Insights

The Bank of Lithuania has ordered an e-money institution (EMI) to tighten its sanctions compliance processes following an investigation, while India has announced that its financial sector was mostly unaffected by last week’s Microsoft outage.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s landmark decision to ban foreign-facing online gambling operations (POGOs) has attracted near-unanimous political support, but leaves questions hanging on enforcement and the fate of the domestic online industry.

The principal owner and chief executive officer of Major League Baseball’s Pittsburgh Pirates believes it is the role of gaming regulators and lawmakers to foster integrity in sports betting because the widespread legalization of wagering has changed the way people interact with the game.

Despite widespread belief in the U.S. gaming industry that internet casino gaming will drive significant revenue growth, efforts to expand the legal market beyond just a few states continue to be blocked over concerns about cannibalizing land-based casino and increasing gambling addiction.

The US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is seeking to reclassify paycheck advance products as consumer loans, while Hong Kong has named Standard Chartered among the first participants in its stablecoin issuance sandbox.

Major banks, fintechs and digital asset firms are watching lawmakers in Hong Kong closely as the financial centre moves towards its first bill to regulate stablecoin issuance.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has announced a full ban on foreign-facing online gambling operations (POGOs).

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.

As the gaming industry waits for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to rule on the legality of unregulated skill-game devices, some lawmakers and casino executives believe it may be too late to implement a total ban on the machines, forcing the industry to find an alternative solution.

Colombia's Coljuegos has continued its strategy of blocking the websites of unauthorised operators, announcing this week that a total of 8,676 sports-betting and online casino websites have been blocked in the country to date.

Global mega-supplier Evolution has acquired table-games provider Galaxy Gaming for around $85m.

​​​​​​​A German court has affirmed the right of the Joint Gambling Authority of the Federal States to ban streaming of online slots games from foreign venues, the regulator has said.

On July 12, 2024, the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) published Policy Statement (PS) 24/3: Faster Payments Scheme (FPS) authorised push payment (APP) scams reimbursement compliance and monitoring. The PS follows the PSR’s April 2024 consultation for all payment services providers (PSPs) in scope of the reimbursement requirement policy to report data and information to Pay.UK, so as to allow it to effectively monitor and manage compliance with the FPS reimbursement rules.

Tether faces renewed allegations of crypto price manipulation, BitMEX is convicted of anti-money laundering failures, and India’s largest crypto exchange is hacked by North Korea.

The American Fintech Council has urged the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to give firms more time to comply with an upcoming rule on buy now, pay later (BNPL) products.

The European supervisory authorities (EBA, EIOPA and ESMA) have released the second batch of policy products under the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), while the Bank of England has warned that high-value payments are being disrupted by a global issue.

A group of Ohio lawmakers has called on the state’s gaming regulator to rescind its decision to prohibit player-specific proposition bets on collegiate athletes, arguing they are no different from professional sports.

A Brazilian consumer survey has revealed that nearly two-thirds of those who participate in online gambling have had their income “compromised” by it. 

The new head of the Dutch gambling regulator wants to tackle illegal gambling, “scale up” the supervision of online operators' duty of care and strengthen international collaboration.

Financial institutions need to act now if they are to meet the January 17, 2025 deadline for the implementation of the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), according to the Dutch Central Bank.