News In Brief: November 25-November 29, 2024

Marcus Boyle, chair of the UK Gambling Commission, will step down from his role when his term concludes on January 31, 2025.

Under Boyle’s tenure over the past three years, the gambling regulator launched the fourth National Lottery licence and he has overseen the ongoing implementation of the Gambling Act Review and white paper, as well as the recruitment of a whole new board of commissioners, according to an announcement on November 27.

Baroness Twycross, the minister for gambling, said: “The past three years have been very significant for the Commission, as it takes forward measures set out in the Gambling Act Review and the start of the fourth National Lottery licence.

“I am grateful for Marcus’s hard work and commitment to the Gambling Commission and public service over his tenure and wish him the best for his future endeavours.”

Australian-based streaming platform Kick is changing its rules to require gambling-related streams to only be available from gambling sites that use ID to verify their consumers are over 18 years old or above.

The change will take place on February 1, 2025, and is part of a wider community safety update published on November 26.

The United Arab Emirates' (UAE) first regulated lottery operation has commenced operations with the launch of a website and a jackpot of 100m dirhams ($27m).

Abu Dhabi-based The Game LLC’s monopoly operation, theuaelottery.ae, was selected by the UAE gaming regulator in July after a competitive tender and will hold its first live draw on December 14.

Customers must be present in the UAE and purchase tickets online, although retail sales are expected to launch soon. Digital scratchcards are also on sale with prizes ranging from 50,000 dirhams to 1m dirhams.

Tickets start at 50 dirhams ($13.60), with seven guaranteed prizes of 100,000 dirhams per draw.

The lottery’s terms and conditions warn that customers also may not use the lottery’s website if they are located “within any sensitive geographic areas in the UAE” as declared by the regulator “from time to time”, and that winnings will not be honoured if customers mask their location.

It was not immediately clear if “sensitive geographic areas” refer to entire emirates or if any areas have been identified by the General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA). No such information is available on the GCGRA website.

The Game Lottery operations director Bishop Woosley, principal of Arkansas-based Woosley Gaming Advisors, said in a statement that after a “rigorous” evaluation by the regulator, the UAE Lottery “remains committed to ensuring that all operations meet global standards, guaranteeing fairness and transparency from the draw process to the selection of winners”.

Dutch trade groups NOGA and VNLOK have joined forces to create a reporting platform where gambling stakeholders can flag illegal operators.

The new Meld Van Spel (www.meldvalsspel.nl) website will allow for gambling operators and other members of the industry to report offshore gambling, with pertinent information then being passed on to the Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA).

In a joint statement, Helma Lodders, chairwoman of VNLOK, and Eric Konings, acting director of NOGA, said: “Licensed providers of online gambling have a joint responsibility to offer players a legal, safe and responsible offer. At the same time, many Dutch people still come into contact with illegal gambling sites and apps. 

“These illegal parties actively respond to the increasingly strict Dutch regulations by, for example, advertising on search terms such as 'playing without limits'. In doing so, they specifically attract [vulnerable] players. These types of illegal practices endanger the safety of players and must be tackled firmly.”

New York Senator Joe Addabbo Jr., a Democrat and chairman of the Senate’s Committee on Racing, Gaming and Wagering, said he will reintroduce revised legislation to codify the proposed timeframe to begin accepting applications for three downstate casino licenses.

Addabbo confirmed Tuesday (November 26) that his bill requires that applications be accepted in June and finalize the process in December 2025.

“Codifying a timeframe for an already unduly, prolonged downstate casino process would merely improve the process by allowing it to actually begin accepting applications,” Addabbo said in a statement. 

Addabbo’s bill would have required their casino proposals be submitted for review in August of this year. Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul, who vetoed the bill on Friday, did not take action on the bill even as the deadline passed.

“My legislation was attempting to bring credibility to the current state of the downstate casino process, not to ‘alter the timeframe’ as stated in the governor’s veto message, since no codified timeframe to start accepting applications exists at all,” Addabbo said.

“Codifying a timeframe does not ‘change the rules in the middle of the process’ as governor also stated in her veto message … but will technically add validity to a process that is severely lacking structure and effectiveness by not having a statutory timeframe for accepting casino license applications nor completion,” the senator said.

The New Jersey State Athletic Control Board (SACB) has updated its sports-betting policy for all licenses, officials and employees. 

The SACB made it clear it will not condone athletes or any other participants betting on combat sports.

Effective immediately, the policy prohibits unethical betting practices and reinforces the commitment to maintaining fairness and public trust in combative sports, including boxing, wrestling, extreme wrestling, kick boxing, and combative sports exhibitions, events, performances, and contests.

“With this action, we are safeguarding the integrity of combative sports events,” SACB commissioner Larry Hazzard Sr. said in a statement.

In New Jersey, “officials, members and employees” are prohibited from betting on any combative sports event within the state and globally.” Legal betting on non-combative sports is allowed, but board employees must register with the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement before placing bets in the state. 

All forms of illegal betting are prohibited, as is match-fixing and acting on or spreading insider information. Board personnel are also prohibited from working for sportsbooks or their affiliates.

Philippine enforcement officials have alleged that foreign-facing online gambling operations (POGOs) are splitting into smaller groups and migrating to the central and southern Philippines.

POGO interests have divided into smaller “guerrilla POGOs” of 10 to 20 staff and are impersonating business process outsourcing (BPO) operations, according to Presidential Anti-Organised Crime Commission (PAOCC) director Winnie Quidato.

Quidato was appearing at a Senate committee’s last of 16 hearings into POGO activity on Tuesday (November 26).

Active PAOCC and police operations against illegal POGO operations on Luzon island, the northern third of the Philippines that includes Manila, have forced most underground operations into the central Visayas region and southern Mindanao island, Quidato said. 

“We found that most POGOs are now in several Visayas areas and even Mindanao,” he said. “They are there now.”

Some of the staff include Chinese nationals who have been ordered to leave the Philippines, he said.

Senator Risa Hontiveros, chair of the committee that has exposed numerous POGO-linked scandals covering alleged espionage, human trafficking and top-level corruption, reiterated that Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s ban on POGOs lacks clarity.

She said Marcos’ executive order must include a ban on POGOs in all special economic zones and land-based casinos, and on “service providers for foreign POGOs”.

A pre-filed bill in the Arkansas legislature would allow colleges and universities in the state to hold fundraising raffles.

House Bill 1044 would create the Arkansas Sports Raffle Act to permit the institutions or affiliated nonprofits to hold raffles on game day to raise funds for scholarships or funding the payment of athletes for the use of the name, image, and likeness (NIL).

The 50/50 raffles would split the money from ticket sales between the winner and the other half funding an institution’s NIL fund.

Under the bill, a 50/50 raffle can be conducted on a “digital or electronic device,” as well as on an online platform, or any premises owned, leased, or otherwise utilized by qualifying organizations. The raffles would be limited to one “per official game or sporting event.” 

House Bill 1044 specifically prohibits the state’s three casinos from working with the University of Arkansas or any other college to implement a raffle. In August, Saracen Casino in Pine Bluff proposed creating an online game similar to a raffle that would send a portion of the money collected to colleges around the state, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.

The Arkansas Racing Commission has not considered Saracen’s proposal. The state legislature is scheduled to convene the 2025 session on January 13.

Tasmanian Liquor and Gaming Commission chair Jenny Cranston has attacked the state government over indefinitely suspending mandatory pre-commitment cards for slot machines.

The conservative state government last week halted the reform, citing cost increases, implementation delays and technical issues, triggering unusual pushback from the head of the state’s gambling regulator.

Cranston told ABC Radio on Tuesday (November 19) that she was “incredibly disappointed and, you know, very, very, very saddened by the fact that we had almost within our grasp … the ground-breaking … initiative that would protect so many Tasmanians and be so good for this industry”.

Cranston said she was not surprised by the shift given that she had been contacted by staffers for the former minister in charge of gambling in August about feared economic impacts of mandatory pre-commitment on “regional venues” (pubs and clubs).

She added that a report by Deloitte on these impacts that influenced the decision, which has yet to be released, was never shown to her.

Cranston added that one source of disappointment for her was the fact that she and fellow commissioners “believe in” and are “unequivocally in support of” the initiative, which is the most “robust harm minimisation measure you can implement”.