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The former Secretary General of the European Gaming and Betting Association is the first Director General of the World Gaming and Betting Alliance, a Swiss association whose listed members are bet365, Entain, FDJ United, Flutter and EGBA itself. The Geneva commercial register shows it was founded on 9 July and already had Haijer as a signatory before EGBA announced he was leaving.

At her first policy panel as gambling minister, Vicky Foxcroft told a Labour conference audience that the consultation on scrapping the Gambling Act's "aim to permit" rule is coming "very shortly". She did not say when, or what will replace a principle that has governed every betting shop and arcade licence decision since 2007.

The first month to reflect the higher rate brought in 108% more online gaming duty than a year earlier, more than the rate rise alone explains. The industry says one month proves nothing; the Treasury, three weeks from a Budget that may double Machine Games Duty, may read it differently.

The Upper Tribunal has ruled that free spins won on a free promotional game fall outside Remote Gaming Duty, reversing the First-tier Tribunal and wiping out the assessment against the Super Group subsidiary. With the duty now at 40%, the ruling reaches well beyond one operator, unless HMRC appeals or Parliament changes the law.

Betsson Group has set up the Betsson Foundation to coordinate its community and sports giving. It has published a governance outline and one project in Peru, but no funding commitment, no board and no spending figures to judge it by.

Genting has shut its Coventry casino after a month-long staff consultation, blaming costs and tax rises the sector has already absorbed. The closure lands four weeks before a Budget that may double Machine Games Duty, and both sides of that argument are already using it.

A contract from the Casino Secrets leak shows the racing pictures and data supplier agreed in 2022 to serve Santeda's brands for a share of their revenue, according to the Guardian. Its owners include bookmakers that have repeatedly warned about the illegal market, and Entain says it has raised its concerns with SIS.

The justice and finance ministries say they have asked for 5,209 betting domains to be blocked since the ban and reached channels on Telegram with more than a million members. The licensed industry says illegal sites are multiplying, but its own monitors disagree by a factor of ten on how fast, and one says almost none are new.

The Mecca and Grosvenor owner says a doubling would shut about a third of its estate and hit around 2,000 staff. Its own accounts suggest the arithmetic is real: on a rough estimate, the rise on Mecca's machines alone would exceed what its bingo clubs earn. The new gambling minister, touring one of its casinos this week, has so far spoken about bingo licensing rather than tax.

GiG Software has signed a share purchase agreement for evoke's African operator and says the proposed deal will be finalised by 30 September. The signing puts a clock on the deferred payment and, for the first time, numbers on the business GiG is buying.

The Liège group has bought 100% of the company behind Carousel.be, its partner since 2012, taking over a B+ online licence and the gaming hall in Harelbeke that Belgian law requires behind it. The price is undisclosed, and the sellers are keeping the 711 brand that grew out of Carousel.

The supplier has picked an insider of eight years to run a business it bought back from Endeavour last year. Konstakis takes over at the end of December, a week after the OmniLogic acquisition and a summer in which OpenBet processed more than 175 million World Cup bets.

Vicky Foxcroft makes her first public appearance in the role at a Labour conference fringe titled "What Next for Gambling Reform: Time for a New Act?" Nobody on the panel has publicly opposed new primary legislation, and neither the industry nor punters are represented.

Gaming Compliance International estimates €91.6bn of unregulated gross gambling revenue across the EU 27 in 2025, up 74% on 2023, and about €22bn in lost tax. The headline number will be quoted all week, so the definitions behind it and who commissioned the work both matter.

Lilith Wittmann has claimed responsibility for the breach the Curaçao Gaming Authority disclosed this morning, says she has had access since December 2025, and has begun releasing material with broadcasters in five countries. She says the full list of ultimate beneficial owners is still to come.

Gamble Pause Initiative Africa, Gamble Aware Nigeria and the South African Responsible Gambling Foundation have formed the ARGN, with participants from nine more countries, to build a continent-wide evidence base on gambling harm. Its president says regulators must legislate before the costs land on Africa's health systems.

Interactive Games sued DraftKings in Massachusetts in April over a patent covering geolocated mobile wagering and what a device displays when a customer is outside a permitted state. DraftKings' petition says Nevada rules required all of that in 2006, three years before the patent's priority date, and asks the PTAB to review it.

The Giants, Jets and Bills all won and covered, the opening week tied the NFL's highest-scoring on record, and the state's eight mobile books kept $17.0m of $594.6m. Fanatics held 1.1%. Handle was up 12.7% on last year's opener in the same week prediction markets traded more than $3bn on a single Sunday.

Stella David wants the government's promised ban brought in immediately, "even if that means clubs ordering new kit mid-season", and extended to online advertising, where 22% of unlicensed users first found their operator against 13% through sponsorship. The count is up from eight clubs last season, and the newest deal was signed after the consultation closed.

Richard Harris says the group's best growth lever is converting venue players to digital, that the new MyMecca app has lifted sign-ups, and that a UK market "unlikely to provide tax tailwinds" rewards small targeted projects over big ones. On the day Entain cut 400 jobs, that is a different way of reading the same Budget.

The regulator asked players what "informed choice" means to them and found a gap between information being present and consumers feeling informed. The proposed definition puts rules, mechanics and risks on equal footing with promotions, and gives operators a duty that runs through play, not just before it.

The Ladbrokes owner says up to a fifth of its 2,000 customer care roles could go, weeks after an H1 that beat expectations and days after its chief executive wrote to the Prime Minister about machine games duty. The cuts are global; the argument is aimed at 28 October.

The Dutch regulator says it would rather have waited for the appeal ruling, but the current licences expire on 31 December. If the monopoly falls, revocation will come no sooner than a year after the judgment.

Mr Justice Cawson found Entain could not say who drew the Coral and Ladbrokes logos, when, or how it came to own them, eleven months into the case. The trade mark claims over 18 marks go on to trial.