The collaboration will seek to help and intervene in cases of gambling harm or illicit betting among young players who may be exposed to various dangers associated with gambling but are not getting enough support to overcome those problems.

Minor League Baseball Getting the RG Resources It Needs

EPIC Global Solutions, which recently rebranded, will step forward and provide educational materials and responsible gambling and mental health seminars to help minor league players and other personnel that have been picked by the MLB to have the means to protect themselves against gambling harm and participating in unauthorized gambling contests.

Entain Foundation US will step up and provide financial support so that EPIC may carry out its sessions focusing entirely on the curriculum and ensuring that participants are receiving the best care and training possible.

MLB VP of Sports Betting & Compliance Quest Meeks said that EPIC’s program facilitates will drive a strong message home to players and help them educate and protect themselves against the growing threat of gambling. This is particularly important in the case of young players, Meeks said:

Our younger minor league players in particular are coming into the league at a time when mobile sports betting is an increasingly prominent part of the sports ecosystem. We want to help those players avoid gambling-related pitfalls that can derail not only their careers but also their day-to-day lives.

MLB VP of Sports Betting & Compliance Quest Meeks

EPIC and Entain Foundation US have been working hard to ensure that they protect players, athletes and staff across various organizations and sports leagues, helping them understand the problems of problem gambling on both a professional, collegiate, and minor level.

Protecting Players on All Levels Is the Priority

Commenting on this new opportunity, Entain Foundation US trustee and Entain SVP for American regulatory affairs and responsible gambling, Martin Lycka, had this to add:

“We must take a preventative approach to gambling harm, particularly those involved in sports, so educating the baseball community on responsible gambling practices is a critical measure”

In June, EPIC and Entain Foundation US partnered with the Major League Soccer Players Association. Efforts to safeguard players and student-athletes have been ongoing, with the NCAA turning to a new partner to ensure that it’s not just a matter of educating players on why they shouldn’t gamble or be aware of gambling harm.

The association, for example, doubled down on protecting its student-athletes from online abuse, which is another unintended consequence of the mass legalization of sports gambling in the United States.

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The Swedish Gaming Authority (Spelinspektionen) is likely to receive new funds to help its mission to enhance the supervision of the gaming market in the country and oust unlicensed operators.

Combat Organized Crime

The Swedish government proposed legislators increase the budget allocated to Spelinspektionen in 2023 by SEK2.4 million ($230,360) to boost the watchdog’s capabilities to counter organized crime and create a safer gambling marketplace in the country.

The proposal was made as part of the upcoming spring budget amendment and is based on an agreement between the government and the Sweden Democrats, justified by the regulator’s need to handle a large influx of permit applications concurrent with other important supervisory tasks in 2023.

Commenting on the proposal, Angelika Bengtsson, sports policy spokesperson for the Democrats, outlined the regulator’s need for active supervision of the gaming market to be able to combat criminal activity and protect those who are most exposed.

Tackling the unlicensed market represents a significant part of this task, she added, explaining that it would help counter organized crime and strengthen consumer protection as “unlicensed gambling evades tax revenue, leads to problem gambling and contributes to match-fixing.”

As the gaming industry in the country continues to grow and generate significant turnover, so does the risk for criminal activities such as money laundering and match-fixing related to the sector to occur, which, in many cases is also part of organized international crime with local branches. That risk is estimated to be the highest among operators that do not hold a license.

Block Payments, Covert Supervision

Therefore, the government submitted a proposal for measures that would give Spelinspektionen powers to more effectively block payments for unlicensed operators as part of its enforcement actions and allow the regulator the opportunity to perform covert supervision.

Financial Markets Minister Niklas Wykman stressed the great damage that can be done by unlicensed gaming operators and the need for the national regulator to remove them from operating in the market, highlighting that the increased resources would facilitate the regulator’s ability to use its new supervisory tools and tackle the black market.

A recent study into the habits of gamblers in the country showed that only 8% of them participated in gambling activities via an unlicensed website, of which only 6% admitted to having gambled with offshore operators intentionally, while the remaining 2% said they had done this without knowing.

Further encouraging for Spelinspektionen, 77% of the participants in the study declared their intention to refrain from gambling with unlicensed operators.

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