Author: Olivia Cole

Earlier this morning, the ABC aired video footage of a man unloading hundreds of thousands of dollars in a room which has been specially hired for high-roller customers at Crown Casino Melbourne. The footage was shot on Crown’s own security cameras. It caught an unknown man handing over massive amounts of Australian dollars inside a special room which the Chinese junket operator Suncity had hired at Crown. The video footage shows him pulling the money out from a freezer shopping bag and exchanging it for high-value casino chips. The Macau-based…

Crown Casino Melbourne faces another demand for an official inquiry to be held into its services following allegations that the venue is used as an attraction to affluent foreign high-rollers without customs checks. Independent Member of Parliament and long-time anti-gambling advocate Andrew Wilkie intends to use the claims made by a limousine driver who had worked for the gambling operator and has revealed that VIP customers at the Crown Casino Melbourne share a culture of prostitution, drugs, violence against women and other abuses. Mr Wilkie is aimed at calling for…

New research carried out by the Australian market research company Roy Morgan has shown that the Australian online betting market would be dominated by the entity formed by the owners of the Sportsbet and BetEasy brands. As Casino Guardian reported earlier in October, the parenting company of Sportsbet – Flutter Entertainment – is aimed at joining forces with the Canadian online gambling firm The Stars Group, which currently owns BetEasy. The merger between the two gambling conglomerates is expected to form the largest online gambling operator in the world. As…

A pioneering study, which was partly funded by the Medical Research Council and held by researchers from the University of British Columbia, found that problem gamblers may be genetically predisposed to becoming addicted to gambling. The research held on twenty people suffering from problem gambling, who were recruited from the UK national problem gambling clinic in London, and 16 siblings, found that gambling addiction may cause some changes to people’s brains and make them more susceptible to the excitement that betting causes. The researchers from the University of British Columbia…

The online gambling operator Petfre (Gibraltar) Limited, which trades as Betfred, is facing a regulatory fine for money laundering failures which emerged as a result of an investigation held by the British gambling regulatory body. The investigation of the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) found that Betfred failed to carry out the suitable checks for the source of funds of a customer who deposited £210,000 and lost £140,000 on the company’s website in a 12-day period back in November 2017. It turned out that the customer played with stolen money, and…

The online gambling operator Casumo saw regulatory action against one of its ads after the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) was addressed. The complainant explained they saw the Casumo gambling application add in May 2019, after a search for “how to unsubscribe from all gambling”. They challenged whether the advert was irresponsibly targeted as it promoted welcome bonuses to new customers of the gambling operator and appeared after a search for self-exclusion methods. Before receiving the complaint, Casumo Services Ltd said that ads displayed on Google were targeted on people who…

The tycoon Michael Spencer is preparing to purchase a minority stake in the company which currently owns one of the most prominent gambling businesses in the UK. Reportedly, the billionaire financial services entrepreneur is approaching the closure of a deal under which he would acquire a portion into The Tote’s parent company Betfred. According to analysts, the purchase of the stake into the gambling business would make Mr Spencer part of the high-profile investors in the country’s gambling industry. The City magnate is aimed at buying a stake in the…

According to reports, the British financial regulatory body may be preparing to regulate the Bitcoin trading market as gambling. The speculations that betting on Bitcoin trading could be soon made illegal started after emerging reports that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is proposing a blanket ban on crypto-derivatives sale to retail investors. According to The Economist, a consultation on the issue closed on October 3rd, and the final decision of the regulator is expected to be unveiled in early 2020. So-called cryptocurrencies, or crypto-derivative products, which offer various features and…

The National Basketball Association (NBA) unveiled a new partnership agreement with the UK gambling operator William Hill. Under the deal, the British bookmaker would become a partner and an authorised sports betting operator of the NBA on the territory of the US. The announced partnership contract makes William Hill the fourth authorised sports betting operator of the NBA, as the British gambling company joins the three other official partners of the Association – FanDuel, MGM Resorts and The Stars Group. Neither one of the two parties has so far revealed…

Ireland-based bookmaking business Flutter Entertainment plc, which owns the Paddy Power and Betfair brands, announced that it has agreed on an all-share merger with the Canadian online gambling company The Stars Group. The deal will end up creating the biggest online gambling operator by revenue on a global scale. Today, Flutter Entertainment announced that it would combine its operations with the owner of Poker Stars, Stars Group Inc in a deal which values the two companies at about £10 billion. Once the merger is finalised, the shareholders of the Ireland-based…