News

The government of Ireland plans to have a new national gambling regulator in place by 2023 to license and regulate online and land-based operators.

Having approved plans for a new regulator in 2019, the government has now outlined a general scheme for gambling regulation under the proposed authority, which will be set up next year and operational by 2023.

The new authority will have powers to license retail and online gambling operators, and to combat unlicensed operators by blocking payment transactions and internet access to offshore gaming sites.

The authority will also have the power to impose fines of up to €20m on individuals engaged in illegal gambling, with companies liable to the same penalty or a fine based on 10 per cent of relevant turnover in a financial year.

“The publication of the General Scheme is an important milestone towards the effective regulation of gambling in Ireland under the new, independent statutory body – the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland. The Scheme sets out the framework and legislative basis for how we will do this,” said James Browne, Minister of State for Law Reform, Youth Justice and Immigration.

“We all accept that the current legislative framework is fragmented, outdated, lacks a coherent licensing and regulatory approach, and is in need of significant reform. Now is the time to finally address this issue comprehensively, once and for all.”

“I believe that the legislative underpinning of this new Authority will be essential to its success and I am committed to taking this forward,” he added. “There will be opportunities for further stakeholder engagement and input as part of the pre-legislative scrutiny process.”

The Scheme takes into account the recommendations of expert reports, including the Inter-Departmental Working Group Report published in March 2019, and analysis of the regulatory approaches in other jurisdictions.

Under the proposed regulations, online and offline operators will be required to secure B2B, B2C, or charitable gaming licenses from the authority in order to serve players in Ireland. They will also be prohibited from offering inducements to gamble such as free bets or VIP treatment, as well gambling on credit.

The General Scheme was unveiled Thursday (October 21) and will now be submitted for drafting to the Office of Parliamentary Counsel, before referral to the Justice Committee for pre-legislative scrutiny.

Gaming Intelligence

Delaware’s regulated iGaming market grew by 44 per cent in September 2021 as total wagers reached $26.0m.

The year-on-year growth followed improved performances by all three licensed operators in the state, with Delaware Park seeing the biggest growth as iGaming wagers increased 71 per cent to $11.1m.

Dover Down’s iGaming wagers rose by 21 per cent to $7.8m during the month, while Harrington Raceway’s iGaming wagers climbed 36 per cent to $7.1m.

With $25.2m paid out in winnings in September, the three operators generated combined net revenue of $794,644, a decline of 5 per cent compared to the same period last year. Video lottery net revenue increased by 10 per cent to $671,886, offset by a 46 per cent drop in table games net revenue to $95,625 and a 47 per cent fall in poker rake and fees to $27,134.

Harrington generated the highest net revenue in September at $276,605, an increase of 36 per cent year-on-year, comprising video lottery net revenue of $237,544, table games net revenue of $33,492, and poker rake and fees of $5,569.

Playtech
This was just ahead of Delaware Park’s net revenue of $261,370, which fell 20 per cent versus a year ago and comprised video lottery net revenue of $199,782, table games net revenue of $46,150 and poker rake and fees of $15,438.

Dover Downs’ net revenue fell by 17 per cent year-on-year to $256,669, comprised of $234,559 from video lottery, $15,983 from table games and $6,128 from poker rake and fees.

The three licensed operators recorded 973 new registrations in September, with 451 new registrations at Delaware Park, 335 registrations at Dover Downs and 187 at Harrington.

China’s two state-owned national lotteries struggled for growth in August 2021 as total lottery sales decreased to RMB32.61bn (€4.37bn).

After seven consecutive months of year-on-year growth, lottery sales declined by 6 per cent in August as Welfare Lottery sales fell by 14 per cent to RMB11.45bn.

Sports Lottery sales also fell in August, declining 2 per cent compared to a year ago to RMB21.16bn.

In August, a total of 10 Chinese provinces saw lottery sales increase compared to the same period last year, with the biggest growth achieved in Xinjiang, Sichuan, Henan and Hunan.

For the first eight months of 2021, total lottery sales in China increased by 27 per cent to RMB247.29bn, with the start of the comparable period last year impacted by the Covid-19 outbreak.

Welfare Lottery sales were up by 3 per cent at RMB90.41bn during the period, while Sports lottery sales grew 47 per cent year-on-year to RMB156.89bn.

Sports betting and iGaming operators FanDuel, DraftKings and Rush Street Interactive will soft-launch their new online offerings in Connecticut Tuesday.

The Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) authorised the soft launch Friday, allowing the Connecticut Lottery Corporation, Mohegan Tribe and the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe to begin online wagering operations with their respective partners.

The Connecticut Lottery has been authorised to begin online sports wagering within the state in partnership with Rush Street Interactive, with the soft launch limited to 750 players.

The Connecticut Lottery will initially offer bets online during limited hours from Tuesday (October 12) through to Friday, followed by a 24-hour cycle through the rest of the seven-day soft launch period.

The Mohegan Tribe and online partner FanDuel, as well as the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe and partner DraftKings, will soft launch both iGaming and sports betting, with iGaming initially limited to just over 100 DCP-approved games.

The tribal operators and their online partners will also be limited to 750 players during the soft-launch period and the same time restrictions as the Connecticut Lottery, with live dealer and peer-to-peer online casino games excluded from the soft-launch.

Playtech
“We appreciate the hard work of our licensees and their teams, as well as the team at DCP, for their diligence in ensuring these platforms are compliant with the regulations approved by the legislature,” said DCP commissioner Michelle H. Seagull.

“As long as no issues arise, we have told the licensees they may move forward with the 7-day soft launch required in the regulations. Once the soft launch is complete, online gaming will open statewide.”

The launch of online sports betting comes less than two weeks after FanDuel and DraftKings opened their respective retail sportsbooks in Connecticut at Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods, and less than six months after online sports betting and iGaming legislation was signed into law by Governor Ned Lamont.

Sweden’s investigation into match-fixing and unlicensed gambling has been extended by three months and expanded to include money laundering threats.

The investigation led by Swedish Chamber of Commerce director general Gunnar Larsson was due to submit a report to the government by June 30, with that deadline now extended to September 30 to allow Larsson to develop a comprehensive proposal to combat the threats posed by illegal gambling and match-fixing.

He will also now investigate money laundering threats and develop rules for imposing penalties on licensed gambling operators for any violations of the Money Laundering Act.

“The current investigation will propose solutions to enable effective supervision of illegal gambling and strengthen the work against match-fixing,” said Sweden’s social security minister Ardalan Shekarabi. “These issues are of great importance for a sustainable gaming market. It is therefore important that the investigator has enough time to develop well-elaborated proposals.”

Florida expects to generate as much as $6.0bn from gaming over the next decade through a new compact with the Seminole Tribe of Florida.

The compact is valid for a 30-year term and gives the Seminole Tribe the right to operate slot machines, table games, sports betting, fantasy sports, raffles and draws, and any new game authorised by Florida law.

This includes wagering while physically present at one of the seven existing gaming facilities on tribal lands in Florida, and online sports betting and fantasy contests through servers located on tribal lands, with the state receiving at least $2.5bn during the first five years of the compact.

“This historic compact expands economic opportunity, tourism, and recreation, and bolsters the fiscal success of our state in one fell swoop for the benefit of all Floridians and Seminoles alike,” said Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

“Our agreement establishes the framework to generate billions in new revenue and untold waves of positive economic impact. I would like to thank Seminole Tribe of Florida Chairman Marcellus Osceola Jr., Senate President Wilton Simpson, and House Speaker Chris Sprowls for their collective commitment to modernizing the gaming industry in the state of Florida and setting the bar for the rest of the nation.”

“The Seminole Tribe of Florida is committed to a mutually-beneficial gaming compact with the State of Florida and looks forward to its approval by the Florida Legislature, the Seminole Tribal Council and the U.S. Department of the Interior,” added Marcellus Osceola Jr., chairman of the Seminole Tribe of Florida.

Playtech
“The Tribe wants to express our sincere thanks to Governor DeSantis, Senate President Simpson, House Speaker Sprowls and many others who have worked hard to negotiate a historic agreement that cements our partnership with the state for decades to come.”

The compact also allows the Seminole Tribe to partner with a platform provider for sports betting and enables the state’s pari-mutuel wagering operators to participate in the new activity as agents of the tribe.

It will also allow the tribe to renegotiate with the state 36 months after the effective date of the compact to allow all covered games to be made available through the internet.

Germany’s new State Treaty on Gambling has cleared its final hurdle and will come into force as expected on July 1.

The treaty was ratified by the state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt on Wednesday and is expected to secure approval in the last remaining state, North Rhine-Westphalia, by the end of this month.

The successful ratification process ends years of regulatory uncertainty in the German online gambling market by authorising and regulating online sports betting, slots and poker.

“This is the beginning of a new age of gaming regulation in Germany. After sports betting, the federal states are now rightly regulating further online games of chance in order to finally control what is happening on the market,” said Mathias Dahms, president of the German industry association DSWV.

“The new State Treaty on Gambling is an important step towards modern regulation, but there is also a need for improvement. We consider the state databases for the complete monitoring of all consumers to be extremely questionable from a data protection point of view. The fact that particularly popular live bets should be allowed on football and ice hockey games in the future, but possibly not on handball and tennis, completely misses the expectations of customers. Adjustments will have to be made here soon. We place our hopes in the new authority, which will shape and objectify the gambling policy debate in the future.”

RE
Dahms added that the biggest challenge for operators in the newly regulated market will be the high tax rates set by state and federal governments.

“The federal states want to tax all stakes on virtual slot machine games and online poker – including stakes made with previous winnings. The tax rate of 5.3 per cent on the stakes is far too high in an international comparison. This makes the game considerably more expensive for the customer, with game credits used up more quickly,” Dahms explained.

“In the end, only the black market profits from this. No other country in Europe taxes the stakes in virtual slot machine games, but always the gross gaming revenue – the actual revenue of the gaming provider. In this way, Germany is taking the wrong direction in tax policy.”