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BetBlocker has formed a partnership with the Responsible Online Gaming Association (ROGA) to provide complimentary blocking software access to users in the United States.
BetBlocker software allows players to voluntarily restrict themselves from over 118,400 gambling operator websites and 1,500 gambling apps, including both regulated and unregulated sites.
“We’re equipping individuals with practical tools that support their decisions and wellbeing,” Dr. Jennifer Shatley, ROGA’s executive director, said in a statement.
Under the partnership, ROGA will feature BetBlocker’s free blocking software on its website and will work with its members on ways to make it available to their customers. ROGA members include BetMGM, bet365, DraftKings, Fanatics, FanDuel, PENN Entertainment, Hard Rock Digital, and Bally’s.
The BetBlocker app is an anonymous program that enables players to access online gambling services for a specified length of time across multiple platforms, and across all their devices.
Despite previous setbacks in its efforts to legalize gaming, Texas Sands PAC, the political arm of casino company Las Vegas Sands, has more than $9m in cash on hand, according to new financial disclosures.
The well-funded political action committee has played a role in previous efforts to legalize casino gaming and sports betting in Texas, only to have those efforts opposed by conservative Republicans in the Texas House.
Currently, Sands does not operate any casinos in the U.S., having sold The Venetian, Palazzo, and the Venetian Expo for $6.25bn in 2021, and now operates five integrated resorts in Macau and Singapore.
Sands executives have continued to lobby lawmakers in Austin as they seek to eventually open Texas to casino gambling. Miriam Adelson and the Dumont families, who own Sands, also acquired a 73 percent stake in the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association for $3.5bn in 2023.
Texas remains one of the most restrictive states when it comes to gambling, but the political action committee has more than $9.3m in cash on hand. Adelson gave $9.1m to Texas Sands PAC, while the Sands Corp. donated $4,500.
Adelson has supported Republican and Democrat candidates on both the federal and state levels but was President Donald Trump’s largest financial supporter last year. In November 2026, voters will choose a governor, all 150 seats in the state House of Representatives, and 16 seats in the Senate.
Greece’s gambling regulator is launching a two-year project to update the country's gambling laws to reduce the complexity and number of them.
The Hellenic Gaming Commission’s (HGC) project is part of its strategic plan, which will begin in the fall of 2025.
“We are currently in a phase of internal discussion, during which various ideas and potential directions are being explored,” the HGC told Vixio GamblingCompliance, adding that “no final decisions or specific plans have been put into place”.
The HGC plans to consult with legal experts and gambling providers to address problems it faces with the existing legislation, including ambiguous wording in legal texts.
The regulator will then look to develop a modern and unified gambling framework that addresses these issues, updating and presenting existing rules into a single legal text.
BetBlocker, ROGA partner on U.S. blocking software, while Texas Sands PAC sits on $9.3m.
