Fallen Star
Casino operator asks for debt relief following Bell II report
Bell II stops short of closure call but Star is found not fit to run a casino.
In +More: Swedish regulator gets more powers.
Colorado erases ‘negative’ wagers.
UKGC sets out financial risk checks live trial ground rules.
All I see is you. Stars. Open arms. Pharaohs. God. Kings and queens.
Star struck
The stars are out tonight: Australian casino operator Star Entertainment has asked its lenders to relax the rules on its outstanding loan repayments while the company explores liquidity options, after the Bell II report found it was not suitable for a license.
In the wake of the publication of the long-running enquiry, Star Entertainment suspended trading in its shares last Friday.
On Monday, the Australian Financial Review suggested that the company is seeking temporary relief from its debt obligations and near-term financing.
That could include a convertible loan of as much as A$300m ($203m).
Not worth a candle: In the wake of the report’s publication, the operator of casinos in Sydney, Brisbane and the Gold Coast is reported to be preparing a A$1.4bn writedown and is set to embark on a major cost-cutting program.
The AFR suggested the company is “mapping out different scenarios” regarding its future.
Daze turns into weeks: The first Bell report released in 2022 deemed Star unsuitable for a license. The Sydney casino has been under special measures ever since, including having a manager, Nicholas Weeks, imposed by the New South Wales Independent Casino Commission (NICC) to oversee remediation efforts at the property.
Bell II detailed how the management at Star, including current chair David Foster and departed CEO Robbie Cooke, had plotted to “get ready for war” with Weeks.
New broom: The NICC’s chief commissioner Philip Crawford said the results of the Bell II inquiry showed the company hasn’t moved quickly enough to address the governance and cultural concerns.
However, the level of transparency and cooperation has improved since the recent appointments of CEO Steve McCann, Star Sydney CEO Janelle Campbell and COO Jeannie Mok, Crawford added.
What now? The NICC said it is considering its next steps. The latest on the shares is that they remain suspended by the Australian Stock Exchange until Star Entertainment can provide its financial results for the year.
Catch Problems Before They Start with GameScanner
Mindway AI’s GameScanner is your virtual ally in responsible gaming, designed with expert precision to protect your players. With a detection accuracy validated by GLI, it acts like a virtual psychologist, identifying at-risk players with remarkable speed. Our tailored algorithm, trained by leading gambling disorder specialists, learns from your player base to spot potential issues early on. In 87% of cases, GameScanner matches the accuracy of human psychologists, empowering you to intervene before it's too late. Keep your players safe and engaged with the ultimate tool for responsible gaming.
Learn more at mindway.ai
+More
I want to know your plans: The Swedish government has handed more powers to regulator Spelinspektionen, allowing the agency to set requirements for individual licensees’ excessive gambling action plans.
Swedish law requires online gambling operators to have an action plan detailing their duty of care procedures and protocols, and from October 1 the regulator will be able to change or modify such plans.
“There must be order in the gaming market,” said minister for financial markets Niklas Wykman. “The new requirement should lead to more detailed action plans, making it clear how gambling companies take responsibility for counteracting gambling-related risks.”
Nordic operator Finnplay is to use safer gambling software Mindway AI to improve its monitoring of at-risk customers.
Out back: As talk of a potential blanket ban on gambling advertising in Australia continues, a new study by Central Queensland University found 23% of people place fewer bets once they opt out of direct marketing promotions.
The study, funded by Gambling Research Australia, also found punters reported fewer short-term harms from their wagering once they opt out of direct and affiliate marketing.
The legal gambling age in Belgium is now 21 as new player protection laws came into force. Sports betting, arcades and bingo are now in line with the same limits as land-based casinos, which became 21-or-over in 2018.
Germany: The gambling regulator, the GGL, has begun the process of deepening its collaboration with the country’s state coordination offices for gambling addiction.
Missouri: The ballot question to approve Bally’s Lake of the Ozarks casino will after all be on the Missouri referendum in November, after a judge ruled the ballot initiative did receive enough signatures to make it to referendum.
BetMGM will partner with the American Gaming Association to promote Responsible Gaming Education Month in September.
Clean sweep
Negative creep: Colorado rejected nearly 150 betting markets last month, with the large majority deemed to have “negative connotations.” The Colorado Department of Revenue Gaming Division said the wagers were denied to “ensure honesty and integrity in the Colorado gaming industry.”
It turned down anything “that can be interpreted as having a negative connotation or negative result on gameplay”.
The types of wagers culled include walks in baseball, the worst round score in golf and fouls in soccer matches.
Scratch that: Wagers from a wide range of 16 different sports leagues were scratched, including all the major US football, baseball and basketball divisions, along with soccer, motorsports, rugby, cricket and others.
The Olympics had the most rejected wagers, with bets on false starts in races and boxing matches to end quickly all turned down.
From the baseball field to the fairway: The document shared by the regulator indicates a growing focus on fairness. Last month’s blitz was the most active and aggressive it has been in rejecting markets, adding “sporting integrity concerns” and “predetermined” outcomes as other reasons for refusal.
Earlier this year, the regulator requested data from the state’s sportsbooks on the betting activity of basketball player Jontay Porter, a former Toronto Raptors forward. Porter was banned from the sport for life after admitting wire fraud and colluding with bettors in disclosing information about his involvement in games.
Two basketball wagers were removed by the regulator: technical fouls and whether a player will be ejected.
“The Division of Gaming reviews its catalog of events regularly and removes anything that is a negative wager, duplicate, expired or a concerning wager,” the regulator said.
“During this review, 145 total wagers were removed from a very robust Colorado betting catalog of over 4,500 wagers.”
Going live
Blog roll: In outlining detail of how the financial risk assessment live trial will be undertaken, UK Gambling Commission director of major policy projects and evaluation Helen Rhodes insisted that “no consumers will be affected.”
“Instead, we will run a pilot of how assessments would work using real data all the way through the process, but not take action on it,” she wrote in a UKGC blog.
“During a pilot and if introduced, financial risk assessments would not affect a consumer’s credit rating.”
Go to the data: She added that the live trial is set to run for six or seven months with the largest remote gambling operators working through three stages, initially looking at historical customer data and then considering current data.
“We are testing whether high-spending customers who are in significant current financial difficulties or severely degrading financial difficulties can be identified,” she added.
Indicators: She added that the Commission is also testing how operators can be given limited information to understand how severe these financial difficulties might be, in order to take action to support the customer.
“This would potentially allow operators in the future to look at other indicators of harm they have and tailor support to the customer, ranging from reducing marketing and encouraging the use of deposit limits, right up to ceasing the customer relationship.
“Where no financial difficulties are identified, the operator would not need to take any action.”
GuardDog, powered by Underdog, is a pioneering investment fund dedicated to fostering innovation in responsible gaming.
GuardDog supports and accelerates early-stage startups focused on building new and creative solutions to address problem gaming and further responsible gaming.
Ready to be one of the underdogs of responsible gaming?
Visit to apply: https://underdogfantasy.com/guarddog
Loot box study
Boxing clever: A longitudinal study on the presence of loot boxes, compliance and enforcement of gambling law has shown stark failings in gambling regulation and consumer protection.
The paper, authored by Leon Xiao and Laura Henderson, specifically examined Steam, the leading digital distribution platform for PC gaming.
It found 35 games featuring transferable content, which would likely fall under the definition of gambling, were readily available in many jurisdictions without a gambling license.
Laws still in beta? Of the 35 games, 32 are still operational – and CS:GO, Dota 2, PUBG and Team Fortress 2 each have hundreds of thousands of users playing each game at any given time. The study also mentioned Counter-Strike often has more than 1 million concurrent users, therefore showing obscurity is no excuse for lackluster regulatory enforcement.
The study stated: “Leading international video game companies oversee their operation (including legal compliance).”
But, it added: “Many companies are failing to comply with gambling law in many countries, despite the relevant regulators having published opinions on what types of loot boxes would be deemed as illegal gambling.”
Laws roll over, cash rolls in: Countries such as Belgium, the UK and the Netherlands are touted as leaders in the ‘regulation’ of loot boxes, but studies show the brazen lack of enforcement across the board.
Belgium: Despite a broad ban on all loot boxes purchased with real money, popular games such as Counter-Strike continue to offer these features, violating Belgian law. The Belgian Gaming Commission’s inability to enforce this ban effectively has left the market rife with non-compliance.
United Kingdom: The UK Gambling Commission has opined that loot boxes with real-world monetary value should be classified as gambling. Yet, enforcement has been minimal, allowing games such as Dota 2 to operate without the required licenses, thereby breaching UK regulations.
Netherlands: The Dutch Gambling Authority previously attempted to enforce gambling laws against illegal loot boxes in games such as CS. However, after legal challenges, enforcement has stalled and these games remain available to Dutch consumers without any restrictions.
Denmark: The Danish Gambling Authority views loot boxes with economic value as potential gambling. Despite this, the study found several games on Steam still offering these features without adhering to Danish laws, highlighting a significant enforcement gap.
Spoiler alert: The paper concluded: “Gambling regulators have not proactively enforced the law against these contraventions, despite some of them being the most popular and well-known games at present.”
It added that consumers, policymakers and other stakeholders are “hereby alerted to the fact that loot boxes offering transferable content with real-world monetary value do exist, are implemented in several widely popular games on the PC platform and have not been properly regulated against.”
Events calendar
Sep 5: Sports Integrity Summit, São Paulo
Sep 10-13: European Conference on Gambling Studies, Rome
Sep 24-26: SBC Player Protection Summit, Lisbon
Oct 7-10, G2E, Las Vegas
Nov 5: Gaming in Germany, Berlin
An +More Media publication.
For sponsorship inquiries email scott@andmore.media.
