Tools & change-watch.

🇧🇪 Belgium — Phased advertising restrictions continue; sports-shirt/stadium sponsorship being phased out through 2025-2028.

🇬🇧 United Kingdom — Gambling Commission confirmed new Gaming Machine Technical Standards for land-based machines on 30 September 2026: new category A and B machines must offer limit setting and show net position and elapsed time, and new category A, B and C machines may not celebrate returns at or below the stake or let customers speed up a result; a new session definition applies from 30 March 2027, most changes from 30 June 2027 and staff alerts from 3 October 2028, and existing machines are largely exempt

🇬🇧 United Kingdom — Remote General Betting Duty announced to rise from 15% to 25% from April 2027 (land-based, horse-racing and pool bets carved out at 15%)

🇪🇸 Spain — Cross-operator joint deposit limits take effect (Real Decreto 520/2026, published 25 June 2026): a national system aggregates a player deposits across all licensed operators, with default ceilings of EUR 700 per day, EUR 1,750 per week and EUR 3,300 per four-week period that the player can lower or raise

🇫🇮 Finland — Gambling Act enters into force in full; licensed online betting and casino market opens; Veikkaus loses online exclusivity

🇬🇧 United Kingdom — Grosvenor Casinos Limited, Grosvenor Casinos (GC) Limited and Gaming Group Limited (Rank Group; 51 casinos in Great Britain) agreed a regulatory settlement with the Gambling Commission: a payment in lieu of a financial penalty of GBP 5,012,261 to the Consolidated Fund and a third-party audit, for anti-money-laundering failures (policies not updated for the 2020 Money Laundering Regulations, enhanced due diligence not carried out when required) and social-responsibility failures (no safer-gambling interactions with customers losing GBP 50,000 and GBP 250,000, and with a returning self-excluded customer until GBP 25,000 lost)

🇬🇧 United Kingdom — Targetlocal Ltd (trading as Ken Howell's Sports Betting, kenhowells.com) had its combined remote operating licence (no 000422-R-336567-002; casino, sports betting, virtual event betting) suspended by the Gambling Commission for anti-money-laundering failings, with a section 116 licence review opened; customers may still access accounts and withdraw funds

🇬🇧 United Kingdom — Gambling Commission published Industry Statistics for April 2025 to March 2026: total GB GGY GBP 17.5bn (+4.4%), remote casino, betting and bingo GBP 8.3bn (+6.9%) of which online slots GBP 4.8bn, land-based GBP 4.9bn (+1.1%); 2,154 licensed operators and 8,081 licensed premises at 31 March 2026

🇬🇧 United Kingdom — Remote Gaming Duty raised from 21% to 40% effective 1 April 2026 (Autumn Budget 2025); Bingo Duty abolished April 2026

🇬🇧 United Kingdom — New remote 'deposit limit' requirements (RTS 12) take effect, extended from 30 June 2026: operators must offer a gross deposit limit based solely on money paid in, reserve the term 'deposit limit' for that form, and give it at least equal prominence to other financial limits

🇬🇧 United Kingdom — Gambling Commission set out a staged rollout of Financial Risk Assessments: Stage 1 (largest operators) triggers at GBP 5,000 net deposit in 24 hours for over-25s (GBP 2,500 for under-25s), with intended final thresholds of GBP 1,000 in 24 hours or GBP 3,000 in 90 days, assessed frictionlessly via credit reference agencies - announced, start date to be confirmed

🇬🇧 United Kingdom — Evolution Malta Holding Ltd fined GBP 4.75m by the Gambling Commission for supplying online games to unlicensed businesses

🇬🇧 United Kingdom — Petfre (Gibraltar) Ltd fined GBP 900,000 by the Gambling Commission for social-responsibility failures

🇬🇧 United Kingdom — Stakelogic BV fined GBP 122,835 by the Gambling Commission for responsible product-design standard breaches

🇩🇪 Germany — GGL intensified enforcement against unlicensed operators (IP and payment blocking); ongoing industry and political debate over the 5.3% turnover tax and strict deposit/stake limits pushing players toward the illegal market, alongside a scheduled evaluation of the GlüStV 2021 regime.

🇩🇪 Germany — GGL set out its position on the 2021 State Treaty evaluation, describing the ~77% online-gambling channelisation rate as scientifically confirmed; the states final evaluation report is expected by end-2026

🇮🇪 Ireland — GRAI opened B2C remote (online) betting licence applications

🇮🇪 Ireland — First remote betting licences issued

🇮🇪 Ireland — In-person betting licences begin; legacy permissions end

🇲🇹 Malta — Revised gaming-tax and VAT frameworks take effect under L.N. 84 and 86 of 2026 (published 1 April 2026): the gaming tax and the separate charge on gaming devices are merged into a single gaming tax classified by game type for players in Malta, and the VAT exemption for gambling is recast

🇲🇹 Malta — Gaming tax on revenue from players in Malta is now 15% for Type 1 (casino/RNG) games and 10% for Types 2 to 4, in place of the flat 5% (L.N. 84 of 2026); a 5% rate applies to controlled gaming premises and junkets, and B2B suppliers broadcasting from a studio pay a fixed EUR 3,000 a year

🇲🇹 Malta — MGA suspended the authorisation of Condor Malta Limited (C 70089, licence MGA/B2C/340/2016) with effect from 16 September 2026 under reg. 8(1)(f) of the Gaming Compliance and Enforcement Regulations, citing regs 9(1)(a), (c), (d) and (m): it may no longer carry out gaming operations but must keep registered players' access to their accounts for visibility purposes; appeal lies under article 43 of the Gaming Act

🇲🇹 Malta — MGA set out its 2026 supervisory priorities: cash and cash-equivalent controls, crypto-asset use, sports-integrity and athlete betting, and the quality of ADR reporting

🇳🇱 Netherlands — Kansspelautoriteit published guidance on verifying bank accounts and other payment methods after finding that operators did not always check them properly, so that minors could deposit from youth accounts or link their account to an adult's player account; the guidance covers first-name checks on payment accounts, business accounts and other payment methods

🇳🇱 Netherlands — Gaming tax rose to 34.2% on 1 Jan 2025 and to 37.8% on 1 Jan 2026; both increases took effect as enacted despite industry pressure to pause or reverse them.

🇳🇱 Netherlands — New licensing policy rules (Beleidsregels vergunningverlening Koa 2026) took effect: applicants must submit an exit plan for rapid repayment of player funds on wind-down and a Wwft (AML) risk analysis, face tighter restrictions on holding player funds, and can be refused on a trustworthiness ground for non-compliance with Dutch court rulings

🇵🇹 Portugal — Ongoing operator pressure to switch the turnover-based sports-betting tax to a GGR base; no change enacted as of verification.

🇫🇮 Finland — National Police Board begins accepting online gambling licence applications (partial entry into force)

🇸🇪 Sweden — Expanded ban on gambling on credit took effect: the prohibition now covers all forms of deferred payment - including credit cards, invoices, buy-now-pay-later and loans from relatives - across all licensed operators and gambling intermediaries

🇸🇪 Sweden — Spelinspektionen measured channelisation of the competitive market at 84% for 2025 (down from 85% for 2024), on licensed turnover of SEK 28.2bn

🇬🇮 Gibraltar — UK Remote Gaming Duty rising to 40% (1 April 2026) is a major pressure on Gibraltar operators serving the British market

🇮🇲 Isle of Man — GSC published the Island's first dedicated gambling-sector money-laundering national risk assessment, rating overall risk 'Medium High' (updating the 2020 assessment), ahead of the 2026 Moneyval inspection

🇺🇸 Connecticut — Online casino tax rises from 18% to 20% in the sixth year after launch (~late 2026) per PA 21-23 section 17

🇺🇸 Nevada — Online casino (slots/table games) still not authorized; would require new legislation

🇺🇸 Pennsylvania — PGCB levied consent-agreement fines totalling USD 180,000 at its monthly meeting, mostly iGaming-related: Greenwood Gaming (betParx) USD 40,000 for underage floor access and USD 40,000 over unlicensed staff with access to iGaming patrons data, and Wind Creek Bethlehem USD 50,000 for KYC failures enabling fraudulent iGaming withdrawals

🇺🇸 West Virginia — HB 4397 / HB 4398 propose raising the iGaming and sports-betting tax to 25% — in House committee, not enacted.

🇨🇦 Ontario (Canada) — AGCO issued a CAD 200,000 monetary penalty to Score Media and Gaming Inc. (theScore.Bet) under Standard 4.07 of the Registrar's Standards for Internet Gaming: two cash-out offers of about CAD 380,000 and CAD 100,000 on a CAD 1,000 parlay were presented and accepted but not honoured, and the bet settled as a loss; the operator may request a Licence Appeal Tribunal hearing within 15 days

🇧🇷 Brazil — Portaria SPA/MF no 3.005 (2 October 2026) set the wind-down procedure after the ban: voluntary withdrawals closed at 23:59 on 5 October, sites and apps had to go offline from 6 October, operators reported final player balances as at that cut-off to the SPA through Sigap by 7 October and to the banks for refunds between 9 and 14 October (Caixa Econômica Federal steps in from 14 October where a bank cannot pay), and former operators have until 15 December 2026 to settle the financial and regulatory obligations of their authorised period, keeping a legal representative and current contact details, with changes notified within 48 hours

🇧🇷 Brazil — Nationwide ban on fixed-odds betting (Medida Provisória no 1.394, signed and published in an extra edition of the DOU on 25 September 2026 and in force that day) prohibits operating, offering and advertising sports betting and online games in Brazil, including from abroad: new deposits are barred at once, licensed sites and apps must go offline 10 days after publication, all federal and state authorisations end 30 days after publication without refund of the federal R$30 million grant fee, and betting payments, advertising and sponsorship are banned; the measure lapses unless Congress converts it into law (first deadline 23 November 2026)

🇧🇷 Brazil — Payment-blocking ordinance (Portaria SPA/MF no 2.750, signed 10 September, published and in force 14 September 2026) replaced Portaria SPA/MF no 566/2025: on an SPA blocking notice, financial and payment institutions and payment-arrangement institutors must block an unauthorised operator's accounts and stop new transactions to it within 24 hours, close suspicious-pattern analyses within 45 days and report suspected irregular activity to the SPA, blocked funds may be forfeited to the Union, and the SPA must publish a downloadable, API-accessible list of authorised operators with CNPJ, brands and domains

🇧🇷 Brazil — SPA opened a 45-day public consultation (27 July to 9 September 2026, via Brasil Participativo) on a draft ordinance setting the rules and conditions for authorising commercial fixed-odds betting operations.

🇧🇷 Brazil — Advertising ordinance (Portaria SPA/MF no 1.964, published 10 July 2026) took effect: every fixed-odds betting advert must carry a rotating harm warning occupying at least 10% of its area, misleading and specialist-endorsement ads are barred, and advertising aimed at under-18s is deemed abusive

🇧🇷 Brazil — Beneficiaries of federal debt-relief programmes (Novo Desenrola Brasil, Desenrola Adimplentes, Fies Empreendedor) barred from fixed-odds betting, with operators required to block their registration (Portaria SPA/MF no 2.066 and Instrucao Normativa MF no 21, 13 July 2026)

🇿🇦 South Africa — NGB issued Remote Gambling Server compliance notices and sought monitoring/blocking solutions to detect and block illegal online gambling

🇬🇧 United Kingdom — Statutory levy on operators (0.1%-1.1% of GGY; 1.1% for remote) commenced 6 April 2025; financial-risk / affordability checks being piloted under the 2023 White Paper

🇨🇿 Czechia — Ministry of Finance continues maintaining the illegal-gambling blocklist (IP and payment blocking) and updating player-protection rules

🇫🇷 France — Government proposal to legalise online casino (2025 Budget) withdrawn after opposition from land-based casinos; online casino stays prohibited.

🇫🇷 France — The 2025 Social Security Financing Act raised GGR levies from 1 July 2025 (online sports betting to ~59.3%, poker to a flat 10%, horse-race betting to ~52.9%) and added a 15% tax on operators' advertising spend.

🇮🇹 Italy — Public tender for new nine-year online concessions (€7M entry fee) under D.Lgs 41/2024 expected to proceed; each concession limited to a capped number of skins/domains.

🇮🇹 Italy — 2025 Budget Law raised the online betting tax to ~24.5% and online gaming/casino/poker/bingo to ~25.5% of GGR (up from 24% and 25%).

🇲🇹 Malta — MGA continued tightening AML and player-protection technical/reporting requirements amid ongoing EU pressure over cross-border licensing

🇷🇴 Romania — Authorization tax ~30% of GGR (min ~EUR 480,000) from 1 Aug 2025; self-exclusion register procedure (Order 79/2025) effective 17 June 2025

🇪🇸 Spain — Safer-gambling rules under RD 176/2023 (intensive-player monitoring, mandatory limits) in force and being enforced.

🇩🇰 Denmark — New B2B game-supplier licensing requirement and updated game-certification programme took effect 1 January 2025; revised Executive Orders for betting and online casino issued June 2025.

🇫🇮 Finland — Finnish Parliament passed the new Gambling Act in December 2025, confirming a 22% GGR tax and market opening

🇸🇪 Sweden — Updated annual supervision fees (around SEK 264,000 per licence) applied from 1 January 2025.

🇸🇪 Sweden — Continued focus on channelisation and measures against unlicensed/offshore operators targeting Swedish consumers.

🇬🇮 Gibraltar — Gambling Act 2025 in force 1 October 2025, replacing the 2005 Act: new B2C/B2B/GOSS licence categories, substance requirements, empowered Commissioner and Appeals Tribunal; a new tiered fee schedule (up to £200,000 for the largest operators) and codes of practice

🇬🇬 Alderney — AGCC continued to update its fee schedule and enhance AML and technical/testing standards

🇬🇬 Alderney — UK-facing operators licensed in Alderney still require a UK Gambling Commission licence and pay UK duties on GB customers (UK Remote Gaming Duty rose to 40% on 1 April 2026)

🇨🇼 Curaçao — Curaçao LOK: new National Ordinance for Games of Chance in force 24 Dec 2024; direct CGA licensing replacing the master/sub-licence model; old sub-licences expired in 2025 and the transition (portals, migration, detailed rules) is ongoing — high volatility.

🇺🇸 New Jersey — Effective 1 July 2025, NJ raised the tax on online casino GGR from 15% to 19.75% (and internet sports wagering from 13% to 19.75%, DFS from 10.5% to 19.75%) via the FY2026 budget bill A5803; Gov. Murphy had initially sought 25%.

🇺🇸 New Jersey — New Jersey moved to restrict/ban unlicensed sweepstakes ('social casino') operators offering casino-style play.

🇺🇸 Pennsylvania — PGCB reported record annual gaming revenue with interactive gaming (iGaming) continuing strong growth; the 54% online-slots / 16% table-games iGaming tax rates were unchanged.

🇺🇸 Pennsylvania — Continued legislative debate over taxing and regulating unlicensed 'skill games' and possible future online-tax changes, but iGaming rates remained as set as of 2026.

🇨🇦 Ontario (Canada) — iGO continued as an independent agency (12 May 2025) under the iGaming Ontario Act, 2024, ending its subsidiary relationship with the AGCO; national single-event/interprovincial questions continue to develop.

🇧🇷 Brazil — Regulated market live; SPA and courts pursuing blocking of unlicensed operators; ongoing debate over advertising and a possible higher tax

🇧🇷 Brazil — Complementary Law 224/2025 (sanctioned 26 Dec 2025) raised the operator GGR tax to 13% (2026), 14% (2027) and 15% (from 2028), adding a social-security contribution on top of the original 12% earmark.

🇨🇴 Colombia — Temporary 19% VAT on online gambling: taxed player deposits 14 Feb–31 Dec 2025 (Decree 0175/2025, upheld by Constitutional Court C-431/2025); a January 2026 emergency decree moved the 19% VAT to GGR for 2026, now under constitutional challenge.

🇦🇺 Australia — Government considering the 2023 Murphy inquiry ('You win some, you lose more') recommendations, including a phased ban on gambling advertising — response pending

🇵🇭 Philippines — Rapid growth of domestic online e-Games prompting tighter advertising and responsible-gaming restrictions amid public concern

🇵🇭 Philippines — Planned privatisation of PAGCOR's own casino operations advancing, aiming to resolve the operator/regulator conflict

🇿🇦 South Africa — Online betting revenue surged, overtaking casinos, intensifying calls to regulate interactive gambling

🇿🇦 South Africa — National Gambling Amendment Bill / Remote Gambling Bill proposals under discussion to create a national interactive-gambling framework — not yet enacted

🇧🇪 Belgium — Minimum gambling age for betting and casino products raised to 21, effective 1 September 2024.

🇨🇿 Czechia — 2024 consolidation package raised the general gambling-tax rate from 23% to 30% (effective 1 Jan 2024) and increased the minimum per-machine tax; technical games remain at 35%

🇮🇪 Ireland — Gambling Regulation Act 2024 signed into law, establishing the GRAI

🇷🇴 Romania — GEO 80/2024 and related measures tightened local-presence and B2B compliance obligations

🇪🇸 Spain — Constitutional Court (April 2024) annulled parts of advertising decree RD 958/2020, easing some sponsorship/advertising restrictions.

🇳🇴 Norway — Storting adopted DNS-blocking powers (May 2024) to reinforce the monopoly against offshore operators; ongoing EU/EEA scrutiny of the model

🇸🇪 Sweden — Gambling tax raised from 18% to 22% of gross gambling revenue effective 1 July 2024; industry (BOS) warned it could pressure channelisation toward unlicensed operators.

🇮🇲 Isle of Man — GSC adopted an updated enforcement policy (June 2024) emphasising civil penalties and public disclosures; increased enforcement activity since.

🇺🇸 Delaware — Rush Street/BetRivers relaunched online casino and launched mobile sports betting (January 2024)

🇺🇸 Rhode Island — Online casino launched 1 March 2024 via Bally's - the newest US iCasino state at launch

🇧🇷 Brazil — SPA issued implementing ordinances (portarias) and granted the first federal authorisations for a 1 Jan 2025 start

🇵🇭 Philippines — President Marcos banned all POGOs (July 2024); operations to cease by 31 December 2024

🇲🇹 Malta — Bill 55 (Gaming Act amendment) shields MGA licensees from enforcement in Malta of certain foreign judgments contrary to Malta's regime — controversial with other EU states

🇷🇴 Romania — GEO 82/2023 overhauled the regime: higher fees, GGR-based authorization tax, larger guarantees and enforcement/blacklist measures

🇫🇮 Finland — Government launched the reform to move from Veikkaus monopoly to a partial licensing system (October 2023)

🇳🇴 Norway — New consolidated Gambling Act (pengespilloven) in force 1 January 2023, merging three earlier acts and codifying the exclusive-rights monopoly

🇺🇸 Rhode Island — iGaming authorized (R.I. Gen. Laws 42-61.2)

🇧🇷 Brazil — Law 14.790/2023 signed (29 Dec 2023; published 30 Dec 2023), setting the 'Bets' framework, 12% GGR tax and R$30m fee

🇨🇴 Colombia — Tax reform (Ley 2277 of 2022) and subsequent debate over applying VAT to online gambling

🇦🇺 Australia — BetStop national self-exclusion register launched; customer pre-verification ('customer ID') requirements strengthened

⚖️ UKGC enforcement — William Hill group (WHG (International), Mr Green, William Hill Organization) — £19.2m — Record UK settlement for widespread anti-money-laundering and social-responsibility failings across the group's brands

⚖️ UKGC enforcement — Kindred Group (32Red £4.2m + Platinum Gaming / Unibet £2.9m) — £7.1m — Combined penalty for AML and social-responsibility failures, including weak source-of-funds triggers and controls

⚖️ UKGC enforcement — Entain (LC International / Ladbrokes Coral) — £17m — Then-largest UKGC penalty for AML and social-responsibility failures across online and land-based businesses

⚖️ UKGC enforcement — 888 UK Limited — £9.4m — AML and social-responsibility failings, including letting customers deposit up to £40,000 before source-of-funds checks

⚖️ FIAU (Malta) enforcement — Online Amusement Solution Limited — €386,567 — One of Malta's largest gaming AML fines, for breaches of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act following a 2019 inspection

🇬🇷 Greece — First cohort of permanent online licences awarded; HGC continues tightening advertising, player-protection and self-exclusion rules

🇺🇸 Connecticut — PA 21-23 enacted; online casino and online sports betting launched 19 October 2021

🇺🇸 Michigan — Online casino and online sports betting launched 22 January 2021

🇬🇷 Greece — Law 4635/2019 overhauled online gambling: permanent 7-year Type 1 (betting, EUR 3m) and Type 2 (other games, EUR 2m) licences and a 35% GGR tax

🇺🇸 Michigan — Lawful Internet Gaming Act (PA 152) and Lawful Sports Betting Act (PA 149) enacted

🇺🇸 West Virginia — Lottery Interactive Wagering Act (art. 22E) enacted; online casino launched July 2020

🇺🇸 West Virginia — Lottery Sports Wagering Act (art. 22D); retail and online sports betting launched

🇦🇺 Australia — Interactive Gambling Amendment Act closed the in-play 'click-to-call' loophole and enabled ISP blocking of illegal offshore sites

🇨🇴 Colombia — Acuerdo 04 of 2016 regulated online games; first operators live 2017

🇺🇸 Delaware — Online casino and poker launched under the 2012 Gaming Competitiveness Act

🇺🇸 Nevada — Interactive online poker launched under AB 114 (Ultimate Poker Apr 2013; WSOP.com Sep 2013)