News

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…

The chairman of the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has called for local gambling companies to unveil stricter measures to protect the 160,000 Scottish residents who are considered at risk of becoming hooked on gambling during the coronavirus lockdown. Bill Moyes, chairman of the British gambling watchdog, has unveiled the stricter measures taken by the gambling sector in the UK to protect customers through a lengthy campaign associated with tough enforcement activity. As he explained, the major concern for the local gambling industry, which has been estimated at £14.4 billion, is…

According to media reports, British punters have fallen victim to a scam related to a match-fixing scheme in which they gambled on friendly football matches between Ukrainian teams that the country’s football association claims never took place. Rumour has it that British and global bookmakers offered and settled bets on the games, which were supposedly part of a four-team tournament in the last week of March 2020. These gambling companies received various match details, including results of the matches, from the official data supplier of the English Premier League (EPL)…

According to figures provided by a database that tracks the consumption patterns of Australian residents, a concerning increase in online gambling combined with a rise in alcohol sales has been registered during the social distancing, mostly due to the fact that the isolation makes people more stressed than usual. The data, compiled by AlphaBeta, an analytics consultancy company, and Illion, a credit firm, has fuelled concerns that the economic and social climate in the country due to the coronavirus pandemic could unleash a massive wave of addictive behaviours and gambling-related…

One of the National Health Service (NHS) clinics has warned that British gamblers could face difficulties during the coronavirus crisis as self-isolation could push them to even more serious gambling addiction and debt. The Leeds-based clinic has revealed that it expects an increase in problem gambling rates during the Covid-19 pandemic because of the massive lockdown and social isolation that has provided people with more time to spend, combined with job and financial uncertainty. The NHS clinic in Leeds has shared fears that British gamblers would turn to online gambling…