News

According to Ladbrokes Coral owner Entain, Dutch company BetCity is worth between €68 to €156 million less than the €450 million Entain paid when it acquired the operator in January 2023. The factors that led to this devaluation are what prompted Entain to begin a legal battle against BetCity’s former owner earlier this year. The issue stems from investigations surrounding noncompliance with Dutch advertising and anti-money-laundering (AML) laws, with the first investigation having been ongoing when the sale and purchase agreement (SPA) between Entain and BetCity’s former owner was signed…

Bridget Fair, the CEO of Free TV, the industry body that represents Australia’s free-to-air broadcasters, spoke with AdNews about the issue of gambling advertisements and their necessity in the broadcasting industry. She warned that broadcasters could face major financial struggles should the government move forward with a crackdown on online gambling ads. Currently, Aussie free-to-air networks operate by not charging viewers for the airing of news, sports coverage, and more. They instead accumulate revenue from advertisement, with a major portion of the said revenue being sourced from broadcasting deals with…

Wendy Hughes and her daughter, Jackie Olden, spoke with the Guardian on Hughes’s struggles with gambling addiction and how the issue was exacerbated by the actions of staff working at a Stockport adult gaming centre operated by Merkur. Hughes began gambling in 2008 as part of her duties as a member of staff at a Coral-branded bookmaker. Reportedly, management urged staff to play digital roulette machines to “generate interest.” Hughes had never gambled before and was known to be exceptionally careful with money. Yet, the exposure to the fixed odds…

On March 15th, the London Assembly Health Committee published its “Gambling Related Harms in London” report, which is centred on how Londoners are affected by gambling harm and how advertising, in particular, impacts those struggling with gambling. Based on the investigation’s results, the Committee has called for Sadiq Khan, who currently serves as the Mayor of London, to submit a proposal to the Transport for London (TfL) authority for the blanket prohibition of the display of gambling ads in London’s transport network. Moreover, the Mayor has previously pledged to ban…

Yvette Greenway-Mansfield, co-founder and chief executive officer of the charity Silence of Suicide (SOS), has called for UK regulators to begin treating gambling in a way similar to tobacco and make it mandatory for gambling companies to display public health warnings when it comes to betting. This is tied to the recently launched #TIO (Think it over) campaign, which urges the government to introduce additional reforms to gambling law, as the organisation does not consider the prevention and treatment measures outlined in the Gambling White Paper to be sufficient. In…

In an opinion piece published on the news website PoliticsHome, Lord Foster of Bath warned how a new Data Protection and Digital Information (DPDI) Bill could result in companies, particularly those belonging to the gambling industry, being given the freedom to take advantage of customers’ data. According to Lord Foster, data abuse is an already existing issue, as gambling companies are allegedly utilising client information to target bettors and convince them to spend more money on gambling. He specifically cited the practice of determining whether self-excluded individuals could be enticed…

The UK’s gambling regulator, as well as the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), have commissioned the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) institute to assess the effectiveness of the UK Government’s Gambling Act Review. According to NatCen’s announcement, the institute will perform a Monitoring and Evaluation plan of the Gambling Act Review, and it will put a focus on problem gambling and the review’s success in introducing changes that succeed in the prevention of gambling harm. Specific assessments will be made regarding whether the review has successfully struck…

Mark Stockwell, an individual whose gambling addiction led to him stealing from his employer and eventually landing a jail sentence, spoke with ABC News about the harms of online betting. Given his firsthand experience with gambling addiction, Stockwell is now aiming to raise awareness regarding the issue in the hopes that others, young people especially, will not follow in his footsteps. Stockwell described how wagering on horse racing and AFL games turned into a daily habit thanks to how easy it was for him to place bets on his phone,…

The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) announced on March 7th that its probe into bet365’s compliance with Australia’s Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (AML/CTF Act) is now underway. AML/CTF regulations concern the issue of criminals using companies for the purposes of concealing money obtained through illegitimate means or for financing terrorist organisations. Sportsbooks and gambling companies, in general, are particularly susceptible to this form of exploitation, and combating the problem involves the utilisation of Know Your Customer (KYS) systems. They serve to carefully audit client activity…

According to research data gathered by the independent charity GambleAware, the problem gambling rate in the West Midlands stands at 3.9%, with 168,000 individuals in total being affected. The locations that are most severely impacted include Coventry (5.1%), Birmingham (4.5%), and Sandwell (4%), and the overall data shows that adults residing in the West Midlands are 25% more likely to fall victim to problem gambling in comparison to the average for Great Britain. Stigma is seen as one of the core factors preventing those struggling from seeking help, with a…