Norwich, United Kingdom, June 15th, 2026, PlayNewswire

NyesteCasino.com, a leading iGaming analysis resource, released its latest industry overview, highlighting a week defined by intensifying regulatory scrutiny alongside continued global market expansion.

From U.S. Senate hearings and a widening circuit split to the localisation of crypto casinos and a surge in World Cup betting activity, iGaming operators have been balancing risk management with aggressive growth strategies.

Over the past week, the global iGaming sector has faced two powerful and often conflicting forces. Regulators across the United States, Europe, Southeast Asia, and South America have tightened rules around prediction markets, sweepstakes casinos, and credit card usage for deposits. At the same time, online gambling platforms, content providers, and policy advisors have accelerated product innovation and executed timely, region-specific sports marketing campaigns.

According to NyesteCasino.com’s team, these developments signal a broader structural transition across the industry—one in which compliance agility is rapidly becoming as critical to success as product quality. Despite increasing regulatory headwinds, the pace of innovation and market demand continues to point toward sustained sector growth.

Prediction Markets: Courtrooms, Congress, and Cross-Border Bans

The week started with a long-awaited US Senate Commerce Subcommittee gathering. The hearing named “No Sure Bets” took place on May 20 under Chair Marsha Blackburn, and Blackburn indicated more sessions were to come. The debate between American Gaming Association CEO Bill Miller and former Congressman Patrick McHenry quickly turned into a clash over the future of prediction markets. While Miller named the sports event contracts as backdoor betting operations bypassing the state licences, tax regulations, and integrity safeguards, McHenry talked on behalf of the Coalition for Prediction Markets and opposed him, stating that the current CFTC supervision is working perfectly.

On 22 May, a panel from the Ninth Circuit rejected the stay requests filed by both Kalshi and Polymarket, refusing to halt state enforcement proceedings in Nevada and Washington, which complicated the legal situation even more. The court ruled that a federal preemption defence under the Commodity Exchange Act cannot, on its own, establish federal jurisdiction. The ongoing disagreement in the appeals court of New Jersey, which had previously upheld a Kalshi injunction, has gained strength with this decision. Moreover, the process leading to a Supreme Court review of state jurisdiction over event contracts has accelerated even more. 

Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs categorised Polymarket as an online gambling site, disregarding its crypto-based structure, and has requested a national ban on the market platform on May 25. The reason for this request was a viral contract regarding whether President Prabowo Subianto would resign before the end of his term in October 2029. The contract generated a trading volume of approximately $46,000. The number of jurisdictions where Polymarket is inaccessible is growing, exceeding 33 around the world now, including India, Brazil, and Singapore, among other new blockers.

State-Level Regulations: An Anti-Sweepstakes Bill from Tennessee

There have also been state-level restrictions in Tennessee on online gambling law. During the same week, Governor Bill Lee signed two vital bills. Senate Bill 2136 made Tennessee the ninth US state banning sweepstake casinos and dual-currency systems completely, which grants the attorney general the power to enforce it. And according to the SB 1992, the second bill signed by the governor, anyone who deliberately influences the outcome of an event whilst holding a prediction market contract will be charged with a Class E felony. It is expected that these bills will guide other state legislatures who are planning similar regulations at the moment.

Europe and Brazil: Tax Proposals, Ad Restrictions, and Credit Bans

The European Parliament held a plenary debate on May 20 on a proposed EU-level gambling levy. Budget Commissioner Piotr Serafin confirmed the Commission is actively assessing the option alongside digital services and crypto-asset levies as part of the next Multiannual Financial Framework. Proponent MEP Victor Negrescu estimated the levy could raise between €2 and €4 billion annually for education, youth, and addiction prevention programmes. Opponents from EPP and ECR blocs raised concerns over subsidiarity, competitiveness, and national tax sovereignty, with any operational package targeted for January 2028.

Belgium’s Kansspelcommissie and the Netherlands Gambling Authority separately issued formal World Cup advertising warnings to licensed operators ahead of the June 11 to July 19 FIFA tournament. France’s ANJ flagged a year-on-year rise of more than 25% in operator marketing budgets as the tournament approaches. Meanwhile, Brazil formalised rules on May 25 to close off Pix Crédito as a deposit method on regulated betting platforms, a move prompted in part by a Folha de São Paulo audit revealing that major banks including Bradesco and Banco do Brasil, were still processing credit transfers into betting accounts as recently as mid-May.

Editorial Perspective

“What this week makes clear is that the iGaming sector is entering a phase where regulatory IQ is as strategically important as product development,” said the editorial team at NyesteCasino.com. “The prediction markets debate alone spans courtrooms, congressional hearings, and international bans and it is far from resolved. Operators who can track and adapt to this multi-jurisdictional complexity while still executing on World Cup campaigns and localisation strategies will be best positioned for the second half of 2026.”

About NyesteCasino.com

NyesteCasino.com is a leading independent iGaming review and analysis platform. The editorial team tracks regulatory developments, operator news, and product releases across global markets to help players and industry professionals navigate the evolving online casino landscape. Users can learn more at nyestecasino.com.

Contact

Author

Anita Haugen

Nyestecasino

[email protected]

Brightstar Lottery PLC announced changes to its senior leadership team as part of its evolution as a standalone pure play lottery business that continues to optimise its operations for future growth.

Renato Ascoli, CEO, Global Lottery, will step down effective June 30, 2026. Over a 20-year career in the lottery and gaming industry at Brightstar, he has held senior leadership roles and led complex teams across global markets.

Effective July 1, 2026, Marco Tasso will be promoted to a new role of Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Global Lottery. Mr. Tasso, currently COO, International and Italy Operations, brings more than 20 years of experience across the company’s B2C and B2B businesses and deep end-to-end knowledge of the lottery ecosystem. In his role, Tasso will have responsibility for all of Brightstar’s global lottery operations, including technology, product development, marketing, sales and product management, supply chain, customer support and field services. He will report directly to Brightstar CEO, Vince Sadusky.

“Renato has made a tremendous impact on our company and the lottery industry. His broad experience across lottery product development, technology and commercial strategy helped us to continuously deliver innovative solutions and services to our lottery customers. I want to thank and congratulate him for his many career accomplishments,” said Marco Sala, Executive Chair of the Board, Brightstar.

“As Renato prepares to step down, I want to thank him for his many years of service and steadfast commitment to our business and people. Having Marco as a part of our senior leadership team supports the company’s vision and strategic goals. As we strengthen our focus on growth, transformation and operational execution, Marco’s insights and experience will help shape the lottery operating organization and optimize it to deliver results,” said Vince Sadusky, CEO of Brightstar.

Executive Biography

Marco Tasso is a seasoned professional with more than two decades of experience in senior leadership roles across lottery management, global supply chains, strategy, product development, retail execution and consulting in both Europe and the US. He has held various senior leadership roles at Brightstar and its predecessor company, IGT, including his current position of COO, International and Italy Operations; SVP of Global Supply Chain and Services; and SVP of Global Lottery Marketing.

Marco also previously served as CEO of Northstar Lottery Group, where he managed the first-ever private lottery management contract for the Illinois Lottery, and he later oversaw similar private manager agreements in Indiana and New Jersey. Before that, Marco held leadership positions at Lottomatica, where he managed different business units including instant lotteries, lotto, and commercial services.

Earlier in his career, Marco consulted in roles at Bain and Company and Ernst & Young Consultants, where he developed a specialisation in strategic planning, production and cost-saving initiatives. In this capacity, he worked with prestigious clients such as Telecom Italia, Fiat and Bridgepoint Capital.

Marco graduated Cum Laude with a degree in mathematics from the Università degli Studi in Messina, Italy and received an MBA with Distinction from CUOA in Vicenza, Italy.

The post Brightstar Lottery Announces Changes to Lottery Operations Leadership appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

MEXC, a pioneer in 0-fee digital asset trading, has officially launched Combo, a new feature within its prediction markets ecosystem, in partnership with its collaborators. This marks the first time a centralised platform has introduced multi-event combination trading capabilities to prediction markets globally, through its partner.

As prediction markets gradually evolve from single-event trading toward multi-event combination trading, user demand for combined predictions has grown rapidly. However, leading prediction market platforms today still primarily offer isolated event trading, limiting a user’s capacity to express structural views. The Combo bridges this gap, bringing advanced combination logic to the centralised prediction market vertical.

Consolidating Comprehensive Market Views into One Order

Users holding clear predictions across multiple events normally need separate positions. The Combo lets them consolidate these into a single order, expressing a fuller market view with less capital and simpler position management.

Using the World Cup as an example, a user could make the following calls within a single order:

• Brazil draws with Spain

• France defeats England

• Bitcoin breaks $70,000 on the day

Multiple predictions are combined into a single order, forming a more complete expression of views on both sports events and market trends.

20 predictions to freely build your combo view

A single order supports up to 20 predictions, providing users with ample space for combinations. Currently, sports and select crypto categories are supported as combo predictions, allowing users to freely link selections across events, timeframes and outcome conditions to build personalised combo views. MEXC, through its partner, will continue to expand available market categories, further broadening the use cases for Combo.

Verifiable Pricing, Clear Rules

The Combo maintains full verifiable from pricing through settlement, ensuring users have complete clarity on every prediction. Full cost and combo pricing are visible before order placement. The system automatically filters out logically contradictory selection combinations. If pricing changes, users receive an immediate confirmation prompt. When all predictions align with the actual outcomes, users receive the settlement payout corresponding to the combo price. If any single prediction does not align with the actual outcome, the combo order yields no payout. This mechanism enables high-conviction quality views to receive reasonable value-based returns while keeping rules and outcomes verifiable.

MEXC CEO Vugar Usi said: “In markets, as in life, nothing happens in isolation. One event ripples into the next. Single-event trading never reflected that reality. Combo does. For the first time, a centralized prediction market lets traders express combination views across non mutually-exclusive events. We are not upgrading a product. We are advancing a category. MEXC intends to lead it.”

The post MEXC Prediction Markets Launches Combo to Enable Multi-Event Combination Trading appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.