Latest Gambling News: Australia’s Online Regulator Names Four More BetStop Violators, and more

Catch up on some of the stories our gambling compliance analysts have covered lately, and stay up-to-date on the latest news.

Australia’s Online Regulator Names Four More BetStop Violators  

The Australian online gambling regulator has punished or warned four more companies that have violated rules surrounding the national self-exclusion register, known as BetStop.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is ramping up enforcement and defending the integrity of its BetStop initiative, with the regulator on Thursday (June 5) naming Buddybet, UltraBet, VicBet and Topbet as the latest companies in breach of player protection rules.

The ACMA said the Australian arm of US-based Buddybet committed thousands of contraventions across five subsections of the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 by marketing to self-excluding users, but the company has since left the Australian market.

UltraBet has entered a review and reform phase through a court-enforceable undertaking after sending marketing to a self-excluded user and reopening the account of a separate user at the end of their exclusion period.

The ACMA also formally warned VicBet and Topbet over similar marketing to self-excluding gamblers.

The latest batch of investigations follows a A$1m ($650,000) fine to Unibet, a subsidiary of France’s FDJ United, over more than 100,000 violations of BetStop rules, and a fine of A$500,000 for PointsBet Australia just days before.

Connecticut Poised To Crack Down On Sweepstakes

Connecticut will join several other states in passing legislation to ban online sweepstakes casinos, should Governor Ned Lamont sign a gaming reform bill that was amended several times during the legislative process.

If enacted, Senate Bill 1235 would make it illegal to operate or promote online sweepstakes casinos and sports betting in the state. It is due to go into effect on October 1.

“Any simulated gambling device used in a sweepstakes or promotional drawing should be deemed a common nuisance and be subject to seizure,” according to the amended bill.

Additionally, SB 1235 specifies that “nothing prohibits a retail grocery chain” from conducting or promoting a sweepstakes that uses a simulated gambling device, provided the prize is not redeemable for cash but is related to the sale of groceries.

The bill, introduced by the Joint General Law Committee, originally included provisions banning online lottery courier services and the resale of lottery tickets, but those restrictions were removed as SB 1235 advanced through the legislature.

SB 1235 also gives gamblers the ability to wager on tournaments involving Connecticut universities, a loosening of the restrictions on betting on Connecticut college teams.

Connecticut joins Louisiana, Montana and Nevada as states that have passed bills to prohibit or restrict sweepstakes operations during their 2025 legislative sessions.

FanDuel Bans Gambler For Heckling Track Athlete

FanDuel has banned a gambler who posted a video online of himself heckling Olympic gold medalist Gabby Thomas at a track event, to win a parlay bet.

“FanDuel condemns in the strongest terms abusive behavior directed towards athletes,” the company said in a statement. “Threatening or harassing athletes is unacceptable and has no place in sports. This customer is no longer able to wager with FanDuel.”

In a post on X, Thomas said the “grown man” followed her around the track at the Grand Slam Track event in Philadelphia as she took pictures and signed autographs for fans shouting personal insults.
“Anybody who enables him online is gross,” Thomas wrote.

A video posted on social media by the bettor ESPN identified as “mr100kaday” was taken down. He described himself as “The Track and Field Bully,” and posted a screenshot of a $1,000 parlay bet on FanDuel.

“I made Gabby lose by heckling her. And it made my parlay win,” the man wrote in a post on X, according to ESPN.

Threats against athletes continue to be an issue seven years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the federal ban on sports betting, with several states enacting new rules allowing regulators to involuntarily exclude abusive bettors.

Fennica Gaming Gains UAE Licence  

Fennica Gaming, the B2B subsidiary of Finnish monopoly Veikkaus, has secured a gaming-related vendor licence in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to a company statement.

Fennica said on Tuesday (June 3) that the licence from the UAE’s General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA) allows it to supply registered operators with games and services and stands to boost its “international expansion efforts”.

“The UAE represents a new dynamic market and for us a possibility to enter a new continent and new markets,” Fennica Gaming managing director Timo Kiiskinen said. “We are excited to contribute to the development of its regulated gaming sector with our trusted and innovative solutions.”

The GCGRA had not added Fennica Gaming to its list of nine gaming-related vendor licensees at publication time. The regulator last week confirmed that Sweden’s Random State and Scientific Games were awarded vendor licences following IGT’s addition to the list in May.

The Fennica Gaming statement did not elaborate on the scope of products and services it is licensed to deploy in the UAE, but Kiiskinen added that the UAE licence “further strengthens Fennica Gaming’s position as a reliable partner for regulated markets”.

Japan Online Gambling Promotion Ban Passes Lower House  

Japan’s House of Representatives has passed an amendment to the law on gambling addiction countermeasures that would prohibit online or offline dissemination of information on gambling websites leading to gambling behaviour.

The amendment to Article 9 of the Basic Act on Gambling Addiction Countermeasures prohibits the distribution of advertising or other information on gambling websites, whether online or otherwise, but does not specify penalties for breaches.

Instead, the amendment seeks to “thoroughly publicise” the illegality of online gambling in Japan as part of wider campaigns against addiction.

The brief amendment comfortably passed the lower house with cross-party support and was moved by Ooka Toshitaka, the chair of the Cabinet Committee.

However, lawmakers with the left-wing Reiwa Shinsengumi party objected to the bill’s lack of punitive provisions.

The bill now proceeds to the upper house and is expected to pass by the end of the current session this month.

Ukraine’s New Regulator Targets Black Market

Ukraine’s new gambling regulator, PlayCity, has begun its work to try and make the gambling industry more “transparent and controlled”.

PlayCity replaces what the government called the “ineffective” Commission for the Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries (KRAL), in an update published on June 2.

The new regulator’s top priorities are digitising the licensing process, launching an illegal gambling monitoring and blocking system, restarting the lottery market to make it pay license fees, restarting the national self-exclusion scheme, making it easier for people to self-exclude, and removing any Russian-linked casinos.

The government hopes the new regulator can help it address the UAH 10bn (€211m) in taxes it states are lost to the black market every year and help attract more foreign companies to the market.

The new head of PlayCity is Gennady Novikov, a lawyer and former deputy head of KRAL, where he oversaw the regulator's efforts to block illegal online gambling and facilitated the inspection of gambling operators, which resulted in over UAH 18m (€378,390) in fines being collected.  

Novikov also played a key role in assisting the Ministry of Digital Economy to disband KRAL.

PlayCity states on its website that KRAL was officially disbanded due to its “inefficiency and inability to solve key problems”.

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