Compliance Updates
KSA: Spring 2025 Monitoring Report Shows Positive Effect of Responsible Gaming Policy
The measures introduced in October to protect players have had a positive effect: players are losing fewer large amounts and the percentage of extreme losses has fallen sharply. This is evident from the latest monitoring report from the Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA). The figures also show that the majority of Dutch players still play with legal providers. However, the amount of money circulating in the illegal market has increased.
The gross gaming result (GSR, stakes minus prizes paid out) for the whole of 2024 is 1.47 billion euros. This is a growth of 6% compared to 2023, when the GSR amounted to 1.39 billion. In the second half of 2024, the GSR was 10% lower than in the first half of the year. This could be due on the one hand to a peak during the European Football Championship in June, but also to the introduction of new rules to better protect players, which also include a deposit limit.
Young adults
Young adults (18 to 23 years old) receive extra attention in the monitoring report, because they are a vulnerable target group. Together, they lost 11% of the BSR in the second half of 2024, while they make up 9% of the adult population. They do spend less money on average; they lose an average of €48 per month, compared to €148 for 24+ players. It is striking that young adults gamble relatively more on sports events than older age groups; of the money they spend, 29% goes to sports betting, while for other players this is 22%.
Number of players and accounts
In the last six months, an average of 1.19 million accounts were played per month. This is a slight increase compared to half a year earlier, when there were 1.1 million. In the last quarter, the number of new accounts increased; this could be due to the new measures for safe gaming. A player can have multiple accounts, so the number of accounts is not equal to the number of people gambling. An estimated 788 thousand players were active with legal providers in the last six months, 5.4% of the adult population. Six months earlier, this was 5.5%, so the number of players is stable.
Loss
The average player aged 24 and over lost €148 per month on gambling in the second half of 2024. That is lower than the first six months, when it was €160. Although players have been playing with more accounts since the introduction of the responsible gaming policy, the average loss is lower than before the introduction. The number of accounts with extreme losses has also fallen sharply. Before October 2024, 4% of accounts lost more than €1000 per month, after October that is only 1.2%. Before October 1, 2024, 73% of the BSR came from players with losses of more than 1000 euros. After the introduction of the rules, this percentage has dropped to 23%. This means that providers generate less income from player accounts with large losses.
Canalization
The monitoring report shows that the channelling in terms of players and the channelling in terms of money differ greatly. Of all people who gamble online, the vast majority (91%) do so with legal providers. On the illegal market, significantly more money is spent: of the total amount that Dutch people spend on gambling, 50% is spent with illegal parties.
Problem gamblers
There are no hard figures on the total number of people with a gambling addiction in the Netherlands. There are figures on the number of people who are being treated for a gambling addiction. In 2023, 2456 people were treated. At the time of publication of this report, there was no update of that figure. The total number of players who have excluded themselves from risky gambling with a Gokstop with a registration in the Cruks register was 87,345 people in January 2025. Half of them are under 32 years of age. Of the total number of Cruks registrations, 16% are young adults.
Source: kansspelautoriteit.nl
The post KSA: Spring 2025 Monitoring Report Shows Positive Effect of Responsible Gaming Policy appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
Australia
Former Star Entertainment Executives Mathias Bekier and Paula Martin Disqualified and Ordered to Pay Penalties
The Australian Federal Court has disqualified former Star Entertainment Group Limited executives Mathias Bekier and Paula Martin from managing corporations for six and seven years respectively and ordered them to pay pecuniary penalties for breaching their duties by failing to properly manage serious risks at one of Australia’s major casinos.
The Court ordered:
Mr Bekier, the former Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, to pay a pecuniary penalty of $700,000 and disqualified him from managing corporations for six years.
Ms Martin, the former General Counsel, Company Secretary, and Chief Legal and Risk Officer, to pay a pecuniary penalty of $400,000 and disqualified her from managing corporations for seven years.
His Honour also ordered that Mr Bekier and Ms Martin pay 45% of ASIC’s costs of the proceeding.
The Court previously found that both Mr Bekier and Ms Martin breached their duties owed to Star Entertainment in relation to their handling of the risks associated with money laundering and criminal activity.
ASIC Chair Sarah Court said: “senior executives have a critical responsibility to identify, escalate and properly manage serious risks within their organisations.
“These failures occurred in a highly regulated environment and contributed to significant governance breakdowns at Star.
“Penalties of this scale reflect the seriousness of their conduct and send a strong message to other senior executives of listed companies that failures of this type are unacceptable.”
ASIC has an enduring enforcement priority focused on governance and directors’ duties failures.
In relation to Mr Bekier, His Honour Justice Lee said:
“Senior executives of casino operators, and public companies conducting enterprises pregnant with risks more broadly, must understand that failures of the kind established by the contraventions may attract substantial personal consequences.”
Further, in respect of Ms Martin he found that “the community is entitled to expect that a solicitor occupying such positions and having such responsibilities, within one of Australia’s largest casino operators, will display professional independence, accuracy and judgment of a high order. The conduct established … represented a very serious departure from those standards” and that
“Ms Martin knew of a miscellany of alarming information pertaining to [an overseas gambling junket] … She was required to report such matters to the Board but failed to do so. This is all the more concerning when considered against the backdrop of Ms Martin being the most senior solicitor employed by Star”; and that
“The more pervasive the failures of governance and culture become, the greater the obligation upon those entrusted with legal and risk responsibilities to insist upon compliance with legal obligations and proper standards of corporate conduct.”
The post Former Star Entertainment Executives Mathias Bekier and Paula Martin Disqualified and Ordered to Pay Penalties appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
Compliance Updates
Kentucky AG Files Lawsuits Against Companies Allegedly Operating Illegal Betting, Gambling Platforms
Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman announced on Wednesday that his office has filed separate lawsuits against three online platforms he claims are operating without licenses and engaging in illegal sports betting and gambling.
The lawsuits were filed in Franklin Circuit Court against:
Kalshi, a prediction market platform, and its affiliates including Coinbase;
Polymarket, a prediction market platform, and its affiliates; and
VGW, an online casino platform with brands including Chumba Casino, Global Poker, and LuckyLand Slots.
The suits against Kalshi and Polymarket allege that they allow users to place wagers on game winners, point spreads and player statistics, and that they are doing business in Kentucky without a gaming license or following state regulations.
The suit against Kalshi states that it offers so-called “event contracts” on several topics; sports betting made up approximately 70% of its trading volume during a selected sample period in 2025.
The Polymarket suit states that the platform’s flashy advertisements on social media and elsewhere give the false and misleading impression that it is authorized to offer sports wagering under Kentucky law. The platform offers many of the same traditional sports bets as a licensed sportsbook.
“Kalshi and Polymarket are operating illegal sportsbooks in Kentucky and breaking our laws. These multi-billion dollar corporations and their legal fictions don’t pass the sniff test. As one of our state legislative leaders said it best, ‘If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck’,” said Coleman on the suits.
The suits also allege that each company offers few or no resources to identify or seek help for a gambling problem.
The suit against VGW and its affiliates states that they allegedly operate unlawful sweepstakes casino websites that use two different types of virtual gambling chips.
The games on websites are designed to look and feel like slot machines and blackjack.
The alleged online casinos offer two types of chips: one free and one with cash value.
According to the suit, users pay real money for so-called Sweeps Coins, just as gamblers pay for poker chips at a real casino, or they can cash out their winnings.
“This company may use new technology and a new scheme to hide, but the reality is the same,” Coleman said on the suit. “Our Office has a duty to stop illegal gambling in Kentucky regardless of how it’s packaged.”
In recent months, Coleman has joined in national bipartisan efforts to regulate prediction markets.
The post Kentucky AG Files Lawsuits Against Companies Allegedly Operating Illegal Betting, Gambling Platforms appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.
Approval positions the supplier to distribute certified titles to licensed operators under Switzerland’s Federal Gambling Act.
PopOK Gaming has secured game certification for Switzerland’s regulated iGaming market, clearing the supplier to offer its online casino portfolio to licensed Swiss operators.
The company said the approval was granted under the Swiss Federal Gambling Act (Geldspielgesetz), which sets requirements around game fairness, security, and player protection. PopOK Gaming said it passed the necessary evaluations to meet local technical and regulatory standards.
According to PopOK Gaming, Swiss operators will be able to integrate an initial line-up including “high-volatility slots, unique artistic games, and instant games,” alongside mechanics such as animations and gamification features.
PopOK Gaming said the Swiss certification supports its broader European expansion strategy and that it is open to partnership discussions with licensed operators in the market.
The post PopOK Gaming secures Swiss certification to supply online casino games appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
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