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A bill seeking to bring reforms to gambling in Northern Ireland by replacing the existing legislation was officially introduced in the Assembly in September 2021. The proposed bill is to replace the original gambling legislation from 1985 and earlier this week was presented to the Committee for Communities for review as part of the so-called “consideration stage”. After a number of amendments were added, the bill is to further advance to the next stage, while Northern Ireland is getting closer to finally making the much-awaited changes to its gambling industry.…

The middle of the week saw the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) update its official guidance on fair and transparent terms and practices which all gambling operators in the country must stick to. The recent update was deemed necessary as the major gambling regulatory body in the UK has found that operators have often used terms of play that can be considered unfair. According to reports, in some cases, such policy provided operators with undue discretion to make decisions on the outcomes of various disputes with their customers, and to decide…

The leaders of the racing industry of the UK have been warned that the next few weeks would be extremely important to the sports’ future, with the Government being expected to reveal the results of its gambling review in a white paper this spring. The chief executive officer of the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), Michael Dugher, shared in an interview with the Racing Post that the British racing sector would face a “clear and present danger” in case the Government made the wrong proposals. Mr Dugher, a former Member…

Recently, it has been revealed that a Member of Parliament from the Conservative Party has received incentives worth £32,000 from the UK gambling industry. In return for the cash and freebies that he got from the betting sector, the MP has sent private letters to ministers raising a red flag about the potential impact that the introduction of stricter new laws could have on what he described as “harmful gambling”. According to reports, Laurence Robertson, a Tory MP for Tewkesbury, gets £2,000 every month from the Betting and Gaming Council…

A new report issued by the Health Research Board (HRB) has issued its first report regarding gambling trends in Ireland revealed that gambling addiction is a problem linked to substance abuse and economic deprivation. The Health Research Board shared that detailed information on problem gambling is still quite limited and urged the authorities to take the correlation between gambling addiction and socio-economic deprivation into account when making decisions regarding the number of gambling outlets in Ireland. The government agency, which is responsible for coordination, funding and oversight of medical search…

For the time being, there is a variety of legal and social mechanisms aimed at protecting people from self-harm, with the majority of them being focused on raising public awareness on certain issues and provision of different reach-out programs, helplines and clinics. Others, on the other hand, are stricter in the way they address individuals in need of help. But still, the implementation of a more compassionate or stricter approach depends on every case individually. Most recently, the Insolvency Service of the UK has shortlisted 32 individuals who would be…

One of the key recommendations of an independent review into sports integrity and online gambling that was carried out in 2018 is set to be diminished following the gambling industry’s negative and unfavourable response. The Sport Integrity Arrangements of the Wood Review of Australia once called for real-time detection of betting fraud and response capability. However, a recent Regulatory Impact Statement into the proposed ASWS (Australian Sports Wagering Scheme) warned that the country’s Government has taken into consideration the implementation of a non-real-time data platform, which is designed in a…

Campaigners seeking a ban on gambling advertising and gambling sponsorship deals in football suspended are organising an event that would see them walk between Edinburgh and Glasgow. More than 40 individuals affected by gambling, including some recovering problem gamblers and their families, will participate in the 60-mile march between the two largest cities in Scotland, which is set to end at Hampden Park – the national stadium in Glasgow. A group of 40 of us – all harmed by gambling – are walking to encourage these clubs without gambling sponsors…

Reports say that the long-awaited proposals for the UK Government to bring reforms to the country’s gambling legislation are being delayed and are not likely to get officially announced until May. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) started a review of gambling laws in December 2020, following increasing concerns over rising problem gambling rates and gambling exposure of children through advertising and football sponsorship. As previously reported, a white paper was officially expected to be published before the end of last year. However, the authorities delayed the…

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) revealed that recently-held research has found that operations of illegal lotteries available on the social media platform Facebook were disrupted. During the investigation, which was preliminarily focused on the unlicenced and illegal lotteries’ operations, the major gambling regulatory body in the UK has worked in collaboration with local law enforcement agencies through the Government Agency Intelligence Network (GAIN). The UKGC has also joined forces with specialists from the social networking platform. The services of lotteries operating without an operating licence or in violation of the…