News In Brief: January 27-January 31, 2025

Ireland is still waiting on the appointment of its seven-person Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI), which will “likely happen in a matter of weeks”, after its search was put on hold due to elections, according to the GRAI.

Once the authority is in place and the GRAI is established, the Gambling Regulation Act, which became law on October 23, 2024, “will be commenced on a phased basis”, a spokesperson for the GRAI told Vixio GamblingCompliance.

Following a general election in December 2024, a new Irish government entered into office on January 23. Jim O'Callaghan was named the new minister for justice, allowing the appointments to resume.

Licensing will also be “commenced in tranches” with the “commencement for certain licence types taking place in 2025 — once the process is approved by the authority”, according to the regulator.

“Licensing is obviously a key priority and the obligations in the Act pertain to licensees, hence the prioritisation of licensing as soon as possible. That being said a number of factors have to be taken into account including the expiry of existing licenses and the transitional arrangements,” the GRAI said.

The GRAI’s licensing team is still looking for operators to register their interest in a survey hosted on its website, to estimate the number of potential applications for each licence type and gather information for a potential mailing list.

Estonia is expecting to finalise new gambling law amendments before the end of 2025, according to the Ministry of Finance.

A document indicating the legislative intent and the topics that will be discussed with interest groups was submitted by the Ministry of Finance on January 27.

“After that, we will start to write the law amendment which is expected to be finished by the end of 2025,” Kersti Rahlin, a lawyer in the financial information policy department in the ministry and the person responsible for the intention, told Vixio GamblingCompliance.

“In this legislative intent there are a large number of topics that need to be changed, f.e the limit of the lottery prize pool, the definition of online gambling, requirements for the gambling operator, age limit of the player, the player's protection rules, the efficiency of penalty rates ect,” Rahlin said.

A bill that would eliminate the North Dakota Gaming Commission has been approved by the Senate, sending the measure to the state's Assembly for their consideration.

Senate Bill 2224 would eliminate the gaming commission and place all authority to regulate gaming with the state attorney general’s office. The Senate voted 25-21, with one senator absent not voting on Wednesday (January 29) to approve the bill that was opposed by the gaming industry.

“The gaming commission is imperative for many reasons,” said Scott Meske, a government relations strategist who represents the North Dakota Gaming Alliance. 

“Overall approval of any changes to administrative rules are voted on by the gaming commission and then sent to the legislative administrative rules committee for final approval,” Meske said. “By removing the gaming commission from the equation, this puts the attorney general as the sole source of any regulation within the industry.”

Republican state Senator Larry Luick, who co-sponsored SB 2224, reminded his colleagues that Governor Kelly Armstrong was looking at ways to downsize government.

“This is a very low hanging fruit,” Luick said. 

A ten-year NBA veteran is under investigation for a potential role in a sports-betting ring, according to a report.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Thursday (January 30) that Terry Rozier, a guard for the Miami Heat, is part of an investigation by the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York regarding unusual betting patterns on a March 2023 game when Rozier was a member of the Charlotte Hornets.

In the game, Rozier left the game with a reported foot injury in the first quarter, and did not return to the game, nor did he play in the Hornets final eight games of the 2023-24 season.

The investigation is part of the same probe that resulted in the lifetime ban and subsequent prosecution of another NBA player, Jontay Porter, last year.

An NBA spokesman told the WSJ that the NBA had investigated the matter after being alerted to the unusual activity and found no rules were broken.

"The league conducted an investigation and did not find a violation of NBA rule,” the spokesman said. “We are now aware of an investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York related to this matter and have been cooperating with that investigation."

Cracks are beginning to appear in Thai government messaging on integrated resort legalisation, with the finance ministry pushing for the doubling of a resort's maximum casino floor area to 10 percent.

The ministry has requested that the Council of State (CoS), a leading legislative advisory body that is examining a draft casino-resort bill, raise the gaming area percentage in the bill from 5 percent of property floor space.

Deputy finance minister Julapun Amornvivat on Monday (January 27) said the ministry supported a more operator-friendly proportion of gambling areas, but there is no indication the CoS will accept the request, the Bangkok Post reported.

The CoS acknowledged on Tuesday that government agencies with a stake in the bill had met with its officers on four occasions over recent weeks, but that no decision has been reached.

Meanwhile, a potentially serious obstacle for the would-be land-based casino segment is looming after an anti-gambling civic organisation launched a petition for a referendum on casino legalisation.

Recent opinion polling suggests a comfortable majority of the Thai public is opposed to casino legalisation.

Turkey’s Treasury and finance minister has warned of the consumer dangers and tax revenue losses caused by illegal gambling, after blocking access to 233,000 illegal gambling sites in 2024.

The General Directorate of the National Lottery Administration (NPI), which is affiliated with the ministry, reported the sites to the Information Technologies and Communication Authority.

Mehmet Şimşek, the minister of Treasury and finance, said the government is “determined” to “prevent unregistered economic activities and financial crimes that cause tax loss and victimisation of our citizens”.

“We are taking all kinds of measures to prevent illegal betting, virtual gambling and unauthorised draws, and we will continue to do so,” Şimşek told local media sources last week.

In 2023, 168,000 sites were also blocked for offering illegal gambling.

Around 56 percent of the illegal sites in 2024 were “broadcasting” from the US, 17 percent were from Armenia and 6 percent were “of Dutch origin”.

Additionally, criminal complaints were filed with the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office last year for 375,367 websites and 6,731 unique domain names for illegal gambling.

The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published its final guidance on identifying, assessing and managing gambling-related harms.

NICE, which provides national guidance and advice to improve health and social care, made a raft of recommendations, including healthcare professionals asking people about gambling at health checks and GP appointments.

Professor Jonathan Benger, NICE’s chief medical officer, said: “Gambling-related harm has a devastating impact on those who experience it, and the people close to them. Our useful and usable guidelines will help healthcare professionals and others to identify those needing help earlier and ensure they get the treatment and support they need.”

The recommendations were welcomed by the UK’s gambling minister, Baroness Twycross, who said it will “help those experiencing harmful gambling to get access to the right support”.

“The government's plans to introduce a statutory levy, which will generate £100 million each year, will provide the investment needed to further expand the support and treatment on offer for those in need, Twycross said.

The Hawaii legislature may consider several gaming bills this year, but to date consideration of any gaming measures has been short-lived in a legislative body that has been overwhelmingly against any forms of legalized gambling. 

Senate President Ron Kouchi, a Democrat who has supported previous efforts to legalize gambling, introduced Senate Bill 1507, while the Democratic House Speaker Nadine Nakamura introduced the companion bill in the House.

If approved, these bills would create the Hawaii Lottery and Gaming Corporation (HLGC) to offer a lottery, online poker and casino games, through a single commercial partner. However, there is a clause in both bills that restricts the HLGC from offering “wagering on any sporting event or sporting contest.” 

Kouchi’s bill allows Hawaii to join the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement for online poker and would launch a state-backed sweepstakes casino with free-play games with “Hawaii-related prizes” to individuals outside the state in an effort to attract tourists to Hawaii. 

The website would be available across the U.S., except where prohibited by other states’ laws. Meanwhile, House Bill 1463 requires the Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism to conduct a feasibility study on the establishment of a state lottery.

A proposal to raise the legal age to place a sports bet from 18 to 21 in New Hampshire has been set aside for the 2025 session.

The House Ways and Means Committee voted 11 to 7 on Monday (January 27) in favor of finding House Bill 83 “inexpedient to legislate,” which means the bill should not advance out of committee. 

Republican state Representative Fred Doucette, who made the motion to dismiss HB 83, said this bill isolates one specific betting platform, sports betting, and does not change charitable gaming.

Doucette reminded his colleagues that the state is having “a revenue issue as it stands.”

“I can see revenues going down with this piece of legislation,” Doucette said.

Preliminary estimates for state revenues found a $83.7m shortfall in business profits tax revenues since July. 

Considering HB 83 would have been effective halfway through fiscal year 2026, state financial analysts expected a decrease in state lottery revenue, and transfer to the education trust find “by approximately $320,000 in FY 2026 and by $640,000 in 2027 and each year thereafter.”

The Taiwan Sports Lottery broke its sales record in 2024, posting NT$64.32bn ($1.96bn) in ticket sales, lottery officials said on Tuesday (January 28).

The annual haul was up a solid 8.5 percent on 2023’s result owing to momentum of sports-betting products under lottery control, therefore maintaining the Sports Lottery’s status as a rising power among Asian lottery jurisdictions.

To mark Lunar New Year, the Sports Lottery has opened up single-fixture and in-play betting for the week-long holiday on US basketball, European football, North American ice hockey, the US National Football League and other competitions.

The initiative is an indicator of how adventurous and diverse the Sports Lottery has become over the years, spurred in part by revenue impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. One such addition to the lottery’s betting roster has been esports tournaments, the first esports market to be legalised in Asia.

Taiwan’s much larger Welfare Lottery earlier also reported a new record for 2024, with ticket sales growing 15.6 percent to NT$149.73bn ($4.56bn).

Taiwan’s more than $6.5bn dual lottery market is stronger than the US dollar conversion suggests given that the Taiwan dollar is experiencing its weakest run against the greenback in eight years.

The UK Gambling Commission has coordinated the arrest of three people accused of fixing a boxing match in an attempt to cash in through unfair bets.

The regulator said it took three individuals into custody, with the support of West Midlands Police.

A 54-year-old woman, a 33-year-old man and a 23-year-old man were arrested in Birmingham, the commission said.

An investigation was launched into the alleged cheating after suspicious betting activity linked to a boxing match was reported last year.

The three are accused of breaching Section 42 of the Gambling Act, which relates to cheating in an attempt to profit from gambling.

The commission offered no additional details on the identities of the accused or the boxing match in question and said it would be making no further comment.

Former Resorts World Las Vegas agent Nicole Bowyer will have her license revoked as part of a settlement reached with Nevada gaming regulators regarding an illegal bookmaking complaint. 

The proposed settlement will be considered Thursday (January 30) by the Nevada Gaming Commission.

In a stipulation agreement released Monday by the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB), Bowyer agreed not to seek any gaming-related approvals for five years and to cooperate with the board and any law enforcement agency in its investigation.

Bowyer also waived her right to a public hearing on the revocation. No fine was assessed.

Bowyer is the wife of Mathew Bowyer, who pleaded guilty in Los Angeles federal court to operating an unlawful gambling business. He is scheduled to be sentenced in April. 

“As an independent agent under contract with Resorts World, Boyer was allowed to directly profit from casino wagering and her husband and his friends at Resorts World,” the NGCB said in its complaint released in August.

The NGCB noted that Bowyer has failed to cooperate with their investigation. Previously, Nevada regulators agreed to revoke the gaming license of former Resorts World and MGM Resorts World executive Scott Sibella but have yet to release a stipulation agreement with Resorts World and Genting Berhad.

A Brazilian Supreme Court justice has rejected the state lottery of Rio de Janeiro’s latest appeal against an earlier order to geofence the state’s online betting market and prevent access by players located beyond Rio’s borders.

Lottery authority LOTERJ had sought six months to comply with an initial Supreme Court injunction of January 2, citing technical challenges and a lack of clarity around the scope of the order.

On Friday (January 24), Justice Andre Mendonça rejected that appeal and gave the Rio lottery five days to comply or face daily fines amounting to R$500,000 (US$85,000). LOTERJ’s president would also personally be liable for R$50,000 per day, per the judge’s 11-page order.

Brazil’s federal government brought the civil lawsuit against LOTERJ late last year, arguing that the scope of Rio de Janeiro’s licensing regime conflicts with Brazilian federal laws.

Among other things, Justice Mendonça noted that an initial licensing decree would have required all Rio-licensed operators to deploy geolocation technologies before it was later amended, while geofencing requirements are in place for state-level licensees in Paraná.

New Jersey Assemblyman Brian Bergen, a Republican, has introduced a measure that proposes to ban all online advertising of sports betting.

Bergen last week introduced A5207, which specifically would ban the “posting, distributing, broadcasting, disseminating” of any sports-betting advertisements on the internet or any other web-based platform.

“I just think it has become totally ridiculous,” Bergen told New Jersey 101.5 radio station. “The advertising has become like a runaway train, and it needs to be reeled in, in my opinion.”

Under the bill, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) would enforce the advertising prohibition. A5207 has been referred to the Assembly Tourism, Gaming and the Arts Committee for further consideration. 

A Minnesota lawmaker has introduced the latest version of a bill designed to complete a multi-year effort to legalize sports betting in the state.

Senator Jeremy Miller, a Republican, introduced the “Minnesota Sports Betting Act 3.0” on Friday (January 24), which largely utilizes the framework that stakeholders reportedly agreed to in the final days of last year’s legislative session.

Under the proposal, 11 state Indian gaming tribes would have the exclusive rights to offer land-based and mobile betting with a 20 percent tax rate on revenues on bets made outside tribal reservations.

The bill also includes stronger responsible gaming protections than those seen in most other states, including a ban on push notification marketing on mobile devices and default wagering limits set upon the creation of an account.

One notable provision that was in the previous framework but excluded from this version of the bill is a three-hour waiting period before deposited funds can be used to place a wager.

Minnesota’s legislative session runs through May 19.