Insights Archive

December 13, 2021

Ohio Bill On-Brand For U.S. Sports Betting In 2021

Complex legislation approved in Ohio last week completes a banner year of expansion in U.S. sports betting and underscores several policy trends that are evolving the market.

December 13, 2021

Curaçao Circulates Proposal To List Online Gambling Licensees

The Curaçao government is circulating a proposal that would create an official registry of online gambling licensees on the Caribbean island, in what it calls the first step toward developing a long awaited re-regulation.

December 10, 2021

Latest CBDC Experiment Successfully Crosses The Alps

The Bank for International Settlements, Banque de France and the Swiss National Bank have concluded a successful cross-border experiment, using a wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC).

December 10, 2021

Week In Brief - December 10, 2021

A short roundup of some of the week's payments news you may have missed. This week we look at the UK Payment Systems Regulator's consultation on Confirmation of Payee, U.S. rulemakings aimed at fixing anti-money laundering loopholes, India's new national blockchain strategy, Klarna's new BNPL browser extension and news that blockchain SETL has demonstrated it can process a remarkable 1m transactions per second.

December 10, 2021

Latvia Wants To Become Global Fintech Hub

The Baltic country is trying to attract fintech businesses through an open regulatory approach, but there is more to be done if the country wants to become the new home to global fintech.

December 10, 2021

Irish Payments Collaboration Comes Up Against Regulator Scrutiny

A new mobile payments platform being developed by Ireland’s top banks has come up against a barrier, with the country’s antitrust watchdog announcing a new investigation.

December 10, 2021

Polish Gambling Industry Expects Tax Switch As Largest Bookmaker Goes Public

Poland’s bookmakers believe they are close to convincing the government to replace a 12 percent revenue tax on betting with a gross gaming revenue tax.

December 10, 2021

Maryland Launches Retail Sports Betting, Mobile Expected In 2022

MGM Resorts International opened a BetMGM-branded sportsbook at its National Harbor casino on Thursday, as Maryland became the 11th state to launch legal sports betting this year.

December 10, 2021

UK Details Compliance, Enforcement Crackdowns

The UK Gambling Commission’s Compliance and Enforcement Report details a record-breaking volume of fines and pinpointed “unacceptable” failings.

December 10, 2021

News In Brief: December 6-December 10, 2021

Bet-at-Home Austria enters administration, Buenos Aires launches online gambling and NagaCorp wins social award despite firings.

December 9, 2021

Australia Commits To Next Generation Payments Reform

By mid-2022, the government will have set out plans for payments modernisation and new crypto laws in what “will be the most significant reforms for 25 years”, the country’s finance minister has confirmed.

December 9, 2021

Sign Of The Times: Visa Launches Crypto Consultancy

Visa has announced that it is launching a new crypto advisory service, alongside new research which has found that 41 percent of UK adults either use cryptocurrencies or view them positively.

December 9, 2021

New Hungarian Superbank Draws Inspiration From Tesla And Asimov

As the first part in the merger of three Hungarian banks draws close, the new "superbank" will aim to shake up the financial services market in the country and throughout Eastern Europe with a focus on modernisation and digitalisation.

December 9, 2021

DeFi Is An Illusion, BIS Says

A new report by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) says decentralised finance (DeFi) is an illusion and may impose severe vulnerabilities on financial stability.

December 9, 2021

Ohio Legislature Approves Sports-Betting Package

Legislation to permit sports betting in Ohio is heading for the governor’s desk after a whirlwind day where the bill was amended and approved by both chambers of the state legislature.

December 9, 2021

Regulators Pick Developers For Illinois Casino Projects

Illinois gaming regulators voted unanimously Wednesday to grant findings of “preliminary suitability” to developers for new casinos in Waukegan and the southern suburbs of Cook County, bringing a selection process that has lasted more than two years closer to an end.

December 9, 2021

UK Gambling Minister Backs 'Proportionate' Affordability Checks

The new UK minister for gambling has called for “proportionate” affordability checks and backed a “single customer view” to share data across multiple operators to detect problem gambling behaviour.

December 8, 2021

Competition Winners Upbeat For Private Sector Opportunities In CBDC Race

Disintermediation for some or an opportunity to play a central role in the new payments paradigm? VIXIO discusses the increasingly real prospect of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) with the three winners of the recent Singapore CBDC Global Challenge.

December 8, 2021

News In Brief - Worldline Buys Greek Merchant Acquirer

Payments processor Worldline has announced the acquisition of an 80 percent stake in Greece’s Eurobank Merchant Acquiring services for €256m.

December 8, 2021

Fraudsters Shift Focus To Company Executives At Payment Firms

A new payment fraud trend report published by the European Payments Council finds company executives, payment service providers and payment infrastructures have become the main target of fraudsters.

December 8, 2021

Update: U.S. Turns Eye To AML Gaps Revealed By Pandora Papers

Two months after the leakage of millions of confidential files that became known as Pandora Papers, the first-ever U.S. Strategy on Countering Corruption is now looking at financial system gatekeepers to address deficiencies in the U.S. anti-money laundering (AML) regime.