Insights

A Senate committee has held its second hearing in less than a week on the contentious issue of whether or not to regulate and tax thousands of grey-market machines, or so-called “skill games,” found in convenience stores and bars in Pennsylvania.

A Malta-based fantasy sports company, Zweeler, said it has stopped offering its product in the Netherlands after it was threatened with a fine of up to €850,000 by the Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA) for not having a sports-betting licence.

A key committee in Chile’s Chamber of Deputies has rejected proposed language that would have allowed current offshore grey-market operators to avoid a blackout period before applying for a licence when the market is regulated.

This regulatory analysis will compare the key provisions of the European Union’s (EU) Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) with Hong Kong’s guidelines on virtual asset operators, which were both released within ten days of each other in June 2023. It will delve into the history of both regulatory regimes and compare provisions relating to the licensing of crypto-trading platforms — namely onboarding clients, onboarding assets and safeguarding of funds requirements. This comparison will show that crypto regulations across borders have largely taken similar forms, suggesting a possible consensus of concerns among regulators.

France’s central bank governor has confirmed that Eurosystem plans for a wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) are due within weeks, in the face of controversy regarding the digital euro.

The Payment Systems Regulator has confirmed that it will not publish its card fee review by the end of Q3 2023, and announced a new consultation on its governance.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will continue to allow card issuers to set a default network on co-badged debit cards and has committed to developing standards on tokenisation.

US reveals growing momentum in FedNow participation, Visa pledges $100m to generative AI ventures, and Apple allows iPhone users to add PayPal or Venmo credit and debit cards to their Apple Wallet.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board is poised to begin unveiling three categories of regulatory reforms next month to expedite the approval of new gaming products even though the board’s chairman describes one group of reforms as “half-baked.”

New York regulators have adopted new rules that will prohibit the state’s licensed fantasy sports operators from offering “pick ’em” style contests that resemble parlay-style betting.

Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu has pledged to move ahead with planned changes to the country’s gambling laws, despite claiming he has received threats from members of the gambling industry. 

The payments industry is grappling with the question of point of sale (POS) contingency plans following an outage at Square, with stakeholders sizing up the need for backup systems and processors.

HM Treasury has vowed to strengthen customer protections for payment account closures before the year-end, following controversial high-profile account closures involving former politician Nigel Farage.

Discover has settled with a US regulator following a consumer protection investigation, and the Bank of Lithuania has revoked the licence of another electronic money institution (EMI).

Legal identities are calling for online gambling regulation or legal clarity in Bangladesh as financial authorities probe hundreds more websites and crackdown against thousands of users of mobile financial services.

The prevalence of high-risk problem gambling may have decreased slightly in New Jersey over the last five years, but researchers believe their findings from a recent survey underscore the increased risk associated with more legal forms of wagering available in the state.

Greece’s competition commission has handed down a blistering fine of €24.6m to Greek gambling giant OPAP for leveraging its exclusivity over certain gambling products to restrict competition in other service areas.

Belgium’s Council of Ministers has approved a preliminary draft law aimed at modernising the country’s gambling law and bringing it into compliance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation.

A group of EU regulators has published consultation responses on key definitions that will soon be added to major legislation concerning digital resilience and crypto-assets.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) has published another series of Q&As, with further clarifications on strong customer authentication (SCA) and other rules.