All around the world #6; a gambling news round-up
It’s been an interesting few weeks – with a mixture of tabloid-style headlines and regulators scrambling to keep up. From the Pope weighing in on gambling and Snoop Dogg launching a casino, human interest stories abound. But, don’t let the ‘fun’ stuff distract from the quieter, more meaningful changes happening in gambling policy.
Italy’s gambling boom gets a Vatican-sized spotlight
Some stories write their own headlines and the Vatican delivered this one: Pope Leo XIV called gambling a ‘plague’ in a public address to Italy’s mayors. Whether you believe that religious figureheads should have a say in gambling rhetoric, or not, his claims were based on real data.
Caritas Italia’s report included a staggering claim that total gross gaming revenue (GGR) hit €157bn in 2024 – up from €35bn in 2006. This puts the national average loss figure at around €493 per person, but the 10 regions that are above average are in more economically challenged areas. Perhaps the Pope is right to point this problem out? Gambling can have a larger negative impact on the communities that can least afford it.
ADM (The Customs and Monopolies Agency) enforces strict marketing controls, and the country has reportedly lifted licence costs to €7m per operator (up from €200,000 previously). Seemingly, even in a prohibitively strict environment, gambling companies can continue to draw record profits.
Spain’s numbers show online casino is doing the heavy lifting
Spain too is seeing soaring revenue, with online casinos leading the way. Regulator DGOJ reported an online GGR of €405.36m for Q3 2025, representing a 16.49% year-on-year rise. The online casino sector made up more than half of this, with slots alone up 27.78%. Interestingly, roulette and blackjack have dipped slightly, despite a larger marketing and affiliate spend than ever before.
It’s a small story, but a reminder that across the world, online slots continue to be the main driver in growth.
Estonia’s tax regime trips over a wording error
As online casino revenue soars in Spain, in Estonia, it’s accidentally been left untaxed. A clerical error reportedly left ‘online casino’ outside the 2026 tax regime. Instead of calling casino games ‘games of chance’ they were referred to as ‘skill games’ – leaving the vast majority of casino games untaxable!
As soon as the mistake was noted, it was quickly stated that the intent was widely understood – and the typo was swiftly rectified. However, all of this happened against the backdrop of Estonia’s longer-term tax strategy. The plan is to reduce gambling licence tax from 6% to 4% by 2028, in increments of 0.5% annually. With a government that’s trying to increase investment, mistakes like this really do risk losing credibility.
Bulgaria’s casino ID tracking uncovers a healthcare fraud angle
One of the most unusual stories of late comes from Bulgaria, where mandatory casino visitor registration has found an ‘interesting’ new use. The National Revenue Agency (NRA Bulgaria) is able to track every visit to a casino as an ID must be uploaded to NRA servers. Thanks to this technology, the NRA were able to detect 3,890 people visiting land-based casinos in H1 2025 while they were supposedly hospitalised. That totals an astounding 22,000 individual visits.
Understandably, the National Health Insurance Fund conducted an investigation into this and discovered potential fraud involving fictitious hospitalisations and improper payouts, with an estimated cost of around BGN 7million. Whether it’s a little bit ‘big brother’ or a genuinely unexpected side effect of this technology, that’s an awful lot of money being spent on ‘sick days’.
The Netherlands plans to choke off the illegal supply chain
While Bulgaria has uncovered an unusual bit of casino-related fraud, in the Netherlands Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) has put illegal gambling companies front and centre in its Supervisory Agenda 2026. Instead of catching sites that are up to no good, it wants to break the supply chain instead.
The plan is to disrupt illegal operators by targeting payments, hosting, affiliates, and social platforms – effectively wiping out the black market ecosystem in a prevention over cure model. They hope to reach a 90% channelisation rate, where 90% of players are funnelled to licensed and regulated sites.
Alongside this, KSA is also planning to:
- Reduce gambling exposure among minors
- Tweak how operators assess affordability
- Monitor ads more strictly
This mini-overhaul takes a brilliantly well-rounded approach, helping the operators who are doing it right and making life exceptionally hard for the operators who are doing it wrong.
Russia pushes a hard line self-exclusion model
We wrote recently about France introducing online self-exclusion – and now Russia has taken things a step further. Their national self-exclusion programme is due to launch on 1 September 2026, pending approval.
The headline feature is blunt: self-exclusion must last at least 12 months and can’t be revoked by the individual once set. This system would be managed via the government services portal Gosuslugi, or in person via government offices only. Once self-excluded, all operators would be barred from accepting transactions and sending marketing.
Russia already has a similar self-exclusion portal for loans which launched in May 2025 and has seen 20+ million sign-ups. This state-run method might seem a little unusual – and quite a hard line to take – but it will be interesting to see the impact it has.
Europe’s quiet convergence in gambling standards
While Russia slightly bucks the trend, much of the rest of Europe seems to be inching toward de facto harmonisation. Rather than gambling law helping this along, it’s more the shared frameworks and technical standards that sit adjacent to gambling.
Things like data protection, anti-money laundering (AML) expectations, platform rules, and emerging AI governance are all starting to converge. After all, players expect broadly the same thing – they want fairness – and there are certain frameworks that, while voluntary, have been proven to deliver it.
Malta's iGaming sector continues to flourish
Malta’s iGaming industry is proof that sectors working together can achieve great things. GamingMalta’s CEO, Ivan Filetti, sat down to talk about the plans to improve the sector even further, as part of the government’s Vision 2050.
With more than 250 operators on the island, the country has fully embraced iGaming. Total cross-party political support has enabled Malta to become what Filletti called the ‘Silicon Valley of iGaming’ – and it’s a reasonable claim! Malta has one of the fastest growing economies in Europe. Their pledges to help them achieve the 2025 vision are simple: nurturing homegrown talent, attracting talent from overseas, and continuing to support responsible gambling.
FBI warns Americans of illegal online gambling
While this roundup has been heavily Europe-focused, there’s plenty going on in the US too. Recently, the FBI issued a public service warning urging consumers to avoid illegal online gambling. The warning comes about as a result of a figure from the American Gaming Association: Americans are estimated to wager $673.6bn annually in unregulated markets.
It’s an absolutely enormous number, but it’s not so difficult to see how that’s possible. The US has a state-by-state licensing system, which means that while online sports betting is legal almost everywhere, only seven states are cited as allowing fully regulated online casinos. Sweepstakes casinos and prediction markets are also warned about in the piece, but on the whole, this serves as a reminder to policy-makers. Often, one broad policy is a better option than 50 carefully planned individual ones.
Snoop Dogg’s free-to-play casino
Ending on a more light-hearted note, Snoop Dogg has thrown his hat into the casino ring. Working alongside TRIVELTA (iGaming platform developer), he has launched Dogg House Casino. Working on a free-to-play model, he describes it as an artist-led casino. Players get to enjoy custom audio, visuals, and Snoop-themed spins on classic formats (including a Snoop-as-dealer blackjack variant). At the moment there are more than 500 games and it’s operating as free-to-play in all 50 states.
In summary
Gambling news lately has been a real mixture, from headline grabbing stories that perhaps have little real-world impact, to quieter policy changes that quite likely could make a big splash. Balancing player support with meaningful change remains a tightrope for governments and policy-makers, but looking towards industry leaders like Malta could provide a solid foundation to follow.