Compliance Updates
Betting and Gaming Council Launches First International Best Practice Guide
Standards body The Betting and Gaming Council has launched its first International Best Practice Guide, a vital new resource for online gaming operators and policymakers around the world.
The guide, commissioned by the BGC and compiled by leading professional services firm Alvarez and Marsal (A&M), sets out core objectives for policymakers, and the different approaches jurisdictions take to achieve them.
Drawing on lessons from around the world, it then highlights the benefits and disadvantages of those varying regulatory choices.
Over the last two decades the online sector has grown significantly, with just a handful of jurisdictions operating online gaming in 1994, to over 100 now.
While different policymakers take different approaches, this guide sets out the key policy objectives common to all regulators:
• High Channelisation: Ensuring that as much gaming as possible takes place in the regulated market.
• Consumer Protection: Including by protecting young people and the vulnerable through robust safer gambling measures.
• Preserving Consumer Choice: By maintaining competition.
• Keeping Gambling Crime Free: Including by ensuring sporting integrity.
• Raising Tax Revenue: Ensuring operators invest in the markets they operate in.
For the first time, this guide offers a single body of evidence to critically compare the wide variation in regulatory approaches to help inform decision making for policymakers.
The failure to balance the correct regulations can give rise to the growing, unsafe gambling black market, undermining policymaker’s objectives.
A recent separate study commissioned by the BGC revealed 1.5m people in the UK stake up to £4.3bn on the illegal gambling black market each year.
The BGC hope the document will provide a vital resource for policymakers in developing markets, as well as those revisiting existing regulations.
BGC CEO Grainne Hurst said: “For the first time, the BGC has brought together the lessons, both positive and negative, which have been learned by operators and regulators around the world when it comes to the online gaming sector.
“This sector will no doubt continue to grow internationally, offering huge potential benefits to existing markets and those which are currently developing.
“Through effective regulation of this new growth sector, governments can achieve their core priorities of raising tax, boosting growth and jobs, while delivering high standards for player protection.
“In the UK, we have seen that firsthand, where balanced regulations have created a sector which raises billions in tax and investment in the economy, while supporting tens of thousands of jobs.
“But the risk posed by the wrong regulatory balance can undermine that good work, and give a foothold to the growing unsafe, illegal gambling black market, which is an ever-present threat in the UK.
“We are proud that BGC members are now a genuine global success story and a Great British export – that is the prize when the right regulatory foundations deliver sustainable success.
“If you are a policymaker navigating this new growth sector, or an operator seeking to broaden your international footprint, then this guide is for you.”
Pierre Tournier, BGC International Director, added: “The online gaming market is a complex landscape involving a huge range of potential regulatory choices and outcomes.
“But for too long there has been a crucial evidence gap when those choices are considered by policymakers. Our ambition for this new guide is that it finally offers a solution to that problem.
“Drawing on the lessons from around the world, operators and policymakers, can take a global view of the pitfalls and benefits of different approaches, and make better policy decisions as a result.”
Adam Rivers, A&M’s head of Betting and Gaming in EMEA, said: “A&M are proud to have worked with the BGC on this important project which provides a new reference point and assessment of gambling regulation globally.
“Effective regulation plays an important role in ensuring the safe and effective functioning of gambling markets, supporting positive outcomes for regulators, operators and consumers.”
A&M’s Betting and Gaming practice consists of professionals acting across strategy, analytics, operational compliance, transformation, technology, M&A and tax.
The post Betting and Gaming Council Launches First International Best Practice Guide appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
The Ukrainian gambling regulator, PlayCity, has rolled out a new digital complaints platform that’s intended to streamline how the public can report illegal gambling advertisements. The complaints form is now live in the “For Citizens” section of PlayCity’s website, giving Ukrainian citizens a direct channel to help monitor and curb illegal gambling advertising.
The system enables citizens to flag suspected violations across multiple formats, including social media, websites, television, radio, outdoor billboards and other public spaces. Users submitting a complaint must identify the platform type, provide a direct link to the advertisement and attach supporting evidence such as screenshots or video clips.
The system is designed to automatically archive submissions and capture ephemeral content like social media “stories” so regulators can review material even after it disappears. PlayCity staff will screen each complaint to assess whether the content breaches Ukraine’s advertising rules.
If violations are confirmed, the regulator can request removal of content from platforms such as Meta, Google, TikTok, YouTube, Viber and Twitch. PlayCity said it could also seek to block social media accounts that repeatedly share unlawful gambling promotions, fine responsible parties or escalate cases to law enforcement when identities cannot be verified.
The statutory fine for illegal gambling advertising stands at cca. €100,900.
The new enforcement framework stems from Law No.9526d, the same legislation that abolished the previous gambling regulator KRAIL.
The post Ukrainian Gambling Regulator Rolls Out Digital Complaints Platform appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
Armenian Parliamentary Committee on Economic Affairs
Armenia to Implement Strictest Gambling Regulations to Combat a Massive Surge in Addiction
At its meeting on last Wednesday, the Armenian Parliamentary Committee on Economic Affairs postponed the first reading of amendments to the Law “On Regulation of Gambling Activities” and several related laws until the next meeting for further revision.
Hayk Sargsyan, the author of the legislative initiative and a member of parliament from the ruling Civil Contract faction, stated that the volume of online casino bets in Armenia has increased more than 35-fold over the past eight years.
“While in 2017, the volume of online casino bets was 0.2 trillion drams, in 2025, it will increase more than 35-fold, reaching 7.4 trillion drams. Online casinos have become a scourge and a plague for our people,” Sargsyan said.
According to him, hundreds of thousands of citizens are wasting their money on gambling addiction. Regardless of their location, they have 24/7 access to online casinos and are unable to break their addiction.
“In an attempt to recoup their money, citizens are accumulating debts and loans, thereby further worsening an already critical situation. Under the current circumstances, the National Assembly is obliged to take preventive measures aimed at maximally restricting participation in online casinos for individuals who no longer want to gamble but are unable to overcome their addiction, as well as those in dire social situations or those using government support programs,” Sargsyan said.
The bill proposes establishing a mandatory requirement: all online casinos must place a publicly accessible self-blocking button on their websites and apps.
“After clicking this button, playing at online casinos will be prohibited for a period of five years, with no possibility of early reinstatement. After this period, the ban is automatically extended for another five years unless the citizen submits an application to lift the restriction five days before its expiration. Information about the self-ban will be communicated to the gaming operator. Activity in other online casinos and gaming platforms will also be suspended,” Sargsyan said.
He also stated the need to prohibit participation in online gaming for recipients of social benefits, individuals whose primary source of income is a pension, individuals in bankruptcy proceedings and participants in subsidy programmes implemented with funding or co-financing from the state budget. Furthermore, it is proposed to set a limit on participation in online gaming at 20% of annually declared income.
Government representatives approved amendments that are planned to come into effect on January 1, 2027, following the introduction of the gaming operator institution, which will likely be selected mid-year and implemented as soon as possible.
The post Armenia to Implement Strictest Gambling Regulations to Combat a Massive Surge in Addiction appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced that it is suing Kalshi, Robinhood, Coinbase, Polymarket, Crypto.com, and their affiliates, to halt their alleged facilitation of illegal sports betting, a form of unlawful commercial gambling, in Wisconsin.
“Thinly disguising unlawful conduct doesn’t make it lawful. These companies’ alleged facilitation of sports betting in Wisconsin should be shut down,” said AG Kaul.
Except in limited circumstances, sports betting and other forms of commercial gambling have long been illegal in Wisconsin. Yet, as alleged in these lawsuits, the defendant companies have chosen to flout Wisconsin law through disguising the sports betting they facilitate on their online platforms as “event contracts,” which pay out just like ordinary bets based on the odds of sports-related outcomes.
The complaints further allege that the companies collect a fee for every bet made, meaning they generate revenue from Wisconsinites by violating the state’s gambling laws. Kalshi, as one example, reportedly generates more than $1 billion in annual revenue from its sports contracts, representing around 90% of its total estimated annualized revenue.
As the complaints allege, by making money from the sports bets they facilitate, these companies are engaging in unlawful gambling activity.
Wisconsin DOJ’s lawsuits, filed on last Thursday in Dane County, request a declaration that, by making sports-related event contracts available for trading by customers located in Wisconsin, the defendant companies are violating Wis. Stat.§945.03(1m) and thereby creating a public nuisance. The lawsuits additionally request preliminary and permanent injunctions enjoining and restraining the defendant companies from making sports-related event contracts available for trading by customers located in Wisconsin.
The post Wisconsin DOJ Sues to Stop Alleged Illegal Sports Betting Operations in Wisconsin appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.
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