown Resorts’ licensing struggles was the breaching of multiple gambling regulations. The said violations were first revealed as a result of an investigation by The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age. This prompted the regulators of Victoria, Western…

South Australia’s Malinauskas Labour Government is planning to introduce amendments to the jurisdiction’s laws regarding the financial penalties companies can face for not adhering to the state’s gambling regulations. At present, the maximum fine that operators are forced to pay should their transgressions be severe enough stands at AU$100,000. If the amendments are passed, however, the potential penalty limit will increase to up to AU$75 million. In addition, the changes are planned to be retroactive, that is, they will also affect past disciplinary action. The update is tied to casino…

Last week, the independent charity GambleAware published the results of a comprehensive study centred around children and their exposure to both gambling-like content like loot boxes as well as adverts promoting real-money gambling. As the risk of being impacted by pathological gambling is 2.3 times higher when one has been exposed to gambling at a young age, according to previous GambleAware-led research, the results provide valuable insight into what needs to be done to protect UK youth from gambling harm. However, the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) told daily newspaper…

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has published a report summarising the results of an investigation into unlicensed offshore gambling websites. The probe focused on the timeframe of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, and ACMA investigated a total of 200 gambling operators. According to the findings, 21 services were selected on suspicion of illegally targeting Australian bettors. In total, 18 of them were found to have, indeed, offered their services to Australians despite lacking a licence and thus failed to adhere to Australia’s Interactive Gambling Act 2001. ACMA…

The UKs’ changing regulatory landscape has had a negative effect on Ladbrokes owner Entain, with the gambling giant’s report for 2024’s first quarter highlighting a 7% decline in terms of net gaming revenue (NGR) when it comes to its British and Irish operations. Online wagering was hit particularly hard, with Entain generating 9% less than last year. As for retail gambling, the reported NGR decline stood at 6%. However, the company is optimistic that things will turn around by 2025 as it is working toward improving its operations. Moreover, the…

John Drennan, a political columnist for Extra.ie and other Irish news websites, wrote on Tuesday that fundraising lotteries organised by political parties will not need to adhere to the Gambling Regulation Bill’s €10 stake limit. This exemption presents a problem of “favourable treatment,” according to an industry source. As specified in the new bill, lotteries and other prize competitions like the Cash Machine will need to implement a €10 cap on bets, and a win limit of €3,000 is also included in the rules. This piece of legislation has become…

The Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC) announced yesterday that it has handed BlueBet an AU$50,000 fine after finding the operator guilty on 43 counts of illegally promoting gambling. BlueBet’s transgressions are centred around the operator’s decision to advertise betting on a number of digital billboards in Laverton, Point Cook, Rockbank, Ravenhall, and Werribee in August and September 2022. In all cases, the billboards were located on or above a public road. As the Gambling Regulation Act 2003 explicitly prohibits this form of advertising when it comes to gambling,…

In an article published in the Medical Journal of Australia’s InSight+ website, Angela Rintoul, Associate Professor at Federation University whose expertise lies in gambling harm reduction, health inequities, and the commercial determinants of health, outlined a series of strategies and measures that can be undertaken to prevent suicides tied to gambling in Australia. Her publication was released amidst the Australian government’s continued discussions on whether a nationwide ban on gambling ads should be implemented, and such a prohibition is among the many measures that could prevent gambling-related suicide, according to…