News

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…

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), which is the body responsible for the regulation of broadcasting, television and radio communications, and online content, has called for a further extension for the ban on gambling advertisements in the country. The watchdog proposed for further changes to be brought to the restrictions aimed at protecting local children from reaching gambling promotional content at the time of live sports events streamed on the Internet. The proposed amendments require creating a “safe zone” across traditional and new media platforms during live sports events…

Schemers have managed to drain approximately AU$110,000 from Facebook users in West Australia after the latter were tricked into thinking they had won the lottery. The scammers used stolen images from local Facebook users’ accounts to duplicate their profiles on the social network. They send messages to friends of such people, encouraging them to claim lottery prizes claimed to be worth from AU$150,000 to AU$300,000. However, in order to be eligible to claim the fake lotto prizes, the victims of the scheme were asked to first pay a certain amount…

The Bishop of St Albans, the Rt Rev Alan Smith has called for the Government to enact plans related to tackling gambling and possible gambling-related harm. Recently, anti-gambling campaigners have blamed the UK Government for the delay in the reduction of the maximum stake allowed on fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) from £100 to £2 and urged the authorities to implement the changes as quickly as possible. The crackdown that is set to be imposed on the maximum FOBT stake was officially announced in May 2018 but local bookmakers raised a…