Pilot study risk checks limits: ‘£5k is the new £2k’
Risk checks pilot limits, Star revelations, KiX kicks back, Italian license fee +More
Financial risk checks pilot study limit will be set at £5k, says report.
In +More: New Jersey tax rate, Dutch banks balk.
Star wars: bad practice exposed in Bell inquiry hearings.
Football trading game KiX fights back against newspaper claims.
In Italy, the new license fee is ‘a gift’ for black market.
Like a waterfall in slow motion.
Risk checks pilot limits
Moving the temporary goalposts: The limits for the financial risk checks pilot study that is due to take place at some point this year will be set at £5k a month or £25k a year vs. the £1k in 24 hours and £2k in 90 days limits set at the time of the White Paper.
The news about the size of the limits came via the Nick Luck podcast yesterday.
He was following up on a story in The Sun that suggested the government would be announcing a “dramatic late change” on the checks levels this week.
Miller’s crossing: This follows a blog in February by Tim Miller, executive director at the UK Gambling Commission, in which he said the limits for the lighter touch financial vulnerability checks would be set higher than was originally set out in the White Paper.
He wrote that “to ease the introduction of these checks they will initially come into force at a higher threshold for a short period of time, before reverting to a lower threshold later in the year to smooth implementation for consumers.”
It remains to be seen whether the rumored limits for the enhanced checks will be similarly pitched as being the limits for the pilot study only.
It’s too late, baby: Sources pointed out the announcement with regard to the pilot study was overdue but behind-closed-doors discussions over the limits that will be used have been ongoing for a while.
Sense and sensibility: Charles Cohen, CEO at open banking solution provider Department of Trust, said it “makes sense” to start at a higher level than what was envisaged by the White Paper. “But the Commission has said previously it will bring the levels down to the levels anticipated in the White Paper eventually,” he added.
“The key point is the principle of financial risk being introduced to the protection of customers at predictable and standardized levels of spend.”
Miller time: The blog in February from Miler said the pilot study is likely to last between four and eight months. He added that the pilot will encompass a selection of operators.
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North America
Maryland: The sponsor of the failed iCasino bill, state senator Ron Watson, said he doesn’t intend to file any more bills until 2026, adding that other senators were not receptive to the potential for any legislative attempt before then.
New Jersey: The bill that proposes a doubling of the sports-betting and iCasino tax rate to 30% has been officially introduced to the Senate State Wagering, Tourism & Historic Preservation Committee. SB 3064 was pre-filed last month by state Sen. John McKeon. If approved, the measure would come into force on Jan. 1, 2025.
Also in New Jersey, state Sen. Kristen Corrado has put forward a bill that would see the Garden State join the bandwagon of jurisdictions banning college prop bets. The bill follows the call from NCAA president Charlie Baker for a nationwide ban on just such betting.
Delaware: A bill that would throw open the market to greater competition has been proposed in the state House by Reps. Frank Cooke and William Bush. Rush Street is currently the sole OSB provider via a deal with the state lottery, a role that was previously filled by 888.
The Cooke and Rush bill would authorize two skins each for the state’s three casino operators.
MGM Resorts has filed a federal lawsuit against the Federal Trade Commission alleging that the investigation into last September’s cyberattack has failed to follow conflict of interest guidelines, given that FTC chair Linda Khan and a senior aide were guests at the MGM Grand at the time of the attack, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Global
The Netherlands: The Dutch Banking Association has said it will not set limits on how much its customers gamble due to privacy concerns, according to local media. “We see the size of the number of people with problematic gambling debts, but we are surprised that the solution to these problems is being deposited with the banks,” the association’s Ronit van der Schaaf told NOS.nl.
Also in the Netherlands, the gambling regulator Kansspelautoriteit has successfully imposed a binding instruction on hosting provider DigitalOcean to stop hosting illegal affiliate websites, including casinozonderregistratie.net and nieuw-casinos.net.
Summer of sports integrity: UEFA and the IOC have joined together in the fight against match-fixing with a workshop that took place in London last week where cross-sector collaboration was the focus, including an “integrity exchange” ahead of the Euros in Germany and the Olympics in Paris.
Macau: The legislative assembly has passed the bill that will prevent junkets from allowing their patrons to bet with credit in Macau’s casinos. As of August 1, only the concessionaires will be allowed to issue credit to gamblers, though the junkets will be able to contract with operators to carry out credit services as long as the money lent out belongs to the casino itself.
43 billboards outside Victoria, Australia: Despite protesting it didn’t know the act was illegal, BlueBet has been fined A$50k ($32k) for displaying ads on 43 digital billboards overlooking public roads. The company was also ordered to pay the legal costs of the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission.
888 brand Mr Green has been accused of breaching anti-money laundering laws in Denmark, and has until June 10 to submit an improved risk assessment.
What we’re reading
It’s all your fault: DraftKings CEO Jason Robins used an interview with Forbes to suggest that individuals displaying problem gambling traits should take some responsibility on their own shoulders. “It’s not this black-and-white line,” he said.
“There is some onus on the individual in these situations, too. But there’s a role we also have to play. We have to make sure that we’re both doing what we can to prevent it.”
Star exposed in Bell enquiry
Jaw jaw: Star Entertainment's chief executive and chair privately expressed the intention to “go to war” with the New South Wales regulator, according to evidence given at the public hearing stage of the Bell inquiry on Monday.
Working Weeks: Nick Weeks, special manager of Star Sydney, who was appointed by the state government to take over the reins of the property, told the inquiry after the Independent Casino Commission became concerned the casino had not done enough to overhaul its practices following multiple AML failures.
Weeks said the company was “bulk approving” high-risk customers when it was meant to check the source of their wealth.
He also alleged it falsified documentation about welfare checks.
Stay classy: In an email from chair David Foster to the recently departed CEO Robbie Cooke, he said “we are meeting Monday to get ready for war though.” Foster suggested attempting to remove Weeks via a shareholder class action.
Sticks and stones: Weeks told the inquiry it was “extraordinary” that the chair and CEO of a listed company had exchanged emails “contemplating a class action from shareholders against me personally... where their public position… is that they’re working cooperatively.”
Ding dong: The first Bell report in October 2022 found Star was unsuitable to hold a casino license, claiming it to be a “case study of unethical conduct and cultural failure” that may have evaded taxes and facilitated A$900m ($577m) of banned gambling transactions.
It tolls for thee: Should the second inquiry find Star unsuitable, it will permanently lose its license to operate in New South Wales.
KiX kicks back
A new token-based football game that was the subject of an exposé in The Times last weekend due to its links to failed soccer player trading platform Football Index has defended itself, saying there is “no link at a product level” between the two games.
The article said that Adam Cole, former CEO at Football Index, is an investor in KiX and is also acting as an advisor.
The founder of KiX, Abdullah Suleyman, was previously head of trading at Football Index.
The article noted KiX claims in its pitch deck that Football Index provided a “proof of concept” for the new game. Football Index collapsed in 2021 with users owed up to £90m in virtual football shares. But in its X posting on Monday, KiX said it had worked to “specifically make a product which minimizes user risk.”
KiX said it offered full transparency in all its transactions as recorded on the blockchain.
It added that governance of KiX was by its users, enabled by its DAO with user self-custody of tokens and “sustainable” winnings “directly funded from trading commissions.”
It also claimed there was “near-perfect liquidity” for token buybacks enabled by pooled funds held under individual smart-contracts.
The statement concluded by suggesting KiX would “strive to remain transparent in every part of its business” and would continue to communicate every aspect of its development. It added that its White Paper remains available and contains “extensive information” about the KiX project, including many of the points made above.
The White Paper can be viewed here.
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Italian licensing
Mama mia: Italian online operators have balked at the new €7m license fee, declaring it a boon for illegal bookmakers. Lawmakers finalized the sum despite being warned by industry groups that the number, some 35 times higher than the previous fee from 2018, was “unwarranted”.
“Let me give you a Back to the Future outlook on black market operators in Italy,” said Nico Jansem, CEO of Bet IT Best.
“They are clapping their hands as this is the best possible marketing campaign they could dream of, as this for sure will massively push and drive traffic to non-licensed operators.”
Operators will also pay a 3% GGR fee, with the new concessions being authorized by the end of 2024 and licenses set to a nine-year limit. Finance ministers have said the hike is due to changing market dynamics, and the domination of a small group of operators, specifically SNAI, Lottomatica (which is acquiring SKS365), Flutter and Entain.
Calendar
Apr 17-18: East Coast Gaming Congress, Atlantic City
May 6: Gaming in Spain
May 7: SBC Summit North America Player Protection Symposium
May 28-30: IAGA, Washington DC
June 6: Gaming in Holland
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