Twitch adds more sites to gambling black list

Getting twitchy, PlayUp time up, UK self-exclusions, NSW’s race against time, financial risk checks +More

Compliance+More

Aug 03, 2023

Good morning. On today’s agenda:

Twitch makes more moves against gambling streamers.
PlayUp’s time as a US operator appears to be over.
Self-exclusions in the UK are on the rise.
Gambling venues in New South Wales are up against the clock on signage.
Financial risk checks – fact or friction?

You ask about my conscience and I offer you my soul.

Getting Twitchy

Twitch expands its gambling stream ban.

Blaze of glory: Amazon-owned Twitch has said it will expand the ban on live streams of gambling content on the platform by prohibiting two more sites, Blaze and Gamdom. This adds to the four sites it banned last October when it announced its new gambling policy.

As reported in The Washington Post, Blaze and Gamdom are not available in the US but users can still gain access using virtual private networks that mask their locations.
“Our goal now, as it was last fall, is to protect our community, address predatory behavior, and make Twitch safer,” said the company on X (formerly Twitter).

Under review: Back in October, Twitch said that gambling content has been a “big topic of discussion in the community” and that the company has been “actively reviewing” its place since the decision last October.

It banned four sites last year including Stake.com, Rollbit.com, Duelbits.com and Roobet.com.
It said at the time that despite its efforts to ban the sharing of links or referral codes to slots, roulette and dice games, “we’ve seen some people circumvent those rules and expose our community to potential harm”.

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Timed out

As reported in Earnings+More, PlayUp’s time as a US online gambling operator appears to be over. The company’s online gambling products are now offline in the two US jurisdictions it was operating in, Colorado and New Jersey.

Closed for maintenance: PlayUp requested that its Colorado sportsbook be placed in maintenance mode, a request granted by the Colorado Division of Gaming several days later. PlayUp had less choice in New Jersey after the Division of Gaming Enforcement pulled the company’s licenses, issuing a three-page letter detailing its violations.

Outstanding invoices owed to the Division.
Significantly reducing its employee headcount in New Jersey, with numerous officers departing from the company.
Not notifying the division and being unable to explain the delay in finalizing an investigation of a potential fraud charge for a patron that requested a withdrawal in March 2023.

“PlayUp’s continued non-compliance with NJSA 5:12-80 and inability to comply with the requirements of NJAC 13:69O and NJAC 13:69N demonstrate that it is currently unable to offer real money sports wagering to New Jersey customers at the standard required by Division statutes and regulations,” NJ DGE director David Rebuck wrote.

The Australian Financial Review claimed the company owes employees back wages and benefits.

Making good: According to TopNJCasinos.com, PlayUp has reached a settlement with New Jersey. Daniel Simic, PlayUp’s global CEO, sent an email to TopNJCasinos saying the two sides had “reconciled and agreed on any outstanding invoices, and any amounts owed to date have been paid.”

PlayUp has had a rough go of it in the US market.
The Aussie-based company was expected to be a serious player in the market but, following a failed sale to Sam Bankman-Fried’s now-defunct FTX in 2021, the company has been on a downward spiral.
The fallout of the sale to FTX led to finger-pointing between PlayUp and its US CEO Laila Mintas and, eventually, a lawsuit and countersuit that has yet to reach a legal conclusion.
A second sale to SPAC IG Acquisition Corp. fell apart in 2022 and, most recently, the company was looking to raise capital to shore up its business while it searched for a new suitor.

In December 2022, PlayUp was fined and denied a supplier license in Ohio over its Slots+ product. PlayUp officially pulled its licensing application in April 2023 and agreed to pay $120,000 in fines, although the company told PlayOhio it believed it was in full compliance:

“At all times, PlayUp believed it was operating within the bounds of Ohio law. As noted by the executive director, PlayUp acted diligently to come into compliance with the cease-and-desist order. PlayUp remains committed to compliance with all Ohio laws.”

End of the road: The company intends to continue pursuing opportunities in the US market, per its CEO – it operates a parimutuel wagering platform in 27 states – but its current situation, coupled with the difficulty operators have encountered trying to gain market share in the US, doesn’t bode well.

Breaking: Ex-US CEO Laila Mintas has filed an updated civil suit against PlayUp, which alleges PlayUp and CEO Simic improperly backdated a filing with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

The suit also claims PlayUp and Simic manufactured and manipulated other documents during the discovery process and that defendants lied in affidavits to the courts.

Gamstop exclusions

Self-exclusions in the UK are on the rise.

Maxed out: The UK’s self-exclusion scheme Gamstop has reported a first-half 12% YoY increase in sign-ups to its self-exclusion scheme, with over 48k registering in the first six months of 2023. Of the total, half excluded for the maximum period of five years allowed by the Gamstop system.

71% of new registrants were male.
Meanwhile 21% of new sign-ups were 16-24 year olds, representing a 30% increase YoY among this age group.
The organization also noted that May was the most active month for new sign-ups in its history, surpassing the previous record month of March this year.

Living the life: Gamstop’s new CEO Fiona Palmer said the data showed the “continuing importance” of the self-exclusion scheme. “This data puts those stories and lived experiences into a wider context and shows that self-exclusion is an increasingly important tool for anyone trying to take a break from gambling,” she added.

Sign of the times

Gambling venues in New South Wales, Australia, have less than a month to comply with new rules over gambling-related signs.

An inspector calls: Liquor & Gaming New South Wales inspectors are now engaged in the process of getting in touch with 530 venues across the state to ensure compliance with new rules over the signage of gambling products. The deadline is September 1.

All awnings and window displays have to be changed, with terms such as ‘VIP room’, ‘golden lounge’ and ‘players lounge’ all now on the proscribed list.
L&GNSW said nearly half of all venues have already complied.
“It's great to see industry and government working together to prevent and reduce gambling harm in the community,” kumbaya-ed minister for gaming and racing David Harris.
“We announced these changes back in May as a staged approach to ensure pubs and clubs were given the appropriate amount of time to conceal, remove and switch off any gambling promoting signage,” he added.
“Removing this signage is just one important part of our commitment to gambling reform to reduce harm and tackle money laundering head on in NSW, and we are delivering.”

Australian notebook

The Star: A Brisbane court has issued a A$140K fine against the casino over breaches dating back to 2017. The court heard that the company had insufficient controls related to its EFTPOS machines meaning customers had the option to use credit cards.

The recent fine comes after an investigation led by the Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation, the gambling regulator in the state.
That probe uncovered breaches by The Star at two of its properties, the one on the Gold Coast and the one in Brisbane.
Yvette D’Ath, the minister for justice and attorney-general, said it is unacceptable for casino operators to offer gambling with credit cards.
At the same time, she criticized the promotion of gambling activities for individuals who have self-excluded.

Financial risk checks series

Fact or friction?

Greasing the wheels: The publication of the UK Gambling Commission’s consultation document has at least provided some clarity over one of the areas of most confusion. Prior to its publication, the wording around frictionless checks had been frustratingly opaque.

But come the consultation, the attitude of the Commission, at least, is now clear.
“We propose a targeted system of financial risk checks for remote gambling that is proportionate to the risk of harm and introduced in a manner as frictionless for the consumer as possible,” the Commission said.

The key here is when “as frictionless as possible’ runs into, well, a lot of friction. The Commission lays out further details of the two types of check that will be introduced. The first is the one for financial vulnerability and here, at least, frictionless is an achievable goal.

This is the light-touch regime spoken about in the White Paper that includes, according to the consultation, non-intrusive checks using publicly available data at moderate levels of spend.
“Some larger operators already conduct such checks for all customers at registration, and others do so at some point in the customer journey,” the consultation document added.
These checks are the ones that will occur at a £125 net loss within a rolling 30-day period or £500 within a rolling 365-day period.
The Commission says it estimates these will reach approximately 20% of customer accounts and identify vulnerability such as where a customer is subject to bankruptcy orders or has a history of unpaid debts.
The Commission said they consider such light-touch checks for financial vulnerabilities as being “necessary, suitable and proportionate”.

Getting burned: But it is the financial risk checks where the idea of frictionless goes out of the window. This is the enhanced checks where an assessment needs to be made at “unusually high loss levels where the risks are greater”.

These assessments are proposed to be informed primarily by credit reference data, the consultation document states, and will apply where there are losses greater than £1,000 within a rolling 24 hours or £2,000 within 90 days.
It is these checks that raised the ire of the editor of the Racing Post for being “offensive, meddlesome and damaging”.

Later in the consolation, the Commission made it plain that with these checks a large element of friction is to be deliberately introduced into the process. If a credit reference agency “cannot provide a financial risk assessment” using the open source data, including information about risk based on both credit performance data and information about income and expenditure, such as current account turnover, then the process moves on a step.

“This may mean that the customer would need to provide information to help support understanding of financial risk,” the document stated.
“For example, this may be through open banking or the direct provision of information from the customer.”

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European notebook

Austria: The country’s financial police revealed it had imposed €2.8m of penalties for breaches of the gaming act in H123, double the total from last year. Magnus Brunner, Austria’s finance minister, said the actions of the financial police were “targeted and ensure fair competitive conditions”.

“This is how we protect honest companies, secure tax revenue and strengthen our business location,” he added.
The financial police said that 265 gaming devices had been confiscated during the period, up by 10% from H122.

Malta: The Malta Gaming Authority has canceled the B2C gaming service license of EGMIT Elite, which operated the Elite24bet website, for breaching several of the country’s gaming compliance and enforcement regulations.

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