Author: Daniel Williams

The British online and landbased gaming regulator, the UK Gambling Commission, completed a public consultation that tackled the design and in-game features of the virtual slots, offered by its licensees. Launched in early July, the regulatory body’s initiative sought to collect more comprehensive feedback and data on the preventive measures regarding the harms associated with online slots. The initiative aims to preserve the integrity of the games’ development as well as to render them less harmful to the general public. The British gambling watchdog conducted a detailed analysis of virtual…

GambleAware, the independent British problem gambling organisation, announced today it has sealed two new partnerships in preparation for its next Bet Regret initiative. The problem gambling organisation has recruited MAN v FAT, a weight loss portal, exclusively dedicated to helping overweight males to shed the extra pounds and return to a healthy weight. The portal was launched in 2014 by publisher and author Andrew Shanahan. It has received massive waves of support from various public figures and associations, including the British Dietetic Association and the world-renowned chef and restaurateur Jamie…

The authorities of Victoria’s Whittlesea City are demanding from the pokie machine industry to introduce changes before gambling venues relaunch their services. The demand comes after a recent report came to light, revealing that Whittlesea City is one of the state leaders in terms of pokie machine losses. According to the report, the city is home to four out of ten gambling venues that top the list for pokie losses. Pokie venues across the state of Victoria were forced to temporarily shut down their operations in April as a preventive…

A 50-year-old woman from Scotland stood before the Dundee Sheriff Court yesterday on charges of stealing over £6,000 from her mother’s savings to fund her problem gambling. The woman by the name of Lynne Cree took the bank card of her mother and used the available funds to chase her gambling losses. The 82-year-old pensioner was floored when she found out she had only £80 left in her account. The Dundee Sheriff Court, where the case was seen, was told Cree had no choice but to move in with her…

New figures published by the economic advisory company AlphaBeta and the illion credit bureau indicate a surge in the amounts Australian residents spend on gambling, alcohol beverages, and food deliveries, despite the worsening recession and increasing unemployment rates. According to the report, the amounts Aussies spend on virtual gambling were around 94% above the average in the week to August 23rd, 2020. Meanwhile, the spending on tobacco and alcoholic beverages has jumped by 22% whereas food delivery expenditures have risen by 277% for the same period. A spokesperson of the…

The UK has seen a decline in gambling companies’ football sponsorships for the first time in years. Currently, there are only 19 football clubs from the country’s top-level divisions (the Premier League and the EFL Championship) to use a gambling operator as a main sponsor. Among them is the Reading Football Club whose footballers’ shirts are decked with the logo of the UKGC-regulated casino operator Casumo. This corresponds to roughly 43% of the overall number of top-division clubs on British soil. It is the lowest percentage since the 2016-2017 season,…

The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) unveiled strict new measures aimed at providing better protection to underage individuals against online gambling ads. The crackdown unveiled by the trade body, which represents the regulated gambling industry in the UK except for the National Lottery, came at the time when the BGC officially published the Sixth Industry Code for Socially Responsible Advertising. As mentioned above, the new measures have been planned as part of the standards body’s efforts to further prevent individuals under 18 years of age from seeing gambling adverts on…

The outbreak of the global coronavirus pandemic hardly left any country across the world unaffected. The Covid-19 crisis has had a significant impact on the countries’ economies, leaving them to deal with financial difficulties in all spheres of the economy, with many businesses being destroyed. The gambling industry in the UK makes no exception, considering the lengthy shutdown that has been imposed on land-based gambling venues across the country. As part of the Government’s efforts to efficiently prevent the further spread of the coronavirus infection, social distancing measures were imposed,…

Australia is facing trouble at a time when online gambling services and gambling-related harm have both marked a growth. For some time now, some reports have emerged that many Australian citizens are spending their retirement funds on gambling operations while lockdown measures are still active. Now, local regulatory bodies are concerned about the increasing number of gamblers nationwide and, respectively, the increasing number of problem gamblers in the country. As Casino Guardian recently reported, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has been restricting offshore online casino domains, while the…

In the early days of coronavirus pandemic when the lockdown started, the entire stock market suffered, including the share prices of UK gambling operators. The cancellation of all major sports events resulted in cutting off the otherwise stable sports betting revenue that many British bookmakers had been depending on such revenue generated not only from horse racing but from betting on football matches, which normally involves small stakes but quite high volumes, as well. The uncertainty that followed in the next few months was even more concerning. Sports, however, and…