iGaming News

A joint statement from the country's bookmaking and gaming associations says the tax floated for the EU's 2028 to 2034 budget would push players to unlicensed sites and cut, not raise, state revenue, and asks instead for uniform EU rules against illegal operators. Malta and EGBA have already objected; the levy would need every member state's consent.

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.

Eilers & Krejcik's first combined forecast credits sportsbooks with $31.7 billion and the exchanges with an $8.4 billion "handle analog", a translation of exchange volume into sportsbook terms that it has not published. The AGA sees sportsbooks flat at $29.5 billion; Week 1 data suggests the exchange share may be larger.

With the reorganisation of betting shops, gaming halls and machines abandoned in August, the Ministry of Economy and Finance is looking at extending the licences that expire in December to the end of 2029 and collecting the fees, according to reports on the 2027 Budget. A €1 billion scratch-card tender is also in the mix.

Two weeks after calling September up 12%, Citigroup's analysts watched the tables on Friday and saw 401 premium-mass players betting HK$6.8 million, "among the worst in recent history". The forecast is now MOP18 billion, implying a 4% fall for the quarter, with the caveat that Golden Week may simply be absorbing the trips.

The Betfred founder has put numbers on the Treasury's option: 45% of his estate, 2,475 jobs, £66.8m of tax and £15.8m of racing funding, in a Sunday Times op-ed and a Financial Times interview in which he says machines are half of shop profit. Betfred has already ended its Super League sponsorship, citing last year's Budget.

The letters Catherine Hanaway promised on Wednesday went out to Polymarket, Kalshi, Crypto.com, Novig, Underdog and Robinhood, dated 16 and 17 September. Five of the six are told to stop serving under-21s. The licensed sportsbooks' own exchange products are not on the list, and Kentucky, she says, is close to a settlement.

Two days after the Ninth Circuit told two California tribes that Kalshi's sports contracts are Class III gaming on their land, the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe formed SaltTrade Derivatives to route trades through Kalshi's exchange. The tribal gaming lobby called it "profoundly disappointing"; Kalshi's chief executive called on other tribes to follow.

A 2023 model ranked online casino players by how much they would lose per promotion and steered bonuses towards the top scorers, according to the New York Times. A parallel model to flag customers sliding towards harm was shut down in early 2025. DraftKings says predictive risk scoring was not evidence-based.

A processor was rejecting more than 80% of Polymarket's US deposits as fraudulent in February, the compliance chief resigned after writing it up, and the chief executive told staff to keep growing and pay any fine later, the Journal reports. The CFTC is investigating, and the company is raising $1 billion.

A Pennsylvania county wants prediction-market trading written into the oath its election workers swear, and Maryland's chief administrator plans to ask for the same statewide, the Associated Press reports. With the courts unlikely to rule before November, the workers are the one thing the states can still regulate.

A survey of 1,929 adults aged 18 to 35 in the Daegu region found that money trouble was linked to gambling harm through depressive symptoms and low self-control, and that the depression link held under two different models. The authors want both screened together.

The geolocation supplier's count of sportsbook activity on 13 September ran ahead of Super Bowl LX, and new accounts more than quadrupled, in the same week that prediction-market apps out-downloaded every sportsbook. The two datasets are measuring different things, and the gap between them is the story of this season.

Every vested share the Melco chairman held outside the listed parent went into an irrevocable trust on 16 September, a filing shows. Control of the Macau operator does not move, but the shares that did are now reported as no longer his.

A working document submitted to the national regulator and the Gambling Policy Council on 7 September says Madrid's attempt to "coordinate" the protection of vulnerable players in land-based gambling is an attempt to direct powers the constitution gave the regions. Madrid's Ramón Cubián: "The autonomous communities are the authorities dealing with these matters every day."

New Jersey's total gaming revenue fell 4.1% to $615.7m as eight of nine casino floors lost ground and a late football calendar cut sports betting revenue to $61.4m. Online casino rose 4.4% to $259.3m but came off July's record, and for a second month the floor out-earned the internet. The summer as a whole was the resort's best in ten years.

The MGA and the Malta Digital Innovation Authority launched a principles-based framework on Thursday for operators using AI in player protection, fraud detection and customer contact. It sits under the EU AI Act, binds nobody, and is a rare instance of a gambling regulator writing down what it expects of a licensee's models. Charles Mizzi: "Our role is not to stand in the way of innovation."

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.

Ontario will defend its plan to pool poker and fantasy players with other jurisdictions against four Crown lottery corporations, which say it is Ontario conducting gaming outside Ontario. Alberta, Flutter, GGPoker's parent and the Canadian Gaming Association will be heard as interveners. Every other province's monopoly turns on the answer.

Catherine Hanaway says sports contracts "fit four square the definition of gambling in Missouri", that they siphon money from sportsbooks that pay the state's tax, and that what she wants is an agreement putting the exchanges under Missouri gaming law and taxing them. If there is no agreement she will sue; she expects them to sue her first.

A concrete recycler's tower beside I-94 has been painted Polymarket blue and lettered with the platform's name. The city says adverts on water towers need a permit, there is none on file, and its buildings department is sending an inspector out with a "possible correction order". The stunt lands in the one state where Polymarket has already lost in federal court and its rival Kalshi is under a state injunction.

Derek Stevens' downtown resort becomes the Athletics' official resort and Circa Sports their official sportsbook in a multi-year deal announced on Thursday, 19 months before the ballpark opens. The 22-seat Circa Dugout Box sits beside the home dugout and, Stevens says, "it's going to be very important to know a Circa casino host" to get in.

State Police figures released at Thursday's Gaming Control Board meeting show the 15 riverboats, Caesars New Orleans and the four racinos all down on August 2025, with 13 of the 15 boats losing ground. Mobile sports betting handle rose 3.6% to $261m and produced $31.1m of net proceeds; retail books fell by almost half. Only Baton Rouge grew, and only because Bally's moved onto land.