News In Brief: November 18-November 22, 2024

International Game Technology (IGT) has confirmed that it is investigating a cybersecurity breach, which was detected on November 17 and is affecting the company’s internal IT systems.

IGT disclosed the incident in a 6-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company has activated its cybersecurity incident response plan, which includes taking “certain systems offline to help protect them,” as well as consult with external advisors, and “remediate the unauthorized activity".

“The company is communicating with its customers and other stakeholders, as appropriate, and where possible, the company has implemented alternatives for certain operations in accordance with its business continuity plans to mitigate disruptions and continue servicing its customers.”

IGT has not yet determined whether this incident is material, according to the filing.

The cybersecurity incident comes after IGT shareholders recently approved a deal with Apollo Funds, an affiliate of Apollo Global Management, to take its gaming and digital business and Everi Holdings private in an all-cash deal that values the combined business at $6.3bn.

IGT did not comment in its SEC filing whether the breach has affected the businesses sold to Apollo Funds.

The Nevada Gaming Commission voted unanimously Thursday (November 21) to approve amendments to Regulation 22, which governs the operations of sportsbooks in the state. 

The changes to Regulation 22.0603 would require a sportsbook reporting these bets to the chair of the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB). 

John Michela, senior deputy attorney general of the Gaming Division of the Nevada Attorney General’s Office, said although immediate reporting is still required, 45 days is now allowed to provide a supplemental report with all the details.

Those details must include the causes for accepting the bet, corrective actions, actions taken with respect to payouts and any other information that may be required by the NGCB chair. 

Michela said the changes to Regulation 22.115 clarifies that licensed sportsbooks do not need NGCB chair approval to recognize that an attempted wager is void if placed after the event has already been determined. A previous draft would have allowed a broader recission without chair approval if a sportsbook’s house rules provided for recission in certain circumstances.

“However, the board’s Enforcement Division reviews house rules and they must be approved by the chair,” Michela said. “Based on this, the Enforcement Division was concerned that it would be inundated with new and novel house rule proposals allowing rescission without board chair approval under a myriad of circumstances.”

Michela said that is why the changes to Regulation 22.115 have been limited to specify that board chair approval is not required after a past-posted wager is declared void.

Republican state Senator Greg Albritton has said the issue of legalizing gaming in Alabama is not going away and will be on the table when the legislature reconvenes next year. 

“It is here. It is here to stay,” Albritton told WIAT-TV in Montgomery about illegal gambling in the state. He said the only thing lawmakers can do is try to get a handle on the illegal market to protect the public. 

Albritton originally sponsored the gaming bill in the Senate but voted against it after a water-down gambling and lottery bill emerged from a conference of the Alabama House and Senate. The compromise would have legalized a state lottery plus slot machines at four racetracks and three existing bingo facilities.

Despite a consensus in that committee, the compromise measure was defeated in the Senate by a vote of 20-15, one vote short of the 21 votes required to formally approve the legislation by the required three-fifths majority.

Albritton told WIAT that it will be hard to find a lawmaker who will sponsor a comprehensive bill after it did not pass last year. Republican Representative Andy Whitt, who also sponsored a bill last session, expects several gaming bills to be introduced, but he is not planning on filing any legislation.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) gambling regulator has awarded its first payments provider licence and fifth licence overall to local fintech PayBy Technology Projects.

PayBy said in a statement on Monday (November 18) that the gaming-related vendor licence will allow it to “provide a range of services, including digital wallets, secure payments, and advanced fraud detection systems” to commercial gaming operators licensed by the General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA).

The GCGRA has since added PayBy to its webpage of gaming licensees without comment, joining the under-construction Wynn Al Marjan integrated resort, lottery monopoly The Game LLC, and fellow vendor licensees Aristocrat and Smartplay International.

PayBy was acquired by UAE fintech Astra Tech in 2022 after 17 years in the sector, and received permission from the UAE Central Bank to support Astra Tech’s global payments app in January 2023. 

The GCGRA has yet to issue licences for internet gaming or sports wagering, although the inclusion of both categories on the regulator’s licensee webpage indicates that licences will be issued at some point.

The Tasmanian state government has backflipped on a promise to create Australia’s first mandatory cashless slot machine market.

Following a recommendation from the Tasmanian Liquor and Gaming Commission, the conservative government had promised in 2022 that it would introduce a mandatory pre-commitment card with annual and daily loss limits by the end of 2024.

But after delays and months of media speculation that the government was retreating from its commitment, Premier Jeremy Rockliff confirmed that officials have “deferred progress” on the initiative and will align with pre-commitment strategies of other state governments.

The government said in a statement that MaxGaming, the company implementing the pre-commitment plan, referred to a “likely significant cost increase and implementation delays” and the need to “create a centralised banking system”.

Crossbench fury over the backflip resulted in a Greens party no-confidence motion in the minority Liberal government, which was defeated with the support of the opposition Labor party.

Alliance for Gambling Reform chief advocate Reverend Tim Costello said in a statement that the suspension of mandatory carded play represented “inexcusable capitulation to the power of the gambling lobby”.

“To claim that there are technological challenges to implementing this system is complete spin and misdirection,” Costello said.

“Crown Casino in Melbourne has now implemented a cashless card — they have proven the lie to those who claim it cannot be done.

“The government has effectively moved to protect the obscene super profits that are being made in Tasmania’s 90 poker machine venues — at the cost of the public of Tasmania who are being devastated by pokies losses.”

Swedish online gambling trade group BOS has published a report into anti-money laundering (AML) policies in Sweden's licensed market, alongside a checklist of AML good practice.

The report is based on several interviews with Swedish online gambling companies and includes proposals for bolstering AML standards.

The document is often critical of the Swedish Gambling Authority. It quotes one respondent as saying: "The Swedish Gambling Authority needs to decide what they want— a risk-based approach or something else. They need to establish a framework within which operators can work risk-based and have an open dialogue without fear of repercussions. There must be room for improvement!" 

Commenting on the release of the checklist and report, BOS secretary general Gustaf Hoffstedt said: "Today we take this comprehensive approach to the problem of money laundering. The purpose is to make visible how the work against money laundering in the gambling industry can be improved. We present our report and checklist completely openly, so that even a gambling company that is not a member of BOS can use the material, if they so wish. We all win from that."

Singapore’s gambling regulator has cut Genting Singapore’s licence renewal for its Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) casino by one-third over “unsatisfactory” tourism contributions.

The Gambling Regulatory Authority (GRA) on Monday (November 18) extended RWS’ casino licence for two years instead of a maximum three-year extension.

The GRA said an independent evaluation panel found RWS’ “tourism performance” from 2021 to 2023 was “unsatisfactory, with a number of areas that require rectification and substantial improvement”.

The statement did not elaborate on which areas were lacking or how they could improve.

The extension is in force from February 6, 2025, and RWS’ next evaluation is scheduled for 2026.

Genting Singapore acknowledged the extension in a statement on Monday that invoked challenges for operations during the height of the pandemic.

However, the company did not disclose that its extension had been reduced by one year.

“The tourism industry in Singapore in general, including RWS, faced very significant challenges during this evaluation period which coincided with the global pandemic,” it said.

“RWS continues to accelerate its transformation to refresh and rejuvenate existing offerings to deepen its destination appeal and visitor experiences.”

Thailand is aiming to legalise casino operations in mid-2025 at the earliest, amid growing foreign operator communications with the government, according to the Prime Minister’s office.

Prommin Lertsuridej, the secretary-general of the office, told Bloomberg on Friday (November 15) that the Cabinet is likely to approve the “entertainment complex” bill by year’s end before sending it to parliament.

Debate in the upper and lower houses of parliament is likely to push passage of the bill to no earlier than May 2025, said Prommin, a former deputy prime minister.

Prommin said “big investors with world-class experience” have been approaching the government on the legislation and prospects for a land-based gambling market, which analysts say would rival Singapore.

Investor interest in the Thai market is steadily ramping as confidence in the political and economic environment grows, with an integrated resort-themed conference in Bangkok in early December attracting regional industry heavyweights.

Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra’s deputy secretary-general for political affairs said in September that casino floor space would be capped at 10 percent, or twice the limit in Singapore.

A finance ministry source has also told Thai media that three of a maximum seven resorts would be situated in the capital.

Anti-gambling independent lawmaker Andrew Wilkie has introduced a bill to the Australian parliament that would compel gambling operators to refund revenue sourced from proceeds of crime to those crimes’ victims.

Wilkie, long-time member for the federal Tasmanian electorate of Clark, which includes the capital Hobart, introduced the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment (Making Gambling Businesses Accountable) Bill 2024 to the lower house today (November 18).

“This bill will ensure that gambling entities are more accountable by preventing them profiting from illegal behaviour,” the bill outline reads.

It “amends relevant legislation to put a positive obligation on gambling companies to report to [financial transactions regulator] AUSTRAC if they have reason to suspect a person is paying for a gambling service with money they have obtained illegally”.

The bill would then allow the Federal Court to compensate an aggrieved party or parties whose financial losses fuelled the third party’s gambling.

“This will prevent gambling companies from profiting off the misfortune of others,” the outline says.

Wilkie has submitted numerous tough gambling bills in parliament since being elected to parliament in 2010, almost all to no avail given bipartisan parliamentary support for the gambling industry.

However, recent years of regulatory and legislative crackdowns on the gambling industry and Wilkie’s role in boosting industry whistleblowers have granted him greater visibility when probing government reluctance in gambling reforms.