Compliance Updates
Regulatory action against EU Lotto
A gambling business must pay a £760,000 fine and undergo extensive independent auditing after a Commission investigation revealed social responsibility and money laundering failures.
EU Lotto – which operates the lottoland.co.uk website – has also received a formal warning for the failures which occurred between October 2019 and November 2020.
Social responsibility requirement failures included neglecting to take into account the Commission’s formal customer interaction guidance.
Examples included:
- customers frequently changing deposit limits not being considered as markers of harm
- no evidence of suitable financial and affordability assessments being conducted to identify whether a customer was being harmed or at risk of harm
- customer interactions predominately consisted of an email detailing the responsible gambling tools available and did not require a customer response – there was little evidence of interactions being adapted depending on the extent of potential harm.
Anti-money laundering failures included:
- not effectively reviewing or analysing bank statements provided by customers to prove address
- not restricting customer accounts following source of funds (SoF) requests
- allowing customers to register third-party debit cards (such as those in a different name to the customer) to their account
- relying too heavily on ineffective threshold triggers and generally lacking information regarding how much a customer should be allowed to spend based on income, wealth or any other risk factors.
Helen Venn, Commission Executive Director, said: “This case, like other recent enforcement action, was the result of planned compliance activity. All operators should be very aware that we will not hesitate to take firm action against those who fail to meet the high standards we expect for consumers in Britain.”
Read EU Lotto’s full penalty on the Commission’s regulatory sanctions register.
Nigel Birrell, CEO of Lottoland commented: “Lottoland is fully committed to ensuring the highest standards of compliance, including its anti-money laundering and social responsibility obligations in all of the jurisdictions in which it operates. The Gambling Commission fine was related to legacy issues around some of our compliance controls which have now been addressed. Lottoland has extensive compliance measures in place and we are confident that our current policies and processes meet all relevant standards.
Remedial action taken included significantly increased investment in our compliance function, more than doubling headcount, alongside a host of other initiatives including bringing in third party support, enhancing training and a review of key policies. In addition, we recently committed to building our individual processes into an automated system to improve the system even further. “
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YouTube has announced a crackdown on gambling-related content, tightening its policies to limit exposure to unapproved betting services. Under the new rules, which won’t go into effect until later this month, creators will be prohibited from verbally mentioning gambling platforms that aren’t approved by Google and displaying their logos or linking to their sites in videos.
It certainly appears that YouTube intends to be stricter with its new guidelines, which will take effect on March 19.
While YouTube’s announcement didn’t single out specific gambling platforms like Stake in the announcement, this policy only furthers Google’s crackdown approach to better online promotions. If you find yourself on the platform’s support page and venture into the help center, Google notes that it only allows links to gambling ads that “meet local legal requirements.” And if you want to link to or promote an online gambling site, the domain has to be certified by Google Ads or reviewed by YouTube.
Another part of YouTube’s announcement is that the platform will introduce stricter age restrictions on gambling-related videos. So, viewers under 18 or those not signed into YouTube will not be able to access the videos.
The post YouTube Plans Crackdown on Gambling-related Content appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
The Netherlands’ gambling authority, Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), has addressed an online gambling provider on the use of gaming software with an option for autoplay. Offering autoplay is not permitted in the Netherlands.
With autoplay, a player can automatically continue playing after each bet without having to do anything. Because this option can lead to addiction, the use of autoplay is prohibited in the Netherlands. The KSA received a signal that a player at an online roulette table could automatically continue playing with the previous bet after winning; it was not removed from the table. After investigating the signal, the KSA concluded that this was indeed autoplay. The provider was then given a formal notice to immediately stop the violation and keep it stopped. The game must also be re-inspected before it can be put back into use, in order to exclude autoplay.
Because gambling providers use software supplied by third parties, there is a chance that other providers use the same software. The KSA has therefore sent a letter to all providers to draw attention to the ban on autoplay. The KSA emphasises that it is the provider’s responsibility to check software supplied by third parties for possible prohibited offers or game functions.
The post Dutch Gambling Authority Cracks Down on Online Gambling Autoplay Feature appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
Hungarian Minister of National Economy Márton Nagy appointed Zoltán Guller, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Hungarian Tourism Agency, as of March 5, 2025, as the Chairman and CEO of Szerencsejáték Zrt., which will be under the ownership of the Ministry of National Economy from February 26, 2025.
The outgoing Chairman and CEO Andrea Mager will become a member of the Monetary Council of the Hungarian National Bank.
Zoltán Guller has been the CEO and then Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Hungarian Tourism Agency since 2016. He will hold the management position of Szerencsejáték Zrt. while retaining his current positions.
Márton Nagy also expressed his gratitude to Andrea Mager for her conscientious work in recent years and wished her much success in her future professional challenges.
Andrea Mager has been at the helm of Szerencsejáték Zrt. since June 15, 2022, and during the period the company has strengthened its market position and achieved revenue peaks.
The post Dr. Zoltán Guller Becomes the New Chairman and CEO of Szerencsejáték Zrt. appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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