Regulatory news

Money paid by operators to settle regulatory cases will now flow into the government's Consolidated Fund for discretionary use, rather than being ring-fenced for gambling-harm work, a decision that lands just months after the charity GambleAware wound down.

A House Agriculture subcommittee has put customer protection and market integrity in sports-event prediction markets on the congressional record for the first time, arriving just as Kalshi's federal lobbying spend approaches a record $990,000 for the opening half of 2026.

Turkish prosecutors instructed 32 banks to freeze thousands of accounts at the moment the World Cup final kicked off, striking at the payment rails of an illegal betting market they estimate could handle as much as US$50 billion across the tournament.

Brazil's Ministry of Finance has published new advertising rules that require every betting ad to carry a financial-loss warning and outlaw urgency and easy-money messaging, tightening the screws on a sector that spent R$1.44 billion, approximately $260 million, promoting itself last year.

The UK Gambling Commission has confirmed it will phase in Financial Risk Assessments, beginning with the largest operators and the highest-spending customers, after a pilot found that 97% of affected accounts could be checked without friction or any impact on credit scores. The first stage triggers at a £5,000 net deposit and will touch fewer than 0.5% of customers.

Ireland's new gambling regulator has begun issuing statutory licences, switching on the regime built under the Gambling Regulation Act 2024 and starting the long transition from a fragmented legacy system to a single supervised market.

Spain's gambling regulator has reopened one of Europe's most contested advertising fights, proposing to bar celebrities and influencers from all gambling promotion as it rewrites the 2011 Gambling Act, two years after the courts struck down its last attempt.

France's National Assembly has written a mandatory youth loss limit into its professional-sport bill, obliging the government to cap what young adults can lose on betting. The crucial threshold, however, will be set later by decree.

The Gambling Commission has penalised the operator of betfred.com after social-responsibility gaps allowed a single customer to lose £17,900 in 24 hours, with the regulator branding the shortcomings "unacceptable".

The media regulator has asked internet providers to block a further 12 offshore gambling and affiliate sites, two of them impersonating licensed Australian brands. The action lifts the running total to 1,751 sites blocked since 2019.

President William Ruto has signed a 20% winnings tax into law, but a narrow legal definition spares sports betting, which stays under the existing wallet levy. The industry had feared a broader charge that could have driven punters offshore.