For some years now, a wave of new gambling regulation has been sweeping across Europe. After all, the old national gambling laws no longer adequately represented an increasingly important part of the wide range of gambling products due to the emergence of online casinos and sports betting on the Internet. At the same time as this new regulation, more and more states are dissolving their old gambling monopolies and opening up the market to private providers under strict rules. These are usually monitored by a national gaming supervisory authority, which not only issues licenses but, if necessary, also imposes heavy fines in the event of violations. How often such offenses have occurred in the last five years is shown by extremely interesting statistics, which meticulously lists all sinners from both the stationary and the online area. This shows that since 2016 alone almost 110 million euros in fines have been imposed by supervisory authorities on numerous gambling companies in Europe.
Gambling companies in Europe have had to pay almost 110 million euros in fines since 2016
Since 2016, the Gambling Industry Fines portal has been keeping a meticulous record of all fines imposed by national supervisory authorities on gambling companies in Europe. This includes the time of the penalty, by which authority it was pronounced against which company and of course the reason for the fine. Almost always it was a question of violations of money laundering guidelines or problems with player protection such as failure to recognise problematic gambling behaviour.
Based on the data since 2016, it is striking that the amount and number of fines against gambling companies has increased significantly in the last three years. On the one hand, this is due to that after Great Britain other countries in Europe such as Sweden or Denmark have regulated their gambling markets for online casinos and have created their own supervisory authorities. On the other hand, controls are now much more stringent. The Netherlands, for example, has only been really taking action against online casino operators for a good two years after it became clear that the gaming market would be liberalised. If all the fines against the gambling companies between 2016 and the end of 2020 are added up, the total is an unbelievable almost 110 million euros. that the gambling market will be liberalised. If all the fines against the gambling companies from 2016 to the end of 2020 are added up, the total is an unbelievable almost 110 million euros. that the gambling market will be liberalised. If all the fines against the gambling companies from 2016 to the end of 2020 are added up, the total is an unbelievable almost 110 million euros.
By far the strictest supervisory authority with the highest fines against gambling companies since 2016 is clearly the British UKGC, the United Kingdom Gambling Commission. It is now followed by spine inspections from Sweden, which, after the initially quite tame penalties, have clearly tightened the reins, especially in the last year.
Arthur Dean is an ex Poker Player from JoBurg, South Africa who’s Poker Strategy books has been translated to over 6 languages.