Gambling Insider's Weekly Rundown
By Gambling Insider
Rule, Britannia!
New rules and voluntary checks have been established by the Gambling Commission (GC) and Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) in the UK, designed to implement further financial safety measures for players. The rules come in the wake of the UK Government’s White Paper.
Rules from the GC include new light-touch financial vulnerability checks to those exceeding a certain monthly net deposit and the development of frictionless financial risk assessments that utilise data from banks and gambling companies. Both of these measures have yet to go live and are currently being piloted.
Voluntary checks from the BCG include enhanced risk assessment of those meeting certain monthly or yearly rolling deposits and enhanced vulnerability checks from operators.
Mind the gap
Also in the UK, 888 has removed a set of advertisements from London’s public transport network (TfL) after receiving negative feedback. The adverts, which stated that the mode of transport was ‘now a casino’ were seen as false statements and inappropriate given the use of the network by children, according to members of the public and National Expert Advisor on Gambling Harms Henrietta Bowden-Jones alike.
888 have stated, however, that it was not told by TfL to remove the ads and that their removal was done based on the feedback received.
Gambling Insider instantly warned of the inflammatory nature of the adverts before it was agreed they would be taken down.
PAGCOR makes a pretty penny
PAGCOR reported an income of PHP 25.24bn ($437.7m) in Q1 2024, up 42.6% year-on-year – something Chairman and CEO Alejandro H. Tengco believes puts the regulator in line for an annual income of PHP 100bn+ in 2024. These results also outperformed those reported in 2019, pre-Covid.
On this, PHP 22.29bn was generated from gaming operations, with online gaming contributing PHP 9.69bn, followed by licensed casinos, which made PHP 8.04bn. PAGCOR’s own casinos, run under the Casino Filipino brand, made PHP 3.7bn - a decline from this time last year.
Alongside this, net operating income after expenses grew 54.2% to PHP 18.99bn.
Welkom, BetMGM
BetMGM is set to make its debut in the Netherlands, following the success seen in the UK since its launch there in August. Dutch players will gain access to BetMGM’s iGaming and online sportsbook products, with some new products available that have been designed for the Dutch market. These include large-scale jackpots, loyalty rewards and exclusive slot games among other promotions and features.
On the launch, President of MGM Resorts International Interactive Gary Fritz said: “The Dutch market offers an exciting opportunity and will be an important part of our international expansion efforts and strategy to become a global gaming leader."
Crown Resorts takes another hit
Local news sources have reported that Crown Resorts has cut over 1,000 jobs across locations in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney, with the latter two most significantly affected. Crown Resorts has pointed to Australia’s currently weak gambling economy for the reason for the cuts, however, in the past year the operator has found itself in several controversies, having paid over AU $450m (US $294m) in penalties and fines for AML failures and faulty business practices among other offenses.
"We are committed to our regulatory obligations and ongoing transformation,” said Crown Resorts CEO Ciaran Carruthers, who pointed to declining foreign tourism and a decline in local city centre workers as reasons for the decision.orations across eight provinces in Canada have formed a coalition to oppose sports betting advertising in provinces with non-regulated iGaming. Canadian Lottery Coalition spokesperson Noëlle Savoie called it “a fight with people that are operating illegally in our provinces,” echoed by public survey results taken by Maru Public Opinion on sports betting ads in Canada.
59% of those surveyed were shown to be in favour of banning sports wagering ads nationwide, with 75% voicing concerns for the safety of young people in relation to sports betting marketing. 62% also said that they felt operators were “not acting responsibly with their ads and marketing.”