Kind of blue
Porn-related social media stunt costs Stake its UK license
Soccer clubs also warned over business ties with unlicensed operators.
Prediction markets: CFTC appointment rumor, Kalshi Webull deal, ’Hood comments.
In +More: Mississippi sweeps news, Michigan C&D, Betr’s Ferrari stunt warning.
The UK Gambling Commission completes stage 1 of financial risk checks pilot.
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Caught on camera
Caught with their pants down: A video posted on X featuring porn star Bonnie Blue posing outside a Trent Nottingham University building that displayed the Stake logo has seen the company lose its UK license. It has also thrown the future of the Isle of Man-based white-label provider TGP Europe into serious doubt.
In a statement issued yesterday, the UK Gambling Commission said Stake.uk.com would no longer be a licensed website as of next month.
The move followed a Gambling Commission investigation into what it termed the “widely watched” video with the Stake logo.
After a meeting with TGP Europe, under whose flag Stake flies in the UK, the white-label provider said it would immediately stop accepting new registrations to the Stake.uk.com platform and would also remove redirection links from the main Stake website.
X-rated marks the spot: An emailed statement from a Stake.com spokesperson said the company has made a “strategic decision in mutual agreement with TGP Europe to exit white-label agreements.”
It added that its focus was now on “securing local licenses through our in-house platform and operations, building upon our growth in key regulated markets such as our recent expansions into Italy and Brazil."
Blue on Blue Stake.com remains the front-of-shirt sponsor at Everton FC and the Commission said it would be writing to the club, along with other soccer clubs with unlicensed sponsors, warning of the “risks of promoting unlawful gambling websites.”
The gambling watchdog will “seek assurance” from the clubs in question that they have carried out due diligence on the white-label partners and that UK consumers “cannot transact with unlicensed sites.”
Such advice marks a step-change on the Commission’s position on sites that are not licensed in the UK but are able to advertise gambling services that do not target UK consumers.
Get your kit off: The Commission added that clubs will be asked to “demonstrate they have assurance that any steps to geo-block the sites are effective, recognising that some blocking can be easily by-passed by use of tools such as a virtual private network.”
Further, they will be “expected to carry out sufficient due diligence to assure the Commission that consumers cannot transact with the sites from Great Britain by any means.”
The Commission will also be taking steps to independently verify effective measures are in place.
“The letter will warn that club officers may be liable to prosecution and, if convicted, face a fine, imprisonment or both if they promote unlicensed gambling businesses that transact with consumers in Great Britain.”
Short leash: TGP Europe has been the subject of a previous enforcement action on the part of the Commission when it was fined over £316k for AML and social responsibility failures.
It remains the white-label provider behind most of the Asian-facing brands that feature on the shirts of a number of English Premier League and Football League clubs, including BJ88 at Bournemouth, SBOTOP at Fulham and Kaiyun Sports at Nottingham Forest.
Another crypto-based brand BC.GAME remains the sponsor at Leicester City after it ceased UK operations late last year following accusations related to its presence as a licensee in Curaçao.
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Prediction markets
CFTC appointment: President Donald Trump plans to pick Brian Quintenz, the head of policy at Andreessen Horowitz’s a16z crypto arm, as the head of the CFTC, according to a document seen by Bloomberg News. Quintenz served as a Republican commissioner at the CFTC during Trump’s first term and is said to be in favor of regulatory changes that would benefit digital-asset firms. He is also a board member at Kalshi, the precision market provider pushing for the CFTC to allow for sports-based markets.
Bullish: Separately, Kalshi has announced it is partnering with brokerage provider Webull for event-contracts trading, but the broker said it has no plans to introduce sports-based contracts. “I do not believe the regulatory environment is comfortable with that sort of process yet,” Webull CEO Anthony Denier told Bloomberg. “It is not worth it.”
Robinhood Q4 earnings: On the call with analysts yesterday, CEO Vlad Tenev said the company expected to be a market leader in prediction markets, including sport, and would “continue to drive and push for regulatory clarity industry wide.” Recall, Robinhood pulled its initial Super Bowl offering last week having had the market open for one day. “I think prediction markets are the future,” he added. “I think they’re the future not just as an active trading asset, but also news and information.”
+More
Texas: A bill that calls for a referendum to allow voters to decide whether or not Texas should welcome legal sports betting has been introduced in the state House. Rep. Sam Harless filed the resolution on Wednesday to officially bring the issue to the table in this year’s legislative session. If lawmakers approve the constitutional amendment, it will go to a statewide yes/no vote in November.
Mississippi could become the first US state to specifically ban sweepstakes gaming after the state Senate approved by a 44-1 margin a bill that would prohibit online sweeps and at the same time increase the punishments for offshore iCasino operators. The bill is now set to head to the state House for consideration.
The Michigan Gaming Control Board has issued cease-and-desist letters to nine iCasino and OSB operators for violations of state gaming laws. The operators include BetAnySports, CoolCat Casino, Diamond Sportsbook International, Go Go Gold, My Dreams Casino, NonStop Casino, Palace of Chance, Xbet Casino and WagerWeb.
Betr’s Jake Paul has once again drawn the ire of the regulators after he initially posted and then deleted a video in which he offered a Ferrari to Saquon Barkley if the Philadelphia Eagles running back won MVP in the Super Bowl. SBC Americas reported that, after viewing the video, the Ohio Casino Control Commission determined the advertisement was not in compliance with its sports-betting regulations.
Mindway AI has announced its provisional associate membership with the European Lotteries, the European umbrella organisation for national lotteries operating games of chance, including sports betting.
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Financial risk progress
Landing zone: The UK Gambling Commission's director of major policy projects, Helen Rhodes, has said the first phase of the financial risk assessment pilot has been completed.
Rhodes was keen to point out the financial risk assessments being contemplated were not affordability checks.
“The Gambling Commission does not have any requirements for affordability checks and is not proposing any,” she added,
Instead, the financial risk assessments that are being considered would be a “much more targeted way” of identifying potentially financially vulnerable customers.
“They would not affect a customer’s credit score if they were introduced in the future,” she stated.
Check 1-2: Among the key points to emerge from the initial phase, the Commission is assessing how the checks could be used to support financially vulnerable customers, before making final decisions on whether – and how – they could be introduced.
The Commission pointed out the pilot did not take place in a live environment.
It said more than 530,000 assessments across three credit reference agencies were conducted for approximately 300,000 accounts from a historical annual period in this first stage.
Approximately 95% of assessments were matched in this stage: 92% for a full assessment and 3% as a “thin file” where there was no adverse information.
This means a frictionless assessment was possible in these cases, the Commission said.
Approximately 5% of these assessments were not matched in this stage: 4% because the customer could not be identified by the credit reference agency and 1% because of data issues, such as duplications or invalid fields provided by the gambling operators.
A frictionless assessment was not possible in these cases, the Commission added.
Nothing compares 2 U: The Commission emphasized these findings are for Stage 1 only and comparisons should not yet be made to the estimates of the 2023 White Paper, which indicated 80% of accounts referred for an assessment would be matched and 20% would not.
“The pilot exercise is proving to be worthwhile in testing how financial risk assessments might work in practice and explore practical implementation issues before final decisions are made,” said Rhodes.
“Taking a staged approach to the pilot means that issues identified in the first stage can be explored further, such as data consistency across credit reference agencies where appropriate and data accuracy from operators.”
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State by state
Maryland: The state House Ways and Means Committee on Monday this week held a public hearing into the proposed iCasino legislation, which heard from opponents to the bill including The Cordish Companies and Penn Entertainment, which both cited the potential for cannibalization of B&M gaming revenue.
The bill is similar to one from last year’s legislative session and would provide iCasino licensing opportunities for in-state land-based casinos, sports-betting facilities and VLT operators.
A $1m licensing fee would be applied.
New York: The chair of the State Assembly Racing and Wagering Committee has warned the proposed iCasino legislation is unlikely to pass this session. Carrie Woerner said in an interview with the City & State New York that while the assembly will look at the bill, the chamber isn’t ready to take that step yet.
Sen. Joe Addabbo introduced a bill to legalize online casinos last month.
Oklahoma: The state House Appropriations and Budget sub-committee has passed both of the sports-betting bills, one that has proposed licensing via the tribal gaming compacts and the other that has proposed a referendum.
The two Senate bills are also live and call for similar regulations as the House bills.
Hawaii: A bill proposing the regulating of land-based gambling has been proposed in the state Senate. It would grant two 20-year licenses for casinos in the New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District and Hawaii Convention Center and would establish a 15% tax on GGR.
A Hawaii Gaming Control Commission would also be created under the bill, which currently is under review by the Senate Economic Development and Technology Committee.
The bill joins other gambling legislation introduced in Hawaii during this session, which includes online casino and sports-betting bills.
Illinois: Companion bills proposing the legalization of iCasino have been introduced. The bills propose taxing iCasino revenue at 25%, with licensed operators permitted up to three online casino skins.
Events calendar
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
May 8-9: Leaders in Compliance Conference, Frankfurt
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