Latest News
New research shows a quarter of all students who gamble may be experiencing harm
One in four students who gamble may be experiencing harm and one in two say that gambling has affected their university experience, new research has found.
The survey of 2,000 students across the UK revealed that 71% had gambled in the last 12 months. Amongst those students who had gambled in the previous year, 28% were found to be at ‘moderate risk’ and 24% had behaviour categorised as ‘problem gambling’.
The independent research carried out by Censuswide is a follow up to last year’s survey commissioned by education charity Ygam and GAMSTOP, the national online self-exclusion service.
This year the survey included the Short-form PGSI – a widely used measure of ‘problem gambling’ in the UK population – which enabled the researchers to understand the level of risk experienced by students in the sample.
Half of all respondents reported that gambling had impacted their university experience, with 13% having trouble paying for food, 10% missing lectures and tutorials, 10% saying gambling affected their assignments and grades, and 9% struggling to pay bills or for accommodation. Despite this, 45% of those who gamble were unaware of the support available to them from their universities.
Almost one in two students who gamble (48%) say they gamble to make money, but only 11% report winning money in an average week. One in three say they spend £11-£20 per week on gambling; nearly one in four (23%) spend £21-£50; and 13% spend £51-£100. 4.5%, say they gamble because they are unable to stop.
Along with savings and their own earnings, some students are borrowing money to fund their gambling, with 8% borrowing from family and friends and 6% using payday loans.
More than 40% of students have bought cryptocurrency in the last year, which is much higher than the figure for the overall population. This is perhaps not surprising given the age profile of the student population, but in a year when cryptocurrency prices plunged this may have impacted the overall financial wellbeing of this group.
The full report has been published today and includes the results of questions asked both to respondents who had gambled in the last 12 months as well as those who had not. The questions to the latter group were rephrased to further understand their view on gambling behaviour and attitudes amongst their friends.
The report makes three key recommendations:
- Invest in universal prevention education in schools to help prepare young people to be resilient to the risks related to gambling before their transition to university.
- Gambling harms to be considered as part of every university’s health and wellbeing strategy.
- Further research to be conducted to better understand the experiences of students who gamble and how harms can be better prevented.
Dr Jane Rigbye, Chief Executive Officer at Ygam said:
“These findings give us insight into the attitudes and behaviours of students towards gambling. Building on the data published last year, we can now see that not only are a large percentage of the student population gambling on a regular basis, many of them are doing so in a way that may cause them to experience harm.
“The data further emphasises the importance of educating our young people on the risks associated with gambling. We’re working with our partners to tour university campuses across the UK to speak to students, deliver specialist training to university staff and to raise awareness. It is crucial that universities engage and take this issue seriously. We aim to work closely with many more universities to ensure they can help prevent the harms and support their students when they need it.”
Bray Ash, 29, who spent many years battling a gambling addiction as a student and is now studying to become a Mental Health nurse, said:
“For many, the research commissioned by GAMSTOP & Ygam will come as a surprise. However, for me it’s a reminder of the seriousness and proximity to gambling addiction that students face on a daily basis. During my time at university, I dealt with a severe gambling addiction that saw me confined to my room for days at a time. I spent my time in my room, alone and isolated, gambling day and night. I only left my room to buy food and on the odd occasion, I would see a friend.
“Propped up by the money from my student loan, I was able to fall into a gambling addiction that spiralled out of control until one day I managed to work up the courage to talk to my friends and family about it and get myself into rehab. At the time when I was first going through university, resources like GAMSTOP weren’t around. Now that they are and they are helping thousands of students, it’s always one of my first recommendations to anyone who feels that they might be experiencing gambling harms.”
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Latest News
Infingame expands campaign management for operators with fully customizable engagement tools
Infingame, a leading gaming aggregator, is enabling iGaming operators to take a more controlled and flexible approach to promotional campaigns through its Challenges and Tournaments tools, built to support fully customizable campaign design, execution, and optimization.
As operators increasingly move away from rigid promotional formats, the ability to configure campaigns around specific business goals and adjust them in real time has become a key differentiator. Infingame’s engagement tools are designed to give operators that level of control across the entire campaign lifecycle.
Both Challenges and Tournaments allow operators to define campaigns with a high degree of precision, adapting mechanics to match different engagement strategies.
In Tournaments, operators can choose from multiple mechanics, including multiplier races, win races, bet races, highest win, and highest multiplier formats. This makes it possible to tailor campaigns to different player behaviors and monetization goals.
Challenges, in turn, offer mission-based engagement using mechanics such as spins and winning spins, where players earn points based on activity. These formats are particularly suited for retention and progression-driven campaigns.
Across both tools, operators can configure:
- participation rules and minimum bet conditions
- eligible games (from 16,000+ titles across 150+ providers)
- campaign duration and timing
- reward structures, including cash, free spins, and non-monetary prizes
This level of flexibility allows campaigns to be built around specific segments, markets, or player behaviors, rather than relying on one-size-fits-all mechanics.
A core feature of Infingame’s tools is the ability to monitor and manage campaigns while they are live.
Operators have access to real-time performance data, including player participation and progression, supported by in-game elements such as progress bars, leaderboards, and campaign dashboards.
This visibility allows teams to quickly identify trends and make adjustments without stopping the campaign.
The tools also include configurable engagement features that help operators shape player behavior during campaigns.
For example, the Happy Hours functionality in tournaments allows operators to apply score multipliers during specific time windows, encouraging activity during peak or strategic periods.
Visual elements such as customizable banners and branded pop-ups further support campaign differentiation, allowing operators to maintain a consistent brand experience throughout the player journey.
Campaign execution is supported by automation features that reduce manual workload and improve operational efficiency.
For instance, tournament payouts can be processed automatically or with a single action, eliminating the need for manual prize distribution. Operators can also control how different types of bets are treated within campaign logic, ensuring full alignment with promotional rules.
With all campaign data consolidated within the platform, operators can evaluate performance across different formats and iterate quickly.
Jana Filagina, Head of Commercial at Infingame, comments: “Operators today want more than ready-made promotions. They want full control over how campaigns are built and how they perform. With Challenges and Tournaments, they can configure every element, monitor results in real time, and adjust campaigns instantly. This level of flexibility allows teams to respond faster to player behavior and continuously improve outcomes.”
The ability to compare campaigns, analyze engagement patterns, and adjust mechanics in real time supports a continuous optimization cycle, turning campaigns into an ongoing process rather than a one-off activity.
About Infingame
Infingame is a leading game aggregator built to help operators move faster and scale smarter. Through a single API integration, the platform gives access to a portfolio of over 16,000 games from more than 150 providers, allowing partners to launch quickly without dealing with multiple integrations.
Delivered via a single API, Infingame offers unparalleled technical excellence, the industry’s fastest spin times, exclusive tournaments and strategic partnerships with top-tier operators in North America, LatAm and beyond. Spanning a portfolio of slots, crash games, sweepstakes and live casino, book a demo via the LinkedIn page, website or at [email protected].
Latest News
Costa Rica May Be the World’s Largest Crypto Casinos Hub
Once an elephant in the room that many preferred to ignore, crypto has matured into a mainstream asset class, growing in acceptance across jurisdictions and industries in every corner of the world. More industries no longer hesitate and feel more comfortable accepting crypto as a payment method or otherwise integrating it into their infrastructure, and iGaming is no exception.
In fact, the industry has witnessed a rapid boom in “crypto casinos,” driven by players seeking stronger privacy, faster processing, and fewer geographic barriers that are impossible to maintain by traditional payment methods.
Becoming one of the fastest-growing iGaming verticals, the use of digital assets allows crypto casinos to benefit from lower transaction fees, faster processing, and faster decision-making cycles from customers not constrained by location restrictions. Nevertheless, their growing popularity does not remove the regulatory uncertainty surrounding the landscape.
Despite the rising popularity of such platforms, the vertical still lacks clarity and instead navigates a fragmented regulatory environment with uneven treatment of crypto across jurisdictions. Entrepreneurs setting up a crypto casino in jurisdictions traditionally favored by traditional gambling operators often discover too late their very harsh treatment of crypto, from costly licensing to rigid compliance demands.
In some cases, regulators indirectly complicate, to the extent possible, crypto integration and the whole future of such platforms, leaving firms navigating unclear and sometimes conflicting requirements from financial and gambling authorities. As such, the real complexity of starting a crypto casino lies not in technology setup or player acquisition but in finding where to establish a business today to operate with legal confidence in tomorrow. In response, a new category of next-generation licensing hubs has emerged, offering more flexible structures, lower costs, and a more friendly approach toward crypto-native business models.
Among flagship options, Costa Rica has gained notable momentum, being widely regarded as a top-tier choice for crypto casino registration, according to legal experts, particularly for entrepreneurs seeking to avoid excessive administrative friction. Reportedly, as most jurisdictions force crypto casinos to secure both gambling and crypto licenses, Costa Rica allows starting with a local entity incorporation and a data processing license, with no other barriers to entry.
The country maintains a business-friendly approach to crypto gaming, enabling play-and-earn projects, decentralized games, and smart contract-based solutions to grow with full confidence under its legal framework. This makes the jurisdiction a perfect fit for startups operating at the intersection of crypto and gaming, integrating crypto payments or other digital asset features into their platform.
While Costa Rica does not keep a publicly accessible register of licensed operators, it would be safe to assume it remains among the most attractive and popular destinations for crypto casino incorporation. What was once a less obvious choice is now seen as a solution, with some industry experts calling it “most suited for crypto casinos.”
The absence of excessive bureaucracy, combined with a pro-crypto stance, has helped Costa Rica build what can only be described as a vibrant crypto-gambling ecosystem, but it is not the only reason operators are paying attention. Behind Costa Rica’s growing popularity is a simple but powerful combination of lower costs compared to other alternatives, no taxation on foreign-sourced income, and relatively light-touch oversight of gambling activity.
Nevertheless, Costa Rica’s lighter-touch regime does not remove the need to register correctly and maintain continuous compliance. Given the uncertainties surrounding the vertical’s regulatory landscape, entrepreneurs can approach specialized law firms such as Inteliumlaw who have developed the sector-relevant know-how to effectively support Costa Rica gaming license acquisition and bring much-needed certainty to the crypto-gambling project setup.
With proven success in structuring online casino projects that “combines traditional gambling with blockchain technology,” they offer full-fledged support covering company formation, licensing, and continuous compliance for operators to build legally sound structures and succeed in the long term.
As digital assets move deeper into online gambling, crypto-friendly gambling models are becoming a necessity for operators targeting players who rely on digital assets. With this in mind, Costa Rica becomes especially relevant, offering an attractive option for legally serving this audience, with its prominence as a crypto casino hub likely to remain strong in the years ahead.
Central Europe
Habanero goes live on Favbet Romania
Deal adds Habanero’s slots and table games to Favbet.ro as the supplier targets further growth in CEE regulated markets.
Habanero has gone live with Favbet Romania, rolling out its slots and table games portfolio on the operator’s locally focused platform in Romania’s regulated online market.
Under the agreement, Favbet Romania players gain access to Habanero’s full catalogue. The companies positioned the launch as part of Habanero’s wider push to add regulated operator partners across Central and Eastern Europe.
Toni Karapetrov, Head of Corporate Communications at Habanero, said: “Favbet Romania is a well-respected brand in Europe and exactly the kind of partner we look to work with as we deepen our presence in the market. Romania players have a strong appetite for our content and we are confident our games will resonate well with their audience.
“Romania is an important market for us, and going live with this operator is another strong step in our continued European expansion across high-growth regulated markets.”
Cristian Sapovici, Head of Casino, Favbet Romania, said: “The collaboration between Favbet Romania and Habanero has been strong from the very beginning, and this co-branded collaboration agreement marks an important step in strengthening our strategic partnership.
“Our shared objective is to deliver a more integrated gaming experience for players in Romania, supported by consistent visibility, dedicated campaigns, and a stronger presence of Habanero content within the Favbet.ro ecosystem.”
Habanero said it is now live in 22 European regulated markets, and counts operators including Entain, Sisal and Betway among its partners.
The post Habanero goes live on Favbet Romania appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
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