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Casino gaming regulation underwent a massive overhaul in New South Wales after the state government passed the Casino Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 into law. The newly approved legislation creates a new regulatory body, the NSW Independent Casino Commission (NICC), whose task is to oversee the landbased casino sector. More specifically, the new regulator will supervise Crown Resorts and The Star Entertainment Group. The two landbased operators were involved in a series of major scandals regarding their operations. They will now attempt to recover their reputation under the guidance of the…

Birmingham-based pro football club Aston Villa unveiled it has selected the online gambling brand Duelbits as its official betting partner in Europe for the 2022/2023 season. Duelbits is a cryptocurrency-focused site that provides casino gaming and sports betting services under a licence issued by the authorities of the Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao. The brand has obtained permission from the British gambling watchdog (UKGC) for the launch of a white label site that is yet to go live in the UK. The white label licence is held by the Isle…

The Gaming Minister of Australia’s Northern Territory has been criticised for his lack of decisiveness over the proposed rollout of a large number of new poker machines in Alice Springs. Iris Capital, a local hospitality giant, has applied for 60 new poker machines, asking the competent authorities for permission to install them in hotels and pubs across the town, including in a number of venues where there were previously no pokies available. According to preliminary projections, the poker machines would add to over 100 new gaming machines that the company…

Anti-gambling campaigners claim that poker machines are a dangerous product, such as firearms and drugs, as gambling losses after the pandemic have reached record levels in Queensland. According to the latest reports, the residents of Queensland spent AU$4.2 billion on gambling in the financial year that ended in May 2022. Pokies at local pubs and clubs accounted for more than 50% of that amount, with AU$2.8 billion spent by state gamblers in the 12 months to June 2022. Now, gambling reform advocates fear that the existing economic uncertainty is going…

Last week, the country’s data watchdog revealed that its investigation team was examining a complaint that is focused on the scope and scale of the online gambling sector’s tracking and ad targeting for the first time ever. The revelation comes at a time when the UK Government plans to bring some serious changes in local gambling laws were put on hold for the fourth time in July. According to reports, the UK gambling industry spends approximately £1.5 billion on advertising in the country on an annual basis. As Casino Guardian…

A national fan-led campaign is urging football clubs in the UK to stop signing sponsorship agreements with gambling operators. The campaign group, called Footballers Supporters Against Gambling Adverts, includes recovering problem gamblers, as well as families affected by suicides related to gambling. It has so far filed over 20 petitions and is now hoping to gather more than a million voters’ signatures in order to encourage football clubs across the UK to cease their existing partnership deals with gambling companies and make a promise to cease future sponsorship agreements with…

One of the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) services available within the UK gambling sector that makes formal judgements on disagreements between licensed gambling companies and their clients for more than 20 years – the Independent Betting Adjudication Service (IBAS) – is now seeking to become the new Gambling Ombudsman in the country. The ambitious plan to take over the role and powers of the UK’s new Gambling Ombudsman was officially announced by the service in a statement published on its website earlier this week. Everyone in the sector has been…

Casinos in the state of New South Wales (NSW) could face fines worth AU$100 million with leading executives and board members held liable in case the gambling businesses are found to have seriously breached rules and regulations. The NSW Government is set to hand the enforcement powers to the newly-established casino regulatory body if the State Parliament gives the green light to the proposed piece of legislation after it is officially introduced next week. The bill has appeared after a number of independent inquiries revealing damning evidence that Sydney’s two…

Customers of Crown Casino in Melbourne will be forced to pre-commit to certain limits for time and money spent on so-called pokies as part of the latest round of reforms introduced by the Andrews Government. The set of 12 measures comes as the latest one from the 33 recommendations issued by the Royal Commission following an alarming range of wrongdoing at the only casino resort in the state of Victoria. Crown Melbourne, which is currently the biggest single-site employer in the state, has been given the chance to keep its…

The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) has welcomed the recently unveiled figures confirming the fact that gambling addiction rates in the UK have remained historically low. As Casino Guardian reported last week, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) reported that its latest research found problem gambling rates to have remained as low as 0.2% in the year to June 2022, which is the lowest gambling addiction rate registered in the country over the past few years. The figures were released amid the expected White Paper from the UK Government’s review of…