Every week, CasinoBeats breaks down the numbers behind some of the industry’s most fascinating stories. A call for additional collaboration and further Gambling Act review urges were top headlines impacting the UK during the past week. Our latest headline recap also looks back at a Dutch fine, ongoing China and Philippines cooperation, Ontario financials and gambling reforms.
2.07
LCS became the latest firm to be penalised by the Dutch gaming authority, Kansspelautoriteit, with a €2.07m fine following a number of financial sanctions that have been handed down throughout the year.
This follows a long protracted dispute that initially began in March 2022 when it was discovered players could access the group’s Son of Slots site. In addition to providing an opportunity to access online games of chance, the regulator also noted concern at a focus on the Dutch market.
“The website was accessible from a Dutch IP address and an account could be created and participated in games of chance from the Netherlands,” the Ksa’s noted in its sanctions decision.
Disclosing its reasons behind the amount handed down, the Ksa added that it was determined on the basis of its current fine policy and turnover achieved in the country, among other undisclosed factors.
10
The UK Gambling Commission’s Tim Miller believes it is “vital” that global gambling regulators work together as they all face the same risks and challenges.
The Executive Director of the UKGC made the request during his speech at the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada, on October 10, 2023.
Miller began by giving an overview of the current British gambling landscape, before going into why it was so important for regulators across the world to collaborate.
“Leading operators are now multinationals. As more North American jurisdictions open up to online gambling or sports betting, we see more and more large British or European operators looking to establish themselves here, in your markets,” he noted.
“And that’s why we think international collaboration is so vital between gambling regulators. Increasingly we regulate the same companies; we address the same risks; we face the same challenges.”
14.5
Australia’s Alliance for Gambling Reform called for a fast tracking of heightened protections after it was revealed that gaming machine losses stood at A$14.54bn through the past financial year.
These figures, generated from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023, were reported as “easily eclipsing the losses suffered in 2018-19”. This came in at A12.78bn during the last full period that was uninterrupted by COVID impacted restrictions.
These latest figures were collected for the Alliance by the Gambling and Social Determinants Unit, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University.
The Nation advocacy organisation is calling on all states to fast-track the introduction of mandatory, precommitment cashless gaming cards.
396
Optimove released data revealing that most players are exhausted by marketing fatigue from igaming operators, with almost one-third of players feeling overwhelmed by the frequency of promotional messages.
The Optimove 2023 Report of Players’ Preferences in iGaming Marketing surveyed 396 US online players across September and October 2023, aged 21-plus and household incomes of $75,000-plus.
It was discovered that 86 per cent of players don’t appreciate excessive or irrelevant emails, texts, and push notifications from igaming websites, and they unsubscribe as a result.
Specifically, 30 per cent of players feel overwhelmed by the frequency of promotional messages from operators, but 64 per cent believe the frequency is acceptable.
14.2
Ontario’s igaming market has continued to grow after the province’s regulator, iGaming Ontario, reported an uptick in both total wagers and gaming revenue in the second quarter of the 2023-24 fiscal year.
For the period from July 1 through September 30, 2023, iGO declared total wagers of C$14.2bn, a 132 per cent improvement on FY2022-23 Q2 ($6.04bn), not including promotional wagers.
Q2’s total wagers were also a slight improvement on what was reported earlier this year following Q1 ($14bn).
The quarter’s gaming revenue increased in comparison to the previous year, rising by 105 per cent to $540m (FY22 Q2: $267m) but it was slightly down against the previous quarter (Q1: $545m).
99
Liquor and Gaming New South Wales was continuing to investigate a number of venues that failed to remove external signage, or attempted to circumvent new rules that were introduced at the start of last month.
Despite a compliance blitz finding almost 99 per cent of pubs and clubs inspected of being free of external gambling-related signage, 16 were discovered to still feature such advertising.
Liquor and Gaming NSW’s inspection program covered over 1100 establishments across 35 metropolitan and eight regional local government areas. This worked out at a little more than 50 per cent of all venues in NSW with an entitlement to hold gaming machines.
However, ongoing assessments are currently being undertaken regarding delays in removal across certain facilities. Venues that could not provide “clear evidence” of why such delays had occurred will be fined.
400
The Chinese government called on the Philippines to take strong action against illegal offshore operators, in addition to reiterating its commitment to ongoing cooperative efforts between the two.
In a statement, the Chinese embassy in the Philippines noted that the pair maintain close communication and collaboration to “crack down on cross-border crimes”.
In addition, it was added that protecting the legitimate rights and interests of citizens is also a key priority of the alliance.
The embassy noted that its current assistance has brought a crackdown on “three illegal offshore gambling parks”, with almost 400 Chinese citizens having been repatriated after being identified as part of the cross-border efforts.
365
Stakeholders must ensure that the final reforms implemented across the UK, following a much publicised Gambling Act review, ensure that jobs and investments across towns and cities are protected for the long-term.
Those were the words of Jo Gideon MP for Stoke-On-Trent Central, who was addressing the ongoing efforts in a timely Betting and Gaming Council blog that comes as a first batch of consultations draws to a close.
Following the white paper’s much delayed publication earlier in the year, this initial wave covers age verification in premises; remote games design, building on earlier work on online slots; direct marketing and cross-selling and financial risk and vulnerability checks for remote operators.
Citing the influence that online gambling juggernaut bet365 has had on her own city, Gideon addressed a debate that she labelled as often being “terse, ill-informed, and frankly patronising”.
6.1
Tabcorp endured a tough first quarter of the financial year, with a trading update revealing that revenue through the period is down 6.1 per cent, primarily due to a significant drop in the group’s gaming services segment.
The company said that a brief performance review was a necessary step due to the July 1, 2023, to September 30, 2023, period being set against a softer macro-economic environment.
Furthermore, Tabcorp also stressed a desire to keep the market informed, with this update following a pair of regulatory run-ins within the state of Victoria.
Gaming services revenue dropped 12.7 per cent, aligned to the sale of the eBet loyalty and tracking systems provider and lower contracted EGMs in the Max Performance Solutions business year-on-year. A sale of MPS is expected to be completed by H1 2024.
