News In Brief: June 2-June 6, 2025

The head of the Netherlands Gambling Authority’s (KSA) supervision department has warned that laws and regulations in the country will become “stricter” as it focuses on enhancing the duty of care and cracking down on the illegal market.

Renske Fikkers, head of the KSA’s supervision department, said gambling was once seen as a game with some possible negative consequences.

But opinion has now changed to see it as a “high-risk” product, she said during a speech at Gaming in Holland on June 5.

There are ongoing discussions to raise the minimum age for gambling to 21, introducing “overarching deposit limits”, and more advertising restrictions, all partly in response to how licensees have conducted their business since licensing opened up several years ago.

“Operating legally has to be profitable. But politicians are increasingly backtracking on that premise, partly because of what we are seeing in your organisations,” Fikkers said.

She highlighted shortcomings in licensees' actions to protect vulnerable players and frequent marketing rule breaches as the reason behind stricter regulation.

However, “not everything is doom and gloom”, according to Fikkers.

Operators were praised for their actions in conducting financial capacity tests, especially decisions that placed player protection above profit.

Looking forward, a “high-priority” for the regulator is to tackle the black market by focusing on its entire ecosystem, including social media advertising and payments.

“On top of that, we are working together with the ministry to increase our possibilities to become even more effective,” she said. 

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 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 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, 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’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 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”.

Ontario Senator Marty Deacon has reintroduced legislation that would create national guidelines for advertising sports betting, an effort that was previously opposed by the Canadian gaming industry.

Bill S-211 would require the federal government to craft national guidelines to regulate sports betting advertising in Canada. The national framework, among other things, would look to restrict sports betting advertising by “limiting the number, scope or location” of the advertisements.

Deacon introduced a similar bill in the Canadian Senate in 2023. That bill, S-269, passed the Senate in November, but was never introduced in the House of Commons.

The decision in January by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to resign and suspend parliament for three months killed the bill as the country prepared for this year’s federal election that saw Mark Carney elected as the new prime minister.

The framework would also have to “identify measures to promote research and intergovernmental information-sharing related both to the prevention and diagnosis of minors involved in harmful gambling activities and to support measures for persons who are impacted by it”.

Deacon’s bill also requires a set of “national standards” to prevent and diagnose harmful gambling and addiction. As of Tuesday (June 3), the bill has had its first reading in the Senate but no debate on the proposal had been scheduled.

Louisiana has moved closer to becoming the second state after Montana to ban online sweepstakes casinos, after lawmakers passed an amended bill targeting sweepstakes platforms.

The state’s House of Representatives voted 99-0 on Monday (June 2) to approve an amended version of Senate Bill 181, which would prohibit the dual-currency model utilized by many prominent sweepstakes operators, deeming it illegal gambling rather than a legal sweepstakes operation.

On May 29, the Senate approved SB 181 on a 39-0 vote. The bill, sponsored by Republican Senator Adam Bass, now heads back with the minor changes to its language to the Senate for concurrence before it can be sent to Governor Jeff Landry, also a Republican, for his signature. 

Among other provisions, the bill makes a distinction between illegal sweepstakes gambling and legal promotional giveaways by retailers. Those convicted of illegal gambling face up to $100,000 in fines and five years in prison. 

Bass has stated that his bill would apply not only to operators but to affiliates, software providers, geolocation services and advertisers involved in promoting the online sweepstakes casino sites. 

The Social and Promotional Gaming Association (SPGA), a trade group that represents sweepstakes operators, opposed the bill, arguing that its overly broad definition could criminalize non-gaming sweepstakes offerings such as hotel loyalty programs and other rewards programs.

Montana enacted legislation last month to tighten state laws on illegal internet gambling, although that measure does not expressly reference sweepstakes platforms like SB 181 in Louisiana.

The Swedish gambling regulator has issued SEK19m (€1.74m) in fines and officially warned three operators for anti-money laundering (AML) failures.

The largest of the three fines was a SEK7m (€645,000) penalty and warning issued to TSG Interactive PLC for several failings, including not undertaking sufficient customer due diligence, failing to implement enhanced due diligence measures for several customers, and setting an excessively high threshold to assess money laundering risk.

Sweden-based Betsson Nordic was fined SEK6.5m (€600,000) and issued a warning for customer due diligence shortcomings regarding insufficient source of funds checks. Its enhanced due diligence checks were also inadequate and delayed, according to the Swedish Gambling Authority’s (SGA) update published on May 30.

Malta-based Snabbare Ltd was fined SEK5.5m (€507,000) and warned as it failed to conduct source of funds checks on several customers, including some aged between 18 and 24 years, who deposited large sums of money into their gambling accounts. The licensee's high-risk customers' enhanced due diligence measures were also delayed.

A spokesperson for the SGA told Vixio GamblingCompliance that “AML is a very important area that we will continue to monitor and supervise”.

The latest round of enforcement action follows from action taken in May 2024, when the SGA initiated a supervision of the online gambling licensees to assess their compliance with money laundering and terrorist financing prevention laws.

Australian financial transactions regulator AUSTRAC has ordered casinos in Darwin and northern Queensland to undergo external audits over suspected money laundering deficiencies.

Brendan Thomas, the CEO of AUSTRAC, said the regulator compelled Mindil Beach Casino Resort in Darwin and The Ville Resort-Casino in Townsville to appoint external auditors under AUSTRAC instruction, according to a statement on Friday (May 30).

AUSTRAC will assess the audits of anti-money laundering/counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) programs, know your customer (KYC) protocols and board and management accountability to determine if further regulatory action is required, it said.

The decision follows AUSTRAC’s identification of “potential gaps and deficiencies in AML/CTF controls, risk and oversight” at the properties, and demonstrates that the regulator is hunting down non-compliance in every corner of the gambling industry.

“AUSTRAC is serious about driving illicit money out of the gambling industry in Australia and making sure businesses that facilitate gambling have strong money laundering controls,” Thomas said.

“This action follows major actions we have taken against other casinos, Crown Resorts, SkyCity and The Star, and online bookmakers Entain, Sportsbet and bet365,”  he said.

AUSTRAC is prosecuting Entain in federal court and is likely preparing punishment for The Star Entertainment Group over a high volume of alleged AML breaches.

Both cases could result in fines in tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.

The regulator is also in the thick of a national probe into money laundering in Australia’s high-penetration market of slot machines and other pub-and-club electronic gaming.

“My message to boards and CEOs of gambling [businesses], including pubs and clubs with gaming machines, is to make sure you comply with Australian money laundering laws and take your responsibility to tackle money laundering seriously; we are watching and we will take further action.”