The Swedish Gambling Authority (Spelinspektionen) has formally endorsed FI2024/00442, a government measure that seeks to prohibit the use of credit cards for gambling. This proposed ban has been under discussion for several months and has now garnered the regulator’s official support.

Camilla Rosenberg, director general of Spelinspektionen, stated that the authority believes the ban on gambling with credit should apply universally across all gambling forms. Additionally, the authority suggested the need for the ability to grant exceptions in certain cases.

In its official statement, Spelinspektionen affirmed its support for the proposal. However, the Swedish trade association BOS criticized the measure, arguing that it could severely impact the legal gambling marke. Despite this opposition, the regulator acknowledged that there is no conclusive evidence on how the measure would affect operators who sell tickets digitally.

One concern raised was the ambiguity regarding how the ban would impact players using account credits for wagers. Given that credits linked to a bank account are also considered account credits, Spelinspektionen noted that this could imply licensees must ensure that credit limits are not utilized for payments made with debit cards.

However, the original proposal does not mandate licensees to investigate such matters. Therefore, Spelinspektionen concluded that it does not interpret the current wording as requiring gambling companies to verify whether users’ debit cards have a credit limit.

Implementing a ban on credit card gambling would place Sweden in line with other modern regulated markets such as Australia, Ireland, Norway, and the United Kingdom.

Spelinspektionen concluded that the proposal outlined in the memorandum is consistent with the regulator’s recommendations.

The Regulator Continues Market Oversight

In other developments, Spelinspektionen recently banned another skins gambling website. The company, WiseAvant OÜ, was found to be providing games of chance to Swedish customers without the necessary license.

This action follows a series of crackdowns by the authority on unlicensed operators. A few months ago, Spelinspektionen took similar actions against three companies: Galaktika NV, Newera Frozen PTE Limited, and Aprodi Ltd, two of which also offered skins gambling.

In related news, ATG’s chief executive officer, Hans Lord Skarplöth, recently suggested that the government might reconsider its proposed Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) tax hike. The proposed tax increase has been controversial, with BOS warning that it could benefit the black market if implemented.

Source: “Spelinspektionen Approves Ban on Credit Cards in Gambling”. Gambling News. May 22, 2024.

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Brazil, one of the largest regulated iGaming markets in the world, has set new rules which ban the use of credit cards and crypto currencies for payments related to gambling and sports betting.

The new rules were published by the Regulatory Policy of the Prizes and Betting Secretariat and the Ministry of Finance on 18 April in the national Official Diary of the Union, in the form of Normative Ordinance Number 615.

This new set of rules represents the beginning of the first stage of a four-part regulatory campaign that was presented last week by the country’s Ministry of Finance. This campaign will ultimately implement Bill 3,626, which was ratified by the Brazilian president in December 2023. The first stage is expected to be completed by the end of April and it will establish new rules regarding payments, technical aspects and security regulations.

Normative Ordinance Number 615 has established several new rules, with the first and most important being that iGaming operators in Brazil can no longer accept payments from credit cards, payments in crypto currencies or in cash. Moreover, payments in the form of payment slips or cheques are also prohibited.

All bets, withdrawals and payouts can be executed only through electronic transfers between the operators and their customers’ accounts. Moreover, the respective accounts have to be previously authorized by the Central Bank of Brazil. Operators will also have the obligation to deny payments from accounts not registered with the respective customer or from third parties.

Intermediaries between players and operators are strictly prohibited, but certain institutions authorized by the Central Bank are allowed to offer accounts on behalf of iGaming operators in some situations, for example to allow players to receive a prize that they won.

Winning Bets Paid Out in Less Than 2 Hours

Normative Ordinance Number 615 has also set a time limit for receiving prize payments on winning bets, operators must deliver that into the player’s account in at most 120 minutes.

The new rules also obligate operators to set up a virtual account for players in which they will be able to analyze details regarding their betting habits. This is expected to allow players to have a better understanding of their financial and betting information and make better decisions when it comes to managing their gameplay.

The respective virtual accounts will display the respective player’s betting history over the previous three years, with key aspects such as the total value of open bets and their financial balance on display.

Operators will also be in charge of managing their liquidity risk, including establishing a financial reserve of at least 5 million Brazilian Real, which would convert in around 950,000 U.S. dollars.

Source: “Credit cards and crypto banned under Brazil payment rules“. iGaming Business. April 18, 2024.

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A lot is changing when it comes to Australian gambling law, and new legislation has just been passed. The use of credit cards as a payment method for placing online bets will be prohibited from now on, as the Australian Federal Parliament decided.

Important measure

Kai Cantwell, the CEO of Responsible Wagering Australia, supports this decision. He thinks that the country needs this decision since the residents will be allowed to gamble only with the money they actually have on their cards.

Cantwell commented: “This is an important measure to protect customers and their loved ones, making it easier for people to stay in control of their own gambling behavior. It will complement the existing offering of safer gambling account management tools by RWA members to customers to help them stay in control of their betting.”

Lotteries and keno issue

He added that it was disappointing that some kinds of games, for example, lotteries and keno, were excluded from this ban since the lotteries are the most popular type of gambling in the country, especially in people from lower socioeconomic groups.

Only in 2020 and 2021 did citizens lose more than $3.2 billion playing these two types of games, according to the Australian Gambling Statistics. When online keno was legalized in Victoria, these numbers increased even further, and in 2022 and 2023, the losses increased by more than 400%.

There are other parts of the gambling law that lotteries are excluded from. There is also a National Self Exclusion Register, Betstop, so the Australians who already have excluded themselves from other forms of online gambling still have the opportunity to gamble up to $10.000 online by playing lotteries.

Cantwell added: “To effectively reduce gambling harm, consumer protection measures must exist across all forms of gambling. Otherwise, those at risk of harm will just move from one form of gambling to another less regulated type.”

Strict regulations

The industry is talking about the potential credit card ban from 2021. The RWA members collaborate with the federal government and financial institutions to deliver the best possible solutions when it comes to credit card bans and online gambling regulations. The institutions will continue to work hard on this, and the ban is supposed to be implemented in all online casinos in Australia within six months.

This is the newest regulation in the Australian market, but not the only one. Other prohibitions include banning external signage, reducing the cash-input limit, reducing the cap on machine entitlements, and others.

Source: Narayan, Niji, “Australian Parliament Passes Legislation Banning Online Credit Card Betting”. European Gaming. December 7. 2023.

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The government of Australia has finally tabled the much discussed legislation which will ban the use of credit cards for online gambling in the country. The respective piece of legislation is called “The Interactive Gambling Amendment (Credit and Other Measures) Bill 2023” and it also seeks to ban other credit-related products from being used as payment methods for iGaming.

The bill also proposes stiff penalties for operators that won’t enforce the ban, with fines going all the way up to 234,750 Australian dollars. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is set to receive expanded powers following this bill in order to enforce these penalties.

However, the amendment has not yet passed into law. When it does, there will be a six-month transition period both for the online gambling industry and for the consumers. The bill will become effective immediately once it receives Royal Assent.

The use of credit cards for gambling has already been banned at land-based facilities in Australia, and everybody expected the government to expand that measure to the online world as well.

Michelle Rowland, the Minister of Communications in Australia’s government, issued a simple explanation for the reasoning behind this ban: “people should not be betting with money they do not have.” The minister added that this measure is expected to “protect vulnerable Australians” against gambling harm.

A Long Journey

Banning the use of credit cards for gambling has been a much-discussed topic in Australia for a few years now. The measure was recommended by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services in November 2021, but it was proposed by other entities before.

The Australian Banking Association hosted a consultation on credit cards in gambling in 2019, and from 2020 more and more people called for the government to act following the successful introduction of a credit card gambling ban in Great Britain. At that time the most powerful online casino operators in the country, grouped in Responsible Wagering Australia, said they would support such a ban.

While the government was consulting with stakeholders to draft the amendment bill, certain entities opted to enforce such a ban on their own. Bank Australia for instance, a consumer-owned banking group, set up such a ban in October 2021.

In addition to this bill, the government is also expected to introduce mandatory customer pre-verification by the end of September. The Australian government is also considering other recommendations issued by a parliamentary inquiry into online gambling and discuss other potential measures by the end of 2023.

Source: “Australia to ban credit cards for iGaming“. Sigma. September 13, 2023.

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The latest such action has been taken against a 45-year-old Malaysian who is suspected to be a part of an international criminal syndicate. The man is said to have recorded cards dealt during a game of baccarat hosted out of the Marina Bay Sands, the regulated land-based casino in the jurisdiction.

Police Cooperates with Malaysia to Bring in the Man

The Singapore Police have released details about the suspect, who is linked to a probe by the Casino Crime Investigation Branch of the Criminal Investigation Department. Previously, the Department went after a 27-year-old Taiwanese man and another Malaysian man aged 35. Both have been charged as members of a criminal syndicate, with the police confiscating more than $520,000 worth of casino chips, cash, and a mobile phone in their possession.

The latest suspect was arrested on Thursday, June 8, with the help of the Royal Malaysia Police but he was sent back to Singapore last week. In Singapore, a court charged the man with a conspiracy to use things prohibited under Section 171(1) for the purposes of gambling. The charges were delivered on the very next day – Friday, June 9.

If found guilty, the 45-year-old suspect could face up to seven years and a fine up to $111,000, or both. Singapore has reformed its penal code regarding casino and gambling offenses recently, and it takes a much tougher stance on organizers of illegal gambling activities than it does on participants.

Singapore Police Remains Vigilant on Matters of Illegal Gambling

In the meantime, the Singapore Police Force has assured that it would not leave instances of criminal activities linked to gambling unpunished. The police have been actively participating in various investigations, including a large-scale recent probe that names 89 people as possibly involved in illegal horse betting activities.

The Singapore Police Force released details about this particular case late in May, saying that 85 men and four women aged 38-84 were all possibly involved. They were arrested over a ten-day period between May 10 and May 20. The case was made public by local media outlets, including The Strait Times, and the police is now sorting the suspects, who are threatened by a $7,400 fine or a prison sentence of up to six months, or both.

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