Section
Licensing, legislation and compliance across regulated markets.
139 articles
Colombia's outgoing Petro administration filed a permanent 19% online gambling VAT bill on July 24, 2026, before the August 7 government handover. Industry data shows the levy caused a 30% GGR decline when last enforced.
Brazil's Betting Secretariat fined Blaze BRL 2.3 million for running 33 influencer videos with João Caetano, a creator with 15 million YouTube subscribers whose audience includes large numbers of minors. A separate R$120 million civil claim from the Federal District prosecutor is also pending.
The North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries has declared prediction markets to be gambling, calling for urgent regulatory oversight at the same time the CFTC is moving to formally permit sports event contracts on platforms including Kalshi and Polymarket.
The Curaçao Gaming Authority introduced comprehensive cryptocurrency rules for all licensed gambling operators in June 2026, banning privacy coins, mixer-linked transactions, and UBO-connected wallets. Operators have until June 2027 to achieve full compliance under a phased timeline that has already started.
The Netherlands raised its gambling tax twice in two years and projected hundreds of millions in extra government revenue. A Ministry of Finance monitoring report reveals the actual figures tell a very different story, with the 2025 shortfall reaching 98%.
France's gambling regulator ordered ISPs to block Polymarket on July 16, 2026, after a November 2024 transaction freeze failed to deter 205,000 unique French visitors a month. The platform is fighting back legally as European regulatory pressure on prediction markets intensifies.
House Representatives Steven Horsford and Mark Amodei introduced the Prediction Markets Are Gambling Act on July 24, 2026, joining a Senate companion bill to ban sports and casino-style prediction contracts from federally regulated exchanges.
Brazil's TJDFT court ruled on July 21, 2026, that Blaze and influencer Virginia Fonseca cannot advertise gambling as providing fixed profits or replacing employment. The ruling carries fines of up to BRL 2 million and follows a separate BRL 2.3 million SPA fine and an ongoing BRL 120 million damages claim by public prosecutors.
Germany's GGL is expanding LUGAS with Dataport to power deeper data analysis ahead of the GlüStV 2021 review, while new tiered slot stakes from July 1 have made LUGAS cross-checks a live compliance requirement for every licensed operator in the country.
New Zealand opened expressions of interest for up to 15 online casino licences on July 17, 2026, with an August 14 submission deadline and a September auction date, marking the country's first regulated iGaming market.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has proposed increasing business rates on Adult Gaming Centres to fund a 20% rate cut for pubs, clubs and live music venues, with a separate think-tank proposal to double Machine Games Duty on Category B machines potentially raising up to £458 million annually.
The Campaign for Fairer Gambling is pushing New Jersey legislators to pass bill S-2160, which would make the state the first in the US to ban online microbetting, citing research that 78% of microbettors meet problem gambling criteria.