Cry in the wilderness
Exiting CFTC chair leaves with political betting warning
CFTC chair ‘concerned’ about political betting.
Breaking: Greentube Alderney pays £1m in UK regulatory settlement.
In +More: Thailand opens up online gambling conversation.
Brazil: New working group formed to oversee the market.
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Benham’s parting call
If wishes were horses: The outgoing chair of the US derivatives regulator has called for further scrutiny of political betting markets.
Rostin Behnam exits the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on January 20, the day of newly converted crypto bro President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Benham said he was concerned about the legality and social impact of political and event betting, which became an issue in the recent US election campaign.
In 2023, the CFTC barred Kalshi, which offers event and election contracts, before a judge reversed the decision.
Worry me: “I have strong concerns around contracts related to elections, assassination, terrorism and gaming,” Behnam said. He believes his successor should bring a “renewed focus” to the issue, “so that we have more clear-cut lines of what we view as permissible and impermissible”.
Benham also said he felt supervision of the crypto space needs to be stronger.
“You still have a large swath of the digital asset space unregulated in the US regulatory system,” he told the paper.
“It’s important – given the adoption we’ve seen by some traditional financial institutions, the huge demand for these products by both the retail and institutional investors – that we fill this gap,” he said.
Under Benham’s stewardship the CFTC aggressively pursued enforcement of crypto cases, and among its biggest wins was a record-breaking $4.3bn settlement with mega exchange Binance.
Falling on deaf ears: However, the incoming Trump administration is extremely unlikely to heed Benham’s calls either on election betting or on the wider crypto issue.
Instead, Trump and his supporters embraced political betting in the run up to, and in the wake of, his election victory.
Subsequently, Crypto.com has announced it is also moving into sports prediction markets, again under the cover of CFTC regulation, while Robinhood Markets CEO Vlad Tenev has indicated his company is set to broaden out from offering political betting into sports markets.
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Admiral fine
I see no slips: Greentube Alderney, which operates the Admiral Casino online and land-based slot hall business in the UK, is to pay £1m in a regulatory settlement over social responsibility and AML failures.
This is the second time Greentube Alderney has had a run-in with the UK’s gambling regulator. In 2021 it paid out £685k as part of another regulatory settlement.
Charge sheet: The Gambling Commission noted that among Greentube’s shortcomings it failed to implement its own policies on ensuring customer limits were based on regular, sustainable income and failed to sufficiently follow its own guidelines on ensuring documents customers supplied were genuine.
In terms of AML, the Commission found Greentube did not always scrutinize available information upon receipt, leading to an “avoidable delay in the identification and potential escalation of money laundering and/or terrorist financing risks.”
It also found the company was not always following its own policy regarding what it refers to as risky occupations.
Bad education: John Pierce, the Commission’s director of enforcement, said the case arose from a follow-up compliance assessment “designed to ensure the operator had continued to apply lessons learned from previous regulatory action.”
"While we noted that the business had made significant general improvements, further regulatory breaches were still identified,” he added.
“The operator was subsequently required to swiftly put in place an effective action plan designed to remedy all of the identified failings.”
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Thailand: The Thai government will begin initial discussions on the push to legalize online gambling, according to Deputy Prime Minister Prasert Jantararuangtong.
Jantararuangtong has urged officials from various government ministries to synchronise their efforts, according to a report in the Bangkok Post.
The deputy PM, who is also the minister for the digital economy and society, said this week that an official study into the plan is expected to wrap up in the next couple of months.
This follows comments from new PM Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who said last weekend that regulating online gambling would be good not only for the economy but also for society.
Recall, last year the previous Thai government published plans for the legalization of B&M casinos within the country and put forward draft proposals for the establishment of integrated resort casinos.
Paraguay is to overhaul its gambling laws, ending monopolies within the sector. Under Ministry of Finance legislation, passed by lawmakers, new operators are allowed in and the number of lottery and sports-betting licensees will expand, with unlimited licenses for online betting.
France: The national gambling regulator has requested that online operators lower their promotional spend for this year after a review of submitted marketing strategies.
Operators are required to submit budgets to l’Autorité Nationale des Jeux every year for potential over-exposure of gambling advertisements.
The regulator said total promo spend is expected to rise by 11% under the plan seen by the ANJ.
Let’s get together: Poland, which assumed the rotating presidency of the EU on January 1, has called on the bloc to form a working group to tackle unregulated gambling.
In a note to the other members dated 19 December and seen by Bloomberg, Poland said Brussels should bring together a group of experts to address the $7.5bn loss in unrealized tax that black-market operations bilk from the EU each year.
The Polish proposal also outlined how information sharing between states could improve, and said AI-powered technologies could be used by enforcement agencies to make cross-border cases.
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Brazilian working group
What’s all this then? Supervisors in Brazil have formed a new body to monitor tax and licensing, the country has announced, following the opening of its regulated market on January 1.
The Intersecretariat Working Group, called GTI-Bets, consists of members of the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets, part of the Ministry of Finance, and the Special Secretariat of the Federal Revenue of Brazil.
GTI-Bets will fund investigations into the black market, make alterations to tax obligation compliance programs and subsidise the identification of possible illegal operators.
The group will also oversee information sharing within the online sports-betting sector in Brazil.
Not happening; In other news, the Federal Supreme Court has rejected the State Lottery of Rio de Janeiro’s appeal of the decision prohibiting state-licensed operators from offering online gaming across the country.
Loterj had claimed its licensed operators should be allowed to operate country-wide under Brazil’s new national regime. But the court determined the appeal had no legal standing.
Loterj-licensed operators will be required to implement geolocation services for online betting products to be confined to regional operations.
Greed is not good
Zoning out: Wynn’s plans for a casino in Hudson Yards, New York City, took a severe blow after a local board finalized its rejection of the zoning change needed for the proposed $12bn development, saying it “reeks of greed and disregard.”
The project being led by developer Related Companies alongside Wynn Resorts involves an 80-story tower overlooking the Hudson River that would house a gaming facility and hotel.
A former member of the local board of residents said the plan for a “garish Las Vegas-style monstrosity” has “no place on Manhattan’s West Side.”
“If we wanted to live in Las Vegas,” he added, “we would live in Las Vegas.”
Thousand Yards stare: While the local board only offers an advisory position within the review process, it could still potentially kill the project, which would require approval from the Manhattan borough president, the city council and Mayor Eric Adams.
The Hudson Yards proposed casino is bidding for one of the three downstate casino licenses that will be decided later this year.
Events calendar
May 8-9: World Regulatory Forum, Barcelona
Feb 26: Regulatory and compliance track, SBC Summit, Rio de Janeiro
Mar 10-13: Regulating the Game, Sydney
Mar 12-13: Next: NYC 25, RG Hub, New York
Apr 24-25: Leaders in Compliance Conference, Frankfurt
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