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Slovakia’s Office for the Regulation of Gambling intends for the list to help players identify which online gambling sites are licensed.

Slovakia.- The Office for the Regulation of Gambling has announced the launch of a whitelist of online gambling websites run by licensed operators. The regulator already has a public blacklist of unlicensed sites, but the creation of a positive whitelist is intended to make it easier for players to check if a site is licensed.

The regulator also noted that keeping the blacklist up to date was a constant challenge since new sites spring up all the time. The whitelist, however, should prove a lot easier to keep up to date.

General director Dávid Lenčéš said: “We prevent one illegal website from operating and another one is created immediately. The operators’ creativity has no limits. They often try to motivate players with irresistible bonus offers, modern visuals, unlimited deposits, and in the case of foreign operators the perfect Slovak language.

“If players do not check the mandatory details of the website, they may have no reason to suspect that it is illegal content operating from outside our country. However, by playing on the illegal website, they are depriving themselves of the possibility of getting their winnings and their legal protection under the laws of the Slovak Republic.”

Lenčéš added: “In the section ‘legal websites’, we will publish all of the licensed websites of licensed entities. This means that all others not included in this list are illegal. Illegal websites can deprive players of their stakes and winnings and are available to risk groups for whom gambling can harm mental health.

“By providing more easily accessible information about the legality of a website, we are able to highlight the scope for playing online gambling under the control of valid Slovakian legislation.”

He also stressed that licensed operators are subject to remote supervision and face sanctions or even the revocations of their licences if they breach regulations.

Last month, Slovakia’s Office of Gambling Regulation announced the publication of a “Concept of Responsible Advertising” document with which it intends to improve gambling advertising standards. The document will introduce new standards for gambling ads in all media.

The document is intended as a “starting point” that operators and media bodies can use to introduce new self-regulatory and control mechanisms to ensure a safe gambling market for consumers and prevent crime and gambling harm.

Last year, Slovakia banned Twitch after a user streamed himself playing poker online. The US streaming platform is used by professional gamers, allowing fans to watch them play in real-time while interacting and giving them their opinions and advice.

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission has reported $93m in revenue for the state’s three casinos.

US.- The Massachusetts Gaming Commission has reported that Plainridge Park Casino, MGM Springfield and Encore Boston Harbor generated $93m in gross gaming revenue (GGR) in June. Encore reported GGR of $60m, MGM Springfield $21.1m and Plainridge Park $11.9m.

Together, Massachusetts’ three casinos generated approximately $26m in tax revenue in June. Approximately $1.127bn in total taxes and assessments from the casinos in Massachusetts have been collected since the opening of each gaming facility.

Plainridge only offers slot machines; the other two casinos have both slots and table games. Plainridge, a category 2 slots facility, is taxed on 49 per cent of GGR. Of that total, 82 per cent is paid to Local Aid and 18 per cent to the Race Horse Development Fund.

MGM Springfield and Encore Boston Harbor, category 1 resort-casinos, are taxed at 25 per cent of GGR. The funds are allocated to several specific state funds as determined by the gaming statute.

The Gaming Commission has encouraged Encore and MGM to reopen poker tables saying gamblers wanted more access to the game.

The Peruvian Congress has approved the new legislation with no votes against it.

Peru.- The Peruvian Congress has voted to approve legislation that will legalise online gambling and sports betting. The law, which will create a new regulatory framework for the verticals, received 91 votes in favour and none against.

The law will be overseen by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism of Peru (Mincetur) and will come into effect 60 days after its publication in the official government gazette, El Peruano. As well as online gaming and sports betting, it will also allow the creation of venues for remote sports betting where players can place bets via betting terminals.

Under the legislation, correctly licensed operators will be able to offer bonuses for online gaming as they cannot be exchanged for money. Sports betting operators will have to display messages on all platforms warning that “excessive online sports betting can cause pathological gambling”.

The legislation sets gaming tax at 12 per cent of each operator’s tax base (net income minus maintenance costs), to be collected on a monthly basis. A maintenance tax of 2 per cent will be charged on monthly income. Tax will be collected by the tax agency Sunat.

The penalties for breaching regulations will range from a warning and a fine of up to SOL200 (€50) for minor offences to a licence disqualification, either for up to 10 years or permanently. Mincetur will have the authority to temporarily close an operation and confiscate assets as a precautionary measure.

Elsewhere in Latin America, gambling legislation is still being held up in Brazil.

The trade association has written to the new gambling minister Damian Collins.

UK.- The British Amusement Catering Trade Association (Bacta) has renewed its calls for customers to be allowed to use debit cards to play on gaming machines. The industry body, which represents amusement arcades and gaming halls, has written to Damian Collins, the minister who’s been given responsibility for gambling following Chris Philp’s resignation.

Bacta is calling for the UK’s review of gambling legislation to contemplate the introduction of laws to allow debit card transactions for play on gaming machines at land-based gambling venues.

Bacta chief executive John White expressed concern that the government’s much-delayed gambling white paper may ignore the land-based amusement sector’s request for card transactions to be allowed. He says such a move would seriously jeopardise the future of the sector due to the decreased use of cash.

He wrote: “It is vital that the upcoming review recognises the importance of the land-based sector to the wider industry, whilst also taking steps to ensure that those businesses on our high streets, seafronts and across the supply chain are given the support they need to flourish.

“It is our view that, while the review is supposed to be about bringing the act into the digital age and redressing the balance between online and offline, such a move disadvantages members like ours, and stands in contrast to the wider societal trends towards cashless payments.

“This was a view we set out in a letter to the Prime Minister last week, and we would welcome the opportunity to discuss this with you directly.”

He added: “The result must be a system which delivers the most socially responsible products, provides the Gambling Commission with the powers it needs, and is fit for purpose in the 21st Century,” White said.

“Ahead of the publication of the review, which we have heard could be as soon as next week, we would welcome the opportunity to meet with you to discuss our views on the review and how it can support our members.”

Whether the publication of the white paper comes as soon as next week is seriously in doubt, however, with reports suggesting that it is likely to be delayed until after a new Prime Minister is chosen.

New details have emerged on the Netherlands’ proposed restrictions on gambling ads.

The Netherlands.- The Dutch government has launched a consultation on its plans to introduce sweeping new restrictions on gambling adverts. It was already known that the plans included a ban on all broadcast advertising from January 1 and a phased ban on sponsorship.

Targeted online advertising would still be allowed, but it’s now emerged that the onus will be on gambling operators to prove that their ads are not shown to people aged under 24.

The restrictions will be introduced in the Recruitment, Advertising and Addiction Prevention Decree. More details have also been provided about the ban on broadcast ads, confirming that it covers gambling advertising at cinemas and events, including sports events, in addition to TV, radio and outdoor advertising spaces.

Only targeted online advertising will remain, and operators must prove that their ads do not reach people who suffer from gambling addiction or anyone aged under 24. The decree says that this is because under 24s may have difficulty in assessing the risk level of gambling and may be more likely to be attracted by advertising.

The decree appears to recognise that the requirements will entail “effort” on operators’ part but insists that the goal is “not impossible”, noting that operators may use algorithms to target their advertising. The consultation period closes on September 4.

At the start of this month, the Netherlands introduced a ban on the use of role models in gambling advertising.

The government has launched a consultation on the proposal to ban all broadcast gambling advertising from January 1.

The Netherlands.- Gambling operators in the Netherlands were surprised earlier this week to learn that the Dutch government plans to ban all TV, radio and outdoor gambling advertising from January 1. Gambling sponsorship arrangements would be phased out in two stages over subsequent years – first media sponsorship from January 2024, and then all sports sponsorship in 2025.

The government has now launched a first-stage consultation on the proposed ban to seek feedback from all those affected, including “consumers, media agencies, sports clubs and gambling operators”. The consultation will run until September 4.

The government has told the Ministry of Legal Protections to define “untargeted adverts” and to clarify the technical resources that will be required to impose the ban. It’s believed that the Dutch regulator, KSA, would be responsible for policing the new measures, but it’s not yet clear whether the state-owned lottery will also be included in the ban. If it isn’t, other gambling operators are very likely to challenge the decision.

While MPs have called for action on untargeted gambling ads due to what they see as a saturation since the regulated online gambling market launched in October, Franc Weerwind, who as minister for legal protections has responsibility for gambling, said he opposed a blanket ban because he saw advertising as necessary for channelling to the regulated market.

Weerwind now argues that the proposed advertising ban will not unbalance channelling goals and that the phased approach would give operators time to adapt. Online and direct advertising will still be allowed.

However, the gambling industry groups VNLOK and NOGA claim that gambling operators were denied the right to demonstrate the effectiveness of their self-regulatory measures. They reached an agreement on a code of conduct in March to reduce advertising saturation and improve targeting.

At the start of this month, the Netherlands introduced a ban on the use of role models in gambling advertising.

Industry commentators Earnings + More claim to have received leaked details of Britain’s proposed changes to gambling legislation.

UK.- Passive affordability checks on losses of £125 a month, a default stake limit of £2 to £5 per spin for online slots and a ban on online VIP schemes. These are some of the measures to be included in the UK gambling white paper, according to the latest leaked information.

Industry commentators Earnings + More claim to have received details of the proposed new gambling legislation from reliable sources. Part of what they report certainly matches previous rumours, so it seems fairly convincing, although they note that discussions between the DCMS and the Gambling Commission are ongoing.

Stake limits for online casino
We had already heard that the government planned to propose stake limits of between £2 and £5 for online slots. This was one widely expected result of the review of gambling legislation since it would bring online slots in line with land-based FOBTs, which have a £2 stake limit.

However, the latest leak suggests that this would be a “smart stake limit“. The default stake limit would be set at £2 to £5, but customers who so wish could request to go through enhanced checks in order to raise that limit to something between £10 to £25.

It appears that the intention is to decide the exact figure after a consultation in autumn. There would be no stake limits on betting or other types of casino games.

Affordability checks
One more surprising suggestion is that affordability checks will kick in at a loss of £125 a month or £500 a year. The Gambling Commission had previously put forward a loss limit of £100 for affordability checks, and the proposal was generally criticised as being overly restrictive.

However, under the new proposals, these initial checks would be passive and automatic, with the customer not noticing them. They would include automatic checks for signs of financial distress such as county court judgements, with the complete details to be figured out by the Gambling Commission in an imminent consultation.

More detailed checks on a customer’s finances would reportedly be required in cases where a player loses £1,000 in a 24-hour period or £2,000 within 90 days (or £500 in losses in 24 hours for the new accounts in their first month). The intention is that these checks would also be “largely frictionless for customers”, initially being conducted online via credit reference agencies and open banking.

Information would only be requested from customers themselves when necessary to complete an assessment. However, the government and the Gambling Commission will also reportedly explore the possibility of mandatory deposit limits online.

Promotions
One of the other areas that has been contentious for the industry has been a call from campaigners to ban free bets. According to Earnings + More, the white paper will propose a ban on online VIP schemes. It will not ban free bets completely but will ban the targeting of free bets and other bonuses based on a customers’ spend or losses.

As for advertising, it’s already been reported elsewhere that the Premier League is hoping to avoid a complete ban on gambling sponsorship by reaching a voluntary agreement to phase out front-of-shirt placement for gambling operators.

Land-based casinos
Small casinos licensed under the 1968 Gambling Act (around 70 of the 1968 Act casinos) will be eligible for the same gaming machine allowance as larger venues. Land-based casinos will also be able to offer sports betting, but it’s not yet clear if this will apply to all casinos or only larger casinos licensed under the 2005 Gambling Act.

Casinos in London’s Mayfair district will reportedly be allowed to offer credit to international customers after “stringent checks” and may be able to introduce machines with higher limits on stakes and winnings.

The Gambling Commission
It’s suggested that the Gambling Commission will be given the power to set its own fees, with fees almost certain to rise. The regulator will also get the power to require bulk data from online operators.

It also appears that finally a levy for research, prevention and treatment (RET) funding will go ahead, to be set at 1 per cent of GGY for online operators. This will be paid directly to the Gambling Commission under the DCMS’s “strategic direction”.

A consultation in autumn will look into the creation of a gambling ombudsman to resolve complaints from customers against operators.

It appears that there will not be a licensing regime for online affiliates nor will white label arrangements face new legislation. However, Earnings + More’s sources say that, despite claims that the white paper is finished, the government and the Gambling Commission are still discussing much of the detail and that a second draft is believed to be in circulation.

There is still no clear timeline for when the paper will be published. The government has said it will be published “in the coming weeks”, but it’s been saying that for months, and matters have been delayed further by the resignation of Chris Philp and the handing of responsibility for the review to Damian Collins, the new parliamentary under-secretary of state for online safety.

The island will overhaul its liberal licensing regime following international pressure.

Curaçao.- The Caribbean island of Curaçao has announced plans to radically overhaul its famously liberal licensing regime for online gambling operators. It will create a new licensing body, which will tighten the requirements for operators and will liaise with other international regulators to tackle illegal gambling.

The new licensing regime will replace the current system of master licences, which has been criticised internationally for a lack of scrutiny over operators. As part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Curaçao has come under increased pressure to tighten its licensing system since the Netherlands launched its regulated online gambling market last year.

Under the current system of master licences, only four businesses have direct licences from the island’s government, but each can then offer sub-licences of their own, and under their own terms. The system effectively granted the four master licence holders most of the control over licensing and saw the number of operators proliferate.

But a bill passed by Curaçao’s Council of Ministers will see the creation of a new independent state licensing body, the Curaçao Gaming Authority (CGA), which will issue both B2C operator and B2B supplier licences. Fees for the licences are expected to be around €4,000 to apply and then €12,000 per year plus a monthly fee of €250 per URL.

The government has begun registering current sub-licensees, who will all initially be able to move to the new system through 12-month transitional licences. Licensees will need to meet new controls to continue to maintain their licences, including tighter money laundering measures and a new requirement for a minimum of three employees in key positions to be based on the island itself. That’s likely to force some operators to leave the jurisdiction.

It’s also expected that the CGA will enter into agreements to cooperate with other global regulators, which suggests it may look to prevent operators from targeting particular jurisdictions. However, there are not expected to be specific rules against targeting any particular market.

The bill will now go to consultation with advisory bodies with the final draft expected to be put to Parliament by the end of the year.

The major European gambling hub of Gibraltar has also introduced new rules for operators to have a more prominent local presence as part of its licence conditions.

Last year, Sander Dekker, then the Dutch minister for legal protection, said the Netherlands’ government was planning to implement an action plan designed to clamp down on unlicensed gambling operators targeting Dutch players from Curaçao. He noted that the island had accepted the proposal of an independent gambling regulator.

Questions on the issue were raised in the Dutch parliament after an article in the investigative journalism site Follow the Money claimed that there were 12,000 illegal gambling sites operating in Curaçao and that the island was responsible for 40 per cent of all unregulated gambling internationally due to a web of sub-licences.

Meanwhile, the Swedish gambling regulator, Spelinspektionen, has injunctions against several Curaçao-licensed gaming operators, ordering them to stop targeting the Swedish market. It issued injunctions against Disrupt Entertainment Limited, Nero Media and Indigo Soft, among others.

A ban on broadcast gambling ads will come into effect at the start of next year, and sponsorship will be banned from 2025.

The Netherlands.- The Dutch government is finally moving ahead with its plans to ban “untargeted” gambling ads in the country. Broadcast ads will be banned from January and gambling sponsorship in sport will be banned from the start of 2025.

The Ministry of Legal Protection has drawn up the plans having faced pressure from MPs for several months due to the surge in gambling advertising seen after the Dutch regulated online gambling market launched in October last year.

The ban on broadcast ads covers not only television but also radio and advertising in public spaces. It will come into effect from January 1. Further measures will be phased in over the two subsequent years. Sponsorship of television programs and events will be banned from January 1, 2024 and the sponsorship of sports kits and venues will be banned from January 1, 2025.

The ministry said the staggered prohibition was intended to “give the sports sector the opportunity to find alternative sponsors”.

The national gambling regulator Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) will be responsible for monitoring compliance with the rules and will have the power to intervene in the case of breaches, first with a warning and then with fines.

Minister for legal protection Franc Weerwind said: “Today we have taken an important step towards further curbing gambling advertisements. Advertising is a means of directing people to the legal offer, but the importance of addiction prevention is more important.

“With this, I want to protect vulnerable groups such as young people in particular.”

Weerwind has previously insisted that some form of advertising was necessary to direct players to legal offerings. Under the new rules, online and direct marketing will be allowed, but the government said the rules would be tightened to protect vulnerable groups.

Yesterday, Kindred’s Unibet went live in the Netherlands under its new Dutch gaming licence. It had been blocking Dutch players since the regulated market launched in October. It’s operating at Unibet.nl. The brand has already signed a sponsorship deal with the football club Ajax.

The British regulator will review its penalties for regulatory breaches.

UK.- The Gambling Commission will carry out a consultation on its penalties for breaches of regulations and on how to improve gambling operators’ accountability. The regulator said it aimed to be more transparent on its enforcement action and about how penalties are calculated.

The regulator will seek feedback on how to improve the way it calculates penalties in order to ensure that they are more effective in encouraging operator compliance. It will also look at how accountability can be improved by expanding the personal management licence regime.

Senior policy director Tim Miller revealed the plans for the consultation at a CMS Tax/Law Gambling Conference in London last week. He said the industry should not be surprised by the move given that the Gambling Commission has warned on several occasions that it was unsatisfied with repeat failings in operators’ customer interactions.

He noted that too many operators still failed to fulfil their duties when it comes to detecting customers that show signs of potential gambling harm and carrying out interactions with them.

He said: ‘Both the commission and the government have stated publicly that more work is needed here, especially on how operators understand whether they are allowing customers to gamble in ways that are unaffordable. So a continuing focus on this should come as no surprise to anyone.”

Miller said there would be changes in how feedback is collected from stakeholders. He said the regulator recognised that it had been criticised in the past for having “sometimes taken a scattergun approach”. Now, rather than running consultations as and when it feels like it, the regulator intends to run “consultation windows” with a set schedule in two fixed periods each year.

Miller said: “I can’t promise we won’t ever be forced to issue a consultation outside these periods but that should be the exception rather than the rule and we would clearly explain why we needed to depart from the usual window.”

Last week, the Gambling Commission has announced that it has suspended Bet-at-home’s British licence while it conducts an investigation into its operations. It said that it suspects the Dusseldorf-headquartered operator, which has offices in Gibraltar and Malta, may have breached social responsibility and anti-money laundering rules.

Meanwhile, the timeline for the UK government’s already long-delayed white paper proposing new gambling legislation has been put in further doubt following the resignation of Chris Philp, the minister responsible for overseeing the review of the 2005 Gambling Act.