Insights Archive

September 30, 2021

Chicago Bears Purchase Arlington Park Racetrack For Potential Sports-Betting Location

Churchill Downs Incorporated has announced the sale of the historic Arlington Park racetrack property in suburban Chicago to the NFL’s Chicago Bears for a potential new stadium featuring a sports-betting facility.

September 30, 2021

Dutch Incumbents Head Licence List As Trade Group Seeks Meeting

Holland Casino and Nederlandse Loterij lead the list of ten Dutch online gambling licensees announced, with major brands such as Unibet, Betsson, PokerStars and bwin left out in the cold.

September 30, 2021

Swedish Court Rejects XC Gaming Fine Appeal

A Swedish court has rejected XC Gaming Sweden’s attempts to appeal a SEK5m (€490,000) fine imposed on it by the Swedish Gambling Authority last year, deeming the punishment that accompanied an official warning as “appropriate”.

September 30, 2021

Caesars Makes Late Run For Wakayama, Joins Clairvest Bid

In a renewed Japan gambit with “no capital commitment”, Caesars Entertainment has joined the Clairvest Group consortium that leads Wakayama Prefecture’s bid for an integrated resort licence.

September 30, 2021

Italian Gambling Minister Appointed With Reform Agenda

The new man in charge of Italian gambling policy comes with his own idea of what good regulation looks like, but inherits a sector in need of drastic reform.

September 29, 2021

Mastercard Opens A Regulator-Friendly Credit Line

Mastercard Installments' buy now, pay later (BNPL) platform, a technical solution that allows banks to create their own BNPL solutions, is about to come to market in the United States, Australia and the UK.

September 29, 2021

Hong Kong Outlines AML Expectations For SVF Licensees

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has published the results of a thematic review of money laundering risks at stored value facility (SVF) firms.

September 29, 2021

BIS Pronounces Multi-CBDC Project A Success

A prototype of a multi-central bank digital currency (mCBDC) has shown that digital currencies and distributed ledger technology could result in cheaper and safer cross-border payments, a new report has shown.

September 29, 2021

Asian Payment Linkages Keep On Coming With Singapore And Malaysia

Singapore’s PayNow and Malaysia’s DuitNow will link up in 2022, the respective countries’ central banks have announced.

September 29, 2021

SEC Levies Fine For Corruption On UK Firm

London-based WPP has agreed to pay US$19m to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to dissuade it from pressing charges with the accusation that several subsidiaries made corrupt payments. The company, according to the SEC, failed to spot the offences because its internal accounting controls were deficient.

September 29, 2021

Finnish Study Links Problem Gambling, Benefits, Unemployment

A new Finnish study says it has found a clear link between harmful gambling behaviours, people receiving social benefits and the unemployed.

September 29, 2021

Beijing Warns Online Operators Of Joint Philippine Crackdown

Beijing has issued a new warning to Philippine online gambling operators, promising enhanced cooperation between the two nations’ police forces amid a sustained Chinese crackdown against the regional industry.

September 29, 2021

Florida Anti-Gambling Coalition Sues Seminoles, Governor Over Compact

The lawsuit everyone has been waiting for finally arrived on Mondayh when a powerful coalition of anti-gambling interests in Florida asked a federal court in Washington, D.C. to nullify the state’s landmark new compact with the Seminole Tribe.

September 28, 2021

BNPL Regulation To Come To Ireland

The Irish Consumer Protection (Regulation of Retail Credit and Credit Servicing Firms) Bill 2021 is proposing to give the Central Bank of Ireland the power to regulate all buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) activities.

September 28, 2021

UK’s Taskforce Proposals for Payments Regulations and Data Protection

This analysis outlines key proposals in relation to payments and data protection following the Taskforce on Innovation, Growth and Regulatory Reform independent report, released on July 16, 2021, to address how the UK can seize new opportunities from Brexit. It aims to put the proposals in the context of wider developments taking place in UK payments regulation.

September 28, 2021

News In Brief - September 28, 2021

The UK's Payment Systems Regulator is satisfied that the Current Account Switch Service (CASS) still justifies its classification as an alternative switching scheme. Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden has reportedly picked a fierce critic of cryptocurrencies as the new head of the OCC.

September 28, 2021

Should Payment Firms Rely On Gatekeepers For AML Compliance?

From time to time, payment firms rely on so-called gatekeepers — accounting and legal firms that give businesses access to the financial system — to provide them with background checks on customers and other forms of anti-money laundering (AML) information. The Office for Professional Body AML Supervision has, however, determined that these gatekeepers are not particularly well-regulated.

September 28, 2021

Move Away From Other Business, Yi Gang Tells Chinese Payment Firms

China's regulators are striving to strike a balance between encouraging fintech development and offsetting financial risks, with the separation of payment firms and other types of business uppermost in their minds.

September 28, 2021

U.S. Senator Asks SEC To Be Clear About Cryptos

A U.S. senator has sent a strong message to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) about the extent of interest in various topics related to digital assets.

September 28, 2021

India's Kerala High Court Overturns Ban On Online Rummy

The High Court for southwestern Kerala state has struck down a state government ban on online rummy, a vindication for India’s gaming industry as it moves to fight a similar ban in neighbouring Karnataka state.

September 28, 2021

Former Gambling Regulator Calls On Poland To Reform Tax

Poland’s former finance minister has joined calls for the country to start taxing gambling companies based on revenue, instead of the current turnover model.