Legal Archives - Page 6 of 7

Audit claims Colorado regulator “did not complete” background checks

The Colorado office of the state auditor released a report criticising the state regulator for limited background checks and failures to investigate temporary licensees, as well as raising questions about the operator tax filings.

The regulatory failures documented by the report places into stark relief the first years of legal sports betting in the state.

“During the first year of regulating sports betting, the Division of Gaming, within the Department of Revenue, did not have an effective process to investigate sports betting operations for temporary licensure, or to collect sufficient documentation to determine if sports betting operations’ monthly tax filings were accurate,” the report states.

The audit found the commission issued the majority of operators only temporary licences. With these licences, the operators receive the same privileges as permanent licences but with far less stringent background check procedures.

“As of March 2022, 35 out of the 39 licensed retail and i..

May 27, 2022

Kenya Finance Committee throws out government’s tax hike plan

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The Finance and National Planning Committee of Kenya’s National Assembly published its updated version of the country’s Finance Bill, following a period of public input on the Treasury’s version of the bill.

In the committee’s version of the bill, the excise tax on betting stakes would remain at 7.5%, while no new tax would be brought in for gambling advertising.

Both of these were amendments from the Treasury’s version of the bill, which proposed a 20% excise tax on betting stakes, plus a 15% tax on gambling advertising spend.

The committee argued that this was not wise, however, as the current 7.5% rate has been in place for less than one year, so there has not been enough time to judge if it has been a success.

“The committee observed that excise duty on gaming activities had been increased in the Finance Act, 2021 and there is therefore need to give the sector time before taxes are increased,” the committee said. “The committee therefore recommends that the amendment be deleted..

May 5, 2022

Californians to vote on legalising online betting this year

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A proposition to allow online sports betting in California – but with licence fees of up to $100m – will to appear on the state’s ballot this November.

Flutter chief executive Peter Jackson confirmed that the measure – backed by Flutter’s FanDuel brand, as well as DraftKings and BetMGM – was set to appear on the ballot this November, having gained more than the required 997,139 signatures.

“We’re very excited abut the Californian situation,” he said. “Clearly getting to this stage was not straightforward but we’re very, very happy to be on the ballot.”

These signatures must still be verified, though the measure reportedly has enough signatures that this is expected to be a formality. If it appears on the ballot and is approved by a majority of voters, it will become law.

The measure is titled the California Legalize Sports Betting and Revenue for Homelessness Prevention Fund Initiative (2022), as 85% of tax proceeds will gowards reducing homelessness. Sports wagering will be taxed ..

April 4, 2022

Marathonbet to “temporarily suspend” UK site

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Marathonbet has temporarily suspended its services in the UK, due to “ongoing events in Europe”.

The business would stop allowing new customers to sign up immediately from today (4 April). Existing customers would then no longer be able to deposit or place bets until 14 April.

“As the Marathonbet brand is operated globally, recent and ongoing events in Europe have had a significant impact for us,” it said. “We regret to inform that we have taken the decision to temporarily suspend services offered on the marathonbet.co.uk website.”

The business did not give any indication of when the site may resume activity.

Both the Marathonbet.co.uk site and mbet.co.uk site will close. However, the Malta-licensed Marathonbet.com will continue to be active.

March 17, 2022

Minnesota committee approves online betting bills

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A Minnesota house legislative committee has adopted two bills that would both allow for online sports betting to be conducted by the state’s 11 federally recognised Native American tribes.

The Committee for Finance and Policy was presented with a tribal and commercial sports betting bill – House Bill 778 – and House Bill 167, which initially had nothing to do with sports wagering and instead dealt with sentencing hearings.

However, it opted to amend both bills to produce identical pieces of sports wagering legislation in which betting may be operated by the state’s recognised tribes.

Both bills would allow for only two master sports betting licences, which may be granted to “organisations comprised of two or more Indian tribes”.

Of these licences, one will go to an entity with headquarters north of Interstate Highway 94, and one located south of the highway. I-94 stars at the Wisconsin border near Minneapolis and moves northwest before leaving the state near Fargo, North Dakota.

March 4, 2022

Nairobi bill would only permit betting in five-star hotels

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The Nairobi County Assembly has approved at first reading a bill that would only allow gambling operators to be located five-star hotels, and would only allow them to operate between the hours of 8pm and 6am.

The Nairobi City County Betting, Lotteries and Gaming (Amendment) Bill, 2021 would amend the country’s Gaming Act, which only became law last year.

The bill was approved at its second reading last week, bringing it one step closer to becoming law.

It would add new provisions to the country’s gaming laws, including only allowing betting, lotteries and gaming facilities to be “domiciled in a five-star hotel”, as rated by Kenya’s Tourism Regulatory Authority.

In addition, licenced premises would only be allowed to operate between the hours of 8pm and 6am.

Meanwhile, gambling advertisements may not be broadcast during the watershed period, which occurs from 10pm to 5am. Physical advertisements such as billboards would be banned entirely.

The law would also require all operators ..

February 24, 2022

Kentucky lawmaker begins push for legal betting, fantasy and poker

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A bill to legalise sports betting, fantasy sports and online poker in Kentucky has been introduced to the state's Senate.

Senate Bill 213, authored by Senator David Yates, has been referred to the Committee on Committees, and it outlines the operation of online and in-person sports wagering, fantasy contests and online poker.

Sports betting licencees will be subject to a 9.75% tax rate on adjusted gross revenue from retail bets, while online bets will be taxed at 14.25%.

Wagering will only be permitted in the state at licensed racetracks, professional sports venues or on a mobile app, for which in-person registration will be mandatory.

This registration requirement will then lift from 2024, when players aged 18 and above will be able to download an app anywhere.

Tracks and venues are only allowed to partner with one provider at a time, using a format available in both a retail and online capacity.

For fantasy sports operators, the registration fee has been set at $5,000,..

February 24, 2022

Dutch regulator warns operator over Twitter ads during matches

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Dutch gambling regulator Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) has issued a warning to a licensed operator for advertising on social media platform Twitter during football matches.

The unnamed operator tweeted updates on games and in some posts quoted odds and included a direct link to its website where consumers could place bets on the matches.

Dutch law prohibits advertising during sports events in order to discourage players from impulsive betting.

As such, the KSA said the operator’s tweets on the matches breached this regulation.

The regulator contacted the licensee once it was aware of the tweets, ordered it to cease posting immediately and to not carry out this form of marketing in the future. The KSA said the operator complied with its orders.

The KSA added that it would continue to monitor the operator’s activities and warned it could impose sanctions if further breaches were identified.

The warning comes after the regulator last week also issued warnings to a number of operators ov..

January 28, 2022

Lithuanian Supreme Court rejects offshore operator’s appeal for warning

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Lithuania’s Supreme Administrative Court has rejected an appeal from unlicensed operator Interstorm Curaçao that argued the Gambling Supervisory Authority must warn offshore operators before taking action to shut down their sites.

The regulator issued an order for Interstorm – which operates the SLL365 website for Casino Shangri-La – to stop promoting unlicensed online gambling in Lithuania in May 2020.
However, the operator filed an appeal with the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court that month, arguing that it had not received any warning before the regulator took action.
The court rejected this appeal, noting that there was no requirement for the Gambling Supervisory Authority to warn unlicensed operators.
The operator then took its appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court, but this court agreed with the lower ruling.
The Supreme Administrative Court noted that being able to quickly block sites was a central component in the Supervisory Authority’s powers against online gamblin..

January 27, 2022

Swedish government scraps deposit cap plans

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Sweden’s government has scrapped plans to impose new restrictions – including a SEK4,000 slots deposit cap – for online casino products.

The Swedish government announced earlier this month plans to reintroduce a number of temporary measures for the gambling sector, including a deposit cap, after a previous SEK5,000 cap had been in place for much of 2020 and 2021.

The cap – alongside other measures such as a SEK100 limit on sign-up bonuses – was set to be made official today (27 January) and come into force on 7 February, but the government instead opted to abandon the plan.

Gustaf Hoffstedt, secretary general of industry association BOS, which met with state secretary Alejandro Firpo earlier today, said the government made the right choice as the cap did not reduce gambling harm.

“It is a wise and well-balanced decision that the government has made,” Hoffstedt said. “Partly based on the general development of the pandemic. Partly, and above all, because precisely these restriction..

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