Under the microscope
Brazil’s looming legal launch in sight
Brazil set for global scrutiny as legal market opening nears.
In +More: FanDuel’s regulatory hires.
UK racing gets in an affordability tangle.
Skill games not law breakers, says court.
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In sight
Dreams of the future: Brazil is set to propel Latin America’s regulated online gambling market more than five-fold to $12.3bn in three years, according to a new report by regulatory intelligence specialists Vixio.
Weeks away from opening, Brazil is forecast to be worth more than half of the continent’s entire market, researchers said.
Earlier this year, Brazilian Central Bank statistics showed Brazilians spend around $3bn monthly on online gambling with cash transfers, without accounting for bets made with credit cards or other methods.
That demand has made the country a long-time target for operators, and an eight-month licensing period resulted in 114 applications for federal licenses.
Researchers said the federal licensing system, in effect from January 1, 2025, will quickly make Brazil’s market “one of the largest in the world.”
Competition is expected to be fierce, with the market hitting $2.9bn in annual gross revenue in 2025, rising to almost $6.3bn by 2028.
Hope starts to crumble: However, Vixio analysts warned the industry will find itself “under heightened scrutiny, with the Brazilian media and politicians fixated on the supposed excesses of the as-yet unregulated market.”
Regardless of the number of licensees that go live on January 1, both firms and regulatory officials “are likely to find themselves under immediate pressure to demonstrate the benefits of regulation,” in taxes and with the industry on its best behavior.
There are currently five legal cases pending before Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court related to the regime.
“A key question to watch over the coming weeks is whether there will be additional twists in the implementation of the regulated market, above and beyond those new rules that have been mandated by the Supreme Court to restrict gambling by welfare recipients,” the report said.
The country has already started to ban offshore gambling sites in preparation for the legal opening, and advertising restrictions due to enter force in January have been brought forward.
In this state-by-state guide, Vixio has outlined the regulatory landscape for sweepstakes.
Discover the state of sweepstakes across the U.S. and the emerging trends, empowering you to minimize the risk of non-compliance.
Download your copy of the U.S. Sweepstakes Guide here.
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Flutter Entertainment-owned FanDuel has made two hires for its government affairs team with the appointments of James Hartmann, previously managing director at Mercury Public Affairs, and Louis Trombetta, previously executive director for the Florida Gaming Control Commission.
Meanwhile, FanDuel has launched a tool on its app designed to help bettors track their spending habits, view their personal play stats and set budgets.
Back in the UK, the Advertising Standards Authority has found that Flutter’s Betfair did not violate advertising regulations with its radio ad for Prize Pinball. The ASA investigated the advertisement for its potential exposure to an underage audience.
The authority found any potential exposure to this audience to be significantly limited, as the advertisement aired on a station with a large majority of adult listeners of which it was directed towards.
Ireland: Complaints related to gambling ads will be split between the new Gambling Regulatory Authority and the country’s Advertising Standards Authority, according to The Irish Times.
Nearly 1.5 million attempts to log into legal sportsbook platforms from Texas were recorded in November, according to data derived from GeoComply.
A casino owned by New Zealand tourism giant Skyline Enterprises is being sued by the country’s Department of Internal Affairs over allegations the business had failed to comply with anti-money laundering regulations over a five-year period.
Also in New Zealand, a ban on greyhound racing will be phased in over a 20-month period after an urgent bill aimed at protecting the welfare of racing dogs sailed through parliament.
Participation in this year’s European Safer Gambling Week was up 20%, according to the European Gaming and Betting Association. The top European industry lobby group said 195 partners took part and the number of regulators involved was more than double the previous year’s count.
Date for the dairy: The US Senate judiciary committee will hold a hearing on sports betting next Tuesday, December 17. Committee chair Dick Durbin will preside over the hearing. A witness list has not been published.
👀 On the committee are Senators Mike Lee and Peter Welch, who put their names to a letter calling for an antitrust investigation into FanDuel and DraftKings.
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Racing uncertainties
Faller at the first: Affordability checks instituted by UK operators ahead of the introduction of so-called frictionless checks has had a debilitating effect on horseracing betting turnover, argued key figures in the UK’s horseracing sector.
Looking at the data from the UK Gambling Commission for the year to March 2024, horseracing betting turnover declined 8% YoY to £8.37bn, while the decline since 2022 stands at 16%.
Four to follow: Representative groups from the UK’s racing industry, including the National Trainers Federation, the Racehorse Owners Association, the Racecourse Association and the Arena Racing Company, leapt on the figures.
In an open letter, they blamed the government and the Commission for overseeing the decline in a sport that contributes “billions” to the UK economy.
Up to a point Lord Copper: Sources pointed out the argument put forward by UK racing is “largely true” but the story from the data is complicated and the danger for proponents is that simplification comes with its own dangers.
Notably, for instance, while horseracing turnover was down over the last two years, the GGY figure (or GGR) was up in the year to March by 5% to £771m.
But the apparent contradiction between turnover going down and GGY moving in the opposite direction can largely be explained by the likelihood that higher-spending horseracing betting consumers are turning away from the sport.
Data from the patterns of play report in 2022 undertaken by NATCEN showed the top 0.5% of customers accounted for nearly 48% of stakes but only 39% of operator win.
Meanwhile, the Racing Post survey of horseracing punters from early 2023 found a strong aversion among those surveyed to any form of affordability check by operators.
“One thing that affordability checks have shown is that very large bettors tend to be low margin,” said one industry consultant source.
But they added that while affordability checks may indeed be a factor, it could also be the case that the bookmakers might be turning away from such customers anyway.
Long covid: The source suggested the data is “messy” due to the long-running after effects of the pandemic on betting habits.
Declarations
Giddy up: Meanwhile, the Clean Up Gambling campaign led by long-time gambling industry critic Derek Webb is calling for racing to be exempt from affordability checks on punters and has accused the British Horseracing Authority of “selling out the sport.”
Target practice: Matt Zarb-Cousin from Clean Up Gambling told UK newspaper City AM that betting on racing should be licensed separately by the Gambling Commission without the need for affordability checks.
This is on the grounds that it causes far fewer social harms.
“Racing should be distancing itself from the much more addictive forms of gambling, not allowing itself to be used to legitimize the practices of a sector that have led to demands for more regulation,” he told the paper.
“You have to take the target off your back.”
On LinkedIn, Zarb-Cousin said that instead of trying to “extricate racing from its association with the much more addictive and harmful online casino products, racing’s representatives have allowed the sport to be weaponised to protect a status quo that is not in their interests.”
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Skilled ruling
Skilljoys: A Pennsylvania court has tossed a ban on so-called skill games introduced by Philadelphia officials.
The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania overturned the decision enacted in March by the Philadelphia City Council.
Skill-game distributor G&B Amusements and Harry Sandhu, a local gas station owner operating the games, argued in court that the authorities had overreached.
Skill games are like slot machines but require a degree of player ingenuity to secure a winning payout.
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: Much of the traditional industry, including members of the American Gaming Association and the Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers, are lobbying against skill games, framing them as unregulated and law-breaking.
Pennsylvania casino operators argued that skill games should be taxed like slot machines, which give up more than 50% of their revenues.
For now, the courts disagree.
“As the law stands today, POM games that are located outside of regulated facilities are neither illegal nor regulated,” wrote Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia A. McCullough, referencing Georgia-based developer Pace-O-Matic (POM).
An appeal by Philadelphia officials would send the case to Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which is currently reviewing a similar case.
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