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German City to Shut All Betting Shops Amid Money-laundering Allegations

The German city of Bremen is planning to shut down all of its betting shops after the interior senator said their owners had failed to convince him that they were not fronts for money laundering.
Bremen, Germany’s smallest city-state, announced on Wednesday it had issued rejection notices to 32 establishments that had applied for betting licences under a new gambling law, meaning any bets placed on their premises would with immediate effect be deemed illegal.
The betting shops have until 5 August to legally challenge the decision or supply the senate with paperwork showing how they obtained their startup capital to open their businesses in the first place, such as a loan agreement with a bank.
Bremen authorities say they are tackling a problem that is not unique to their city but widespread across Germany. A 2019 report by the finance ministry and federal police said criminals were not only using legal gambling practices to launder dirty money but often directly investing money to buy up betting shops.
In some such cases, the entire gambling activity taking place on the shop’s premises was merely “simulated” and the profits showing up in the books came from illegal activities such as drug dealing, the report said.
Unlike in Britain, where most high-street betting establishments are run by large gambling companies such as William Hill or Ladbrokes, in Germany betting shops are mostly run by smaller businesses that buy a franchise licence from larger firms.
“At its core, this is about checking the reliability of these operators. We also want to guarantee that no money from dodgy businesses like drug dealing or human trafficking is being laundered here and thus flows into legal money cycles,” Ulrich Mäurer, Bremen’s senator for interior affairs, said.
Over the past few months, Bremen authorities approached four large betting companies that operate in the city, asking them to provide written evidence of how their franchise holders had acquired their startup capital, usually a sum of up to €120,000.
None of the betting shops had since handed in paperwork that met the authorities’ requirements, a Bremen senate spokesperson said. In one instance an application for a gambling licence had been rejected because the betting shop was located too close to a school, rather than because of the missing paperwork.
“Other states in Germany are looking with close interest at what we are achieving by taking this step. If we are successful, I expect many of them will follow suit,” said a spokesperson, Rose Gerdts-Schiffler.
The closures were criticised by Germany’s Sports Betting Association, whose president, Mathias Dahms, said the city’s actions were “arbitrary, legally questionable and completely out of proportion, motivated purely by political goals”.
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Meridianbet Continues October’s Traditional Breast Cancer Prevention Campaign

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The gaming operator’s tech-enabled giving system reminds that corporate responsibility can scale without bureaucracy
When a woman in Montenegro called a clinic this October to book a free mammography through a gaming company’s prevention campaign, she didn’t fill out forms or wait for approval. She got an appointment date. The entire process took one phone call.
That simplicity is deliberate.
Meridianbet, operating under the publicly traded Golden Matrix Group (NASDAQ: GMGI), has spent four years building a charitable infrastructure that strips friction from giving.
The breast cancer screening program launched during Breast Cancer Awareness Month under the message “We Are With You” — offering 100 free examinations and 50 mammographies to women over 40 — demonstrates how the company deploys a system that now operates across 18 markets on three continents.
From Local Action to Global Infrastructure
The company completed 293 social responsibility actions in 2024, up from 257 in 2022. But the more revealing number is what happened inside those actions. Through a proprietary platform called Meridian Donate, Meridianbet customers can redirect portions of their activity into direct nonprofit funding. Last year, 43 campaigns ran through the system, reaching 212 organizations. That’s nearly double the 20 campaigns in 2023, when the platform covered eight markets.
The mechanism is straightforward. Customers scan a QR code or click a donation button embedded in the gaming interface. The platform routes funds to pre-vetted causes — maternity hospitals, literacy programs, basketball court renovations, environmental cleanups. No galas, no black-tie pledges, no months-long grant cycles.
Technology Meets Grassroots Execution
The company began testing the model in 2022 with 12 campaigns across six markets. Early projects included equipping maternity wards and funding youth sports programs. By 2024, the platform had expanded to 14 markets and supported work in healthcare, education, culture, and disaster relief.
One campaign tied donations to goals scored during the 2024 European Football Championship. Another linked contributions to Olympic medals won by athletes from countries where Meridianbet operates.
The Meridianbet foundation, established in 2020, now supports more than 40 healthcare facilities. In February 2025, it launched a book donation effort after an employee saw a social media post about underfunded libraries in Serbia. Within weeks, thousands of books had been collected and distributed across all 18 markets.
Employee participation is built into this structure as well. Staff identify needs in their regions, vet partner organizations, and often deliver aid themselves.
In 2024, employees logged 5,027 hours on community projects, compared to 3,084 hours in 2022. The company employs 39 people with disabilities, a figure that has grown modestly but consistently over three years.
Responsibility Embedded Into Business Operations
Meridianbet operates in a sector often scrutinized for social costs. The company has established internal standards that exceed local regulations, including mandatory responsible gambling training and customer-controlled betting limits.
It also participates in the UN Global Compact, aligning its programs with goals around education access, inequality reduction, and sustainable consumption.
The platform’s growth mirrors a broader shift in how corporations approach social responsibility. Traditional CSR often involves writing checks to established charities or hosting annual volunteer days. Meridian Donate embeds giving into the customer experience, creating a feedback loop where user engagement directly funds community projects. The model is scalable because it doesn’t require new infrastructure in each market — the technology travels, and local teams handle execution.
Scaling a Model Built on Simplicity
The company’s roadmap involves expanding health initiatives and environmental programs in 2025, with a focus on regions where it recently launched operations. It’s also exploring partnerships with larger NGOs to scale projects that have worked at the local level.
The breast cancer campaign continues through October and beyond. Appointments fill up as women call the clinic, no paperwork required. It’s a single program in one market, but it runs on the same infrastructure that moved aid to 212 organizations last year. That’s the model: build it once, deploy it everywhere, and let the numbers prove it works.
The post Meridianbet Continues October’s Traditional Breast Cancer Prevention Campaign appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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QTech Games goes live with CT Interactive

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QTech Games, the leading game aggregator for all emerging markets, has now gone live with CT Interactive. As a result, this successful integration grants its platform customers access to a distinctive catalogue of innovative slots, alongside classic and non-traditional content, which is capturing the hearts and minds of varied demographics.
CT Interactive now looks forward to enhanced distribution across assorted emerging markets from Asia to Africa, Europe and Latin America where growth is at its zenith.
CT Interactive is a leading content provider that has a portfolio of 200+ games, developed to appeal to different groups of players. The company is certified for 18 markets and is actively working on increasing this number.
QTech Games already provides a diverse wealth of games and unique features for players and operators, offering seamless integration with third-party content providers. The aggregator exerts a strong influence across Asia and other global emerging markets, such as LatAm, CIS and Africa.
Antonio Donov, Head of Business Development EMEA and Asia at CT Interactive, said: “This deal is helping us step into new markets in Asia, thus expanding our presence by reaching new clientele in different markets, which is our long-term goal. We are very proud that we were able to sign such an important deal with one of the leading game distributors worldwide.”
“It is a milestone for our business that will lead to a significant expansion, bringing benefits such as increased revenue, improved brand recognition, and access to new markets.”
“Our company is honoured to have the best quality games of CT Interactive, which have won prestigious awards, now live on our platform. This company has proved the standard of its products over the years, and we are sure that this move will be very beneficial for us,” added Philip Doftvik, CEO at QTech Games.
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National Platform Expands Its International Network of Partners: Memorandum Signed with IBIA

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The National Platform of Sports Integrity of Ukraine and the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) have signed a memorandum of understanding.
IBIA is the is the leading global voice on integrity for the regulated betting industry. It brings together more than 90 sports betting operators and over 200 brands across six continents. IBIA’s global monitoring network tracks over USD 300 billion in betting activity annually, detecting suspicious patterns in real time.
The organisation works closely with major international sports institutions such as FIFA, UEFA and the IOC, as well as with national gambling regulators worldwide.
The signing of the Memorandum opens new opportunities for the National Platform in identifying and countering sports competition manipulation, in particular:
- access to IBIA’s Monitoring and Alert Platform;
- the ability to receive alerts on suspicious betting patterns related to matches involving Ukrainian teams or athletes; and
- strengthened international cooperation on sports integrity.
The National Platform stated: “Cooperation with IBIA allows us to integrate into the global system for safeguarding sports integrity. For Ukraine, this represents a qualitatively new level of detection and prevention of competition manipulation. We gain access to advanced international response mechanisms and become part of the worldwide network fighting corruption in sport.”
Khalid Ali, CEO of IBIA stated: “IBIA is delighted to be able to reach this important agreement with the Ukraine National Platform for combating competition manipulation. The move maintains our approach of widening our global integrity collaborations and partnerships and aligns with our Mission 2030 strategic objectives.”
The post National Platform Expands Its International Network of Partners: Memorandum Signed with IBIA appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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