The CEOs of Flutter, bet365, Entain and others have written an open letter claiming European lawmakers are fuelling a “worsening” black market with overly tough regulations.
The leaders of six of the world’s largest online gambling companies have called on regulators to scale back the intensity of their rules and regulations, claiming that “the worsening black market situation in Europe underscores the urgent need for national policymakers to take decisive action to protect their players”.
“Unfortunately, the way that regulatory frameworks have developed in several European countries has exacerbated the problem of the black market,” said CEOs from bet365, Entain, Flutter, Betsson, evoke and Kindred.
The letter was published within the European Gambling and Betting Association (EBGA) 2024 edition of its Sustainability Report, which details the safer gambling measures taken by its members.
The CEOs claim that, “through meticulous research, development, and ongoing refinement of our safer gambling strategies, we are fostering a strong culture of sustainable play across our entire operations”.
But they argue their efforts are being hampered by onerous regulations in some jurisdictions.
The letter singles out France, where online casinos are illegal, citing data from local trade group AFJEL that suggests more than 4m gamblers regularly use black market websites.
Accessing the black market is easy thanks to the proliferation of virtual private networks (VPNs), the executives say.
“Worryingly, many black market operators lack even the most basic consumer protections such as age verification and safer gambling policies, exposing players to unacceptable risks,” they said.
The gambling bosses say they “strongly support” enforcement measures against the black market, but the letter’s clear priority is to argue for a loosening of gambling regulations across Europe.
“Competitive, regulated online gambling markets are the only effective solution” to the black market, they say.
The prevailing trend in Europe in 2024 is to tighten regulations. In the UK and the Netherlands, new affordability rules are set to come into force soon, while countries such as Romania and Belgium have introduced tough advertising restrictions this year.
Although there have been more frequent public questions about the prospect of legalising online casinos in France over the past 12 months, there has been no meaningful movement at the legislative level.
The EGBA sustainability report covers safer gambling activities undertaken in 2023 by several of the world’s largest gambling operators.
Its findings include that 65 percent of European customers used some form of safety tool at least once in 2023.
Of the customers who are not forced by laws or policies to set deposit limits, 70 percent chose to do so voluntarily, although the report does not detail at what threshold the limits were set on average.
Gambling companies sent 67.6m messages about gambling safely to their customers, an increase of 49 percent over 2022, according to the report, which also states that 65 percent of customers who displayed problematic play either improved or “stabilised” their gambling after seeing a safety message.
The report highlights “significant progress by our members in many areas of safer gambling, particularly in the roll-out of safety tools and their direct interactions with players about their playing behaviour”, said Maarten Haijer, EGBA secretary general.
“Our CEOs also quite rightly flag their concerns about the growing black market in Europe and the risks it poses to players and the progress made in safer gambling,” he said.