Greek lottery and betting operator OPAP has announced that its entire digital sports betting operation will be migrated to the new Betgenius sportsbook platform. Under the new agreement, Betgenius will also become OPAP’s primary provider of in-play data, delivering fully-automated, real-time prices for around 130,000 sports events annually. OPAP is also choosing to use Betgenius […]

Greek lottery and betting operator OPAP has announced that its entire digital sports betting operation will be migrated to the new Betgenius sportsbook platform.

Under the new agreement, Betgenius will also become OPAP’s primary provider of in-play data, delivering fully-automated, real-time prices for around 130,000 sports events annually.

OPAP is also choosing to use Betgenius Sportsbook Platform’s full back office suite, CRM and marketing tools, outsourced trading and UX development across all digital channels.

Commenting on the news OPAP Chief Executive Officer, Damian Cope said: “We are very pleased to be announcing this deal with Betgenius, which is an important step in building a world class portfolio of products and services for OPAP’s customers. Our cooperation with Betgenius will allow us to be in more control of our digital sportsbook product and also provide the flexibility to enable us to react quickly to the fast-changing world of digital sports betting.”

According to Betgenius, its platform offers a “highly scalable, modular solution which gives operators maximum control, particularly around the delivery of differentiation in front-end design”.

Jack Davison, Managing Director of Betgenius, commented: “We are hugely proud and excited to have been selected by OPAP as a key partner in its efforts to offer its customers the best sports betting experience possible. The Betgenius Sportsbook Platform has been developed with speed, flexibility and scalability at its heart, and allows us to uphold the same high standards in technology and customer service to which we have always been committed.”

In the Netherlands, the Dutch Lower House passed a bill that allows privatising of the state-owned gambling operator Holland Casino. This can be done before having some of its licences sold off. The bill, however, must still pass the Senate before it can come to an effect, although this is not expected to happen before […]

In the Netherlands, the Dutch Lower House passed a bill that allows privatising of the state-owned gambling operator Holland Casino. This can be done before having some of its licences sold off. The bill, however, must still pass the Senate before it can come to an effect, although this is not expected to happen before the end of March.

Holland Casino at the moment is the only land-based casino operator that is legally permitted to offer live table games, such as roulette, baccarat and blackjack. Its sale might net the state as much as 1bn euro.

The legislation proposes that 14 individual branches of Holland Casino will be split up. 10 of them will still remain part of the casino and 4 will be sold. An additional two land-based casino licenses will be newly created. The consequences resulting from the new measures will be evaluated after five years.

The bill states that the buyer of Holland Casino and its ten casinos would not be allowed to acquire any of the remaining six licenses. Further, future operators will be required to guarantee the jobs of all employees at their purchased venues. They will also be prohibited from offering bonuses or loyalty programs.

Willem Van Oort, the founder of Gaming In Holland, said that without any doubts the progress has been made:

“By and large, the adoption of this bill is a significant victory for the liberalisation of gambling in The Netherlands”.

“However, the bill must still pass the Senate, which will almost certainly not happen before the lower house elections of March. It is thus not entirely unthinkable, depending on the next government, that further consideration of the bill will [be] delayed or even indefinitely postponed” stated Van Oort.

Bitcoin startup Xapo has revealed that a “conditional approval” from Switzerland’s financial regulator to operate in the country was received. It was announced by Xapo CEO Wences Casares: “After almost two years of substantial effort and investment, Xapo has received conditional approval from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) to operate in Switzerland,” he […]

Bitcoin startup Xapo has revealed that a “conditional approval” from Switzerland’s financial regulator to operate in the country was received.

It was announced by Xapo CEO Wences Casares: “After almost two years of substantial effort and investment, Xapo has received conditional approval from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) to operate in Switzerland,” he said in a blog on the company’s website.

The preliminary approval depended on several factors, including a mandatory membership with the Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO). However, Casares said that the company was optimistic the conditions would be met.

According to Olga Feldmeier, a former managing partner of Xapo, who is in charge of the Swiss licensing process for the company, Xapo does not need to secure a costly banking license because FINMA has designated the bitcoin wallet as a “financial intermediary”.

Switzerland already hosts a number of cryptocurrency companies, but Xapo’s operation as a bitcoin wallet provider had raised questions over whether it required a banking licence. The facts that the company does not accept deposits and is serving non-U.S. customers from Switzerland are working as an advantage for now.

Recently, Swiss authorities have been very clear about their plans to catch up with the rapidly changing financial technology landscape and to secure a leading role for their country.

Australian poker players are not letting it go without a fight. The supporters of online poker created the “Australian Online Poker Alliance (AOPA)” to encourage authorities to legalise the sector. They are gathering opponents against an amendment to the 2001 Interactive Gambling Act, introduced to parliament in November. AOPA introduces a framework to regulate the […]

Australian poker players are not letting it go without a fight. The supporters of online poker created the “Australian Online Poker Alliance (AOPA)” to encourage authorities to legalise the sector. They are gathering opponents against an amendment to the 2001 Interactive Gambling Act, introduced to parliament in November. AOPA introduces a framework to regulate the sector and offers ways how the Australian government could benefit from that.

Until the amendment was introduced, online poker had operated in what was considered to be a “grey area” of the law. The new law was introduced to toughen the situation for offshore, illegal operators that are willing to target Australians. However, it added an effect of banning online poker. Since according to the new law, only operators holding a license in Australia are able to offer their services to Australians and the only licence given is for online sports betting, the poker sites would have no other choice but to quite the market or break the law.

Shortly after the amendment was introduced, 888Poker has exited the market. PokerStars indicated they will be following the same path.

AOPA is offering a way to discuss the issue and gather those who care about the poker to join the cause. They are encouraging the residents to contact the local elected members of the Parliament, express their disagreement and spread the awareness.

AOPA is gaining high recognition among online poker supporters.

“It is amazing just how many poker players have come out and supported our fight to keep online poker in Australia,” said Joseph Del Duca, one of AOPA’s representatives. “The support has ranged from people of all ages from right across the country. It just shows that poker is truly a game which can be enjoyed by everyone. This is why we are fighting so hard to keep it.”

According to the local branch of the Transparency International (TI) non-governmental organisation, the new online gambling law in the Czech Republic is not working efficiently. Last year the country took some measures to regulate its gambling market in order to ensure compliance with EU regulatory standards. The new law took effect on January 1, 2017. […]

According to the local branch of the Transparency International (TI) non-governmental organisation, the new online gambling law in the Czech Republic is not working efficiently. Last year the country took some measures to regulate its gambling market in order to ensure compliance with EU regulatory standards. The new law took effect on January 1, 2017.

Under the new regulation, operators wishing to offer gambling services to the local market must first obtain a license. Providing unlicensed services is strictly prohibited and leads to the prosecution from the national regulator and police.

However, despite the new law, 25 companies are still offering gambling services without a licence. As revealed by David Ondracka, Director of TI’s Czech branch, officials have not taken measures yet to block such operators and urged the country’s Finance Ministry to take actions against violators. Ondracka intends to follow up on the matter again in April to see if appropriate measures are taken. He encouraged responsible officials to introduce IP blockage and in this way drive away operators acting against the law.

Even though the system has been changed in a way that was satisfying to the European Commission, industry insiders suggest that wider attention will not be attracted. Because of a taxation regime, introduced by Czech lawmakers, it will not be appealing to the most of operators. Apart from the tighter licensing process, companies providing services to Czech gambling customers have to pay 35% tax on full-year gross gaming revenue.

The Vietnamese government published a decree that regulates the citizens’ participation in legal casinos and gaming centres. Vietnamese citizens will no longer be prohibited from gambling. According to the launched pilot scheme, locals will be allowed to play in two properties – one on the Phu Quoc island and the other in the Quang Ninh […]

The Vietnamese government published a decree that regulates the citizens’ participation in legal casinos and gaming centres. Vietnamese citizens will no longer be prohibited from gambling. According to the launched pilot scheme, locals will be allowed to play in two properties – one on the Phu Quoc island and the other in the Quang Ninh province.

Analysts warn that casinos located in the countries neighbouring Vietnam are to be seriously affected by this decision:

“We would expect many to struggle to survive over the duration of the three-year Vietnam locals pilot program,” said Union Gaming analyst Grant Govertsen.

The decree will come into effect on March 15. The measure will allow Vietnamese citizens who are over 21 and have a monthly income of more than VND10 million ($443) to participate in selected casinos.

Although the pilot programme involves only two casinos, other casinos are not prohibited from joining it. However, they must be part of an entertainment and hotel complex project, have an investment capital of at least $2 billion and comply with a number of other requirements.

Currently, less than 10 casinos operate in Vietnam and are open to foreign passport-holders only. After three years the government will review the programme and determine whether the ban should be removed permanently. However, the government has retained the option to cancel the program at any time, if it finds it necessary.

The plans to require internet service providers (ISPs) to block the domains of international online gambling sites are cancelled. Despite the objections from the industry, earlier this month the Council of States approved this change. However, the Legal Affairs Committee of the Swiss National Council has just voted to remove the domain blocking from the […]

The plans to require internet service providers (ISPs) to block the domains of international online gambling sites are cancelled. Despite the objections from the industry, earlier this month the Council of States approved this change. However, the Legal Affairs Committee of the Swiss National Council has just voted to remove the domain blocking from the proposed gambling legislation.

The reason of the proposal was to support land-based casinos in Switzerland that are struggling financially. They were hoping that the blocks would help out the situation until expected regulation arrives around 2019. The new law is supposed to allow Swiss casinos to offer online versions of their activities.

However, ISPs were not willing to bear the costs and demanded that casinos pay for the changes even though the government ordered the blocks.

The latest decision is to re-examine the matter in five years. At the moment, the Federal Gaming Commission is authorised to issue warning to online operators that are offending the law and to prosecute those who neglect the warnings.

Despite the compromise taken, the National Council can still include the domain blocking in the final version of the gambling legislation. The government‘s spring session will end on March 17.

The Israel Tax Authority (ITA) has released an official draft circular to clarify the tax guidelines on virtual currencies like bitcoin. It announced the decision to treat digital currencies as assets that are taxable. “According to the Bank of Israel, virtual currency is not considered ‘foreign currency,’ and therefore these coins will be considered in […]

The Israel Tax Authority (ITA) has released an official draft circular to clarify the tax guidelines on virtual currencies like bitcoin. It announced the decision to treat digital currencies as assets that are taxable.

“According to the Bank of Israel, virtual currency is not considered ‘foreign currency,’ and therefore these coins will be considered in accordance with the Income Tax Ordinance as ‘assets’ and their sale will be taxed as a sale of ‘property’ and income from their sale will be classified as capital income and capital gains will be taxed according to the fixed tax rates,” ITA said in the statement.

Every time individual users sell bitcoin, they will be obliged to pay the country’s capital gains tax, which starts at 25%. Further, companies will no longer be able to receive bitcoin transactions as settlements for various services. Companies receiving cryptocurrency payments will have to treat them as barter transactions.

The ITA claims that the circular was announced as a response to multiple requests to clarify the taxation status received from the cryptocurrency community in Israel. However, it is not clear yet when Israel will implement the changes.

Israel‘s decision to tax cryptocurrency is not an exceptional case. Two years ago the United States took a similar decision and classified digital currency as a taxable property. However, it does not follow the latest softer approach towards bitcoin that is increasingly taken by other countries around the world.

The UK government announced the plan to introduce a 10% levy on profit to the UK racing industry. Effective April 2017, this change will apply to all betting operators, regardless of whether they are based in the UK or elsewhere, be they on-course, off-course, retail, online, pool betting operators, betting exchanges or spread betting sites. […]

The UK government announced the plan to introduce a 10% levy on profit to the UK racing industry. Effective April 2017, this change will apply to all betting operators, regardless of whether they are based in the UK or elsewhere, be they on-course, off-course, retail, online, pool betting operators, betting exchanges or spread betting sites.

This setup will replace the Horserace Betting Levy which is the current system in the UK. It states that only the companies that are based in the UK have to pay the levy, with bookmakers facing a 10% levy on the gross profits above the first £500,000.

“This move will help secure the future of horse racing in Britain by making sure that gambling firms pay a fair return to support the sport. Horse racing has a strong heritage in this country, employing thousands of people and is enjoyed by many almost every day of the year. This new approach to the Horserace Betting Levy will help sustain and develop the sport,” stated Tracey Crouch, The Minister for Sports, Tourism and Heritage.

Nick Rust, chief executive of the British Horseracing Authority, added that such changes are “critical to the future health of British racing”.

In the meantime, operators are threatening to take legal actions over proposed changes, but chief executive of the Remote Gambling Association Clive Hawkswood is stating that this move will not take place until after the European Union review process has been completed.

“There is a passing reference to the need for them to obtain state aid clearance and that remains a significant hurdle for them to overcome.It would be premature to talk about legal challenges until that process [of notifying the EU] is complete and that could take months,” explained Hawkswood.

Despite the previously failed attempts to establish a gambling market, Mongolia is forming a special group to draft their gaming bill. The country is attempting to tap into Asia’s lucrative gambling business and in this way boost tax revenue, reports local press. A few days ago the Judicial Standing Committee gave the green light to […]

Despite the previously failed attempts to establish a gambling market, Mongolia is forming a special group to draft their gaming bill. The country is attempting to tap into Asia’s lucrative gambling business and in this way boost tax revenue, reports local press.

A few days ago the Judicial Standing Committee gave the green light to create a government’s special team that will take care of drafting legislation that would authorise casino resorts. This has been done following the intentions to legalise Mongolia’s gambling industry expressed in November last year. The government’s group will be leaded by L. Enkhbold, Member of the Parliament.

It‘s a second attempt to legalise casino resorts in Mongolia. In 2012 the bill was submitted and received a lot of support. However, the plan to establish a gambling market did not work out.

This time the model proposed in the legislation is based on the practices used in Vietnam, South Korea or Combodia. That means that Mongolian citizens would be forbidden to gamble in casinos. All these countries are currently enforcing foreigner-only policies, where only foreign nationals are allowed to gamble in casino resorts.

Casinos are planned to be established near Mongolia’s borders with Buryatia and Kyakhta in Russia, China, also in international airports in Mongolia’s capital Ulan Bator.

Under the new bill, Mongolia will establish two casinos for tourists that are expected to generate MNT 74-130 billion in tax revenue annually.

It may be 2-3 years before bitcoin regulation in China, says the chief executive of digital currency exchange BTCC China Bobby Lee. His estimations were announced following the meetings between the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) – China’s central bank – and the major bitcoin exchanges in the country. According to Reuters, Bobby Lee revealed […]

It may be 2-3 years before bitcoin regulation in China, says the chief executive of digital currency exchange BTCC China Bobby Lee. His estimations were announced following the meetings between the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) – China’s central bank – and the major bitcoin exchanges in the country.

According to Reuters, Bobby Lee revealed that in contrary to the reports, PBOC did not cause pressure to curb the exit Chinese capital through bitcoin.
“No. Not as of yet… Nothing verbal or written to us,” Lee told the news agency.

Last week, the officials of PBOC met with BTCC, Huobi and OKCoin, China’s big bitcoin exchanges, and reportedly “urged the platform to behave in accordance with relevant laws and regulations.” The central bank also ordered BTCC China to perform “self-examination”. This directive was requested following “abnormal price fluctuations” of bitcoin, when the price had reached record highs followed by a steep drop.

You can buy bitcoin with yuan and then sell it abroad in exchange for foreign currencies. However, Lee pointed out that “to be honest, not many” investors were doing it. The Chinese yuan‘s price of bitcoin carries a premium to the price in other currencies, he noted.

“For that range, you’re not going to be able to do it at a good rate. You’re going to lose 10 percent of your money,” Lee said. “Maybe the individual household might buy 20,000 more dollars worth of bitcoin than their $50,000 (forex) quota, but that’s a drop in the bucket.”

The next step is for PBOC to discuss new or planned rules involving bitcoin. Bobby Lee estimates “it will be two to three years before China regulates bitcoin.”

Vietnamese government reinforced control on slot machines used in facilities open to foreigners in Vietnam. The new regulation follows the Decree 175/2016/ND-CP approved on December 30, 2016 and will come into effect on February 15, 2017. According to the Decree on business in prize-winning electronic games for foreigners, slot machines have to be 100% new, […]

Vietnamese government reinforced control on slot machines used in facilities open to foreigners in Vietnam. The new regulation follows the Decree 175/2016/ND-CP approved on December 30, 2016 and will come into effect on February 15, 2017.

According to the Decree on business in prize-winning electronic games for foreigners, slot machines have to be 100% new, with technical specifications clarified by the manufacturer, and certified by independent certifying agencies operating in G7 countries (Germany, Canada, US, France, Italy, Japan and UK).

The legal slot machines operating in casinos that are available to foreign players nationwide, will have to offer a pay-out percentage of at least 90%. Operators will be obliged to obtain the re-certification by the government to prove their gaming machines meet the new conditions.

The legal slot machines must add the 90% payout offering into the software that is installed into machine while it is still in the factory. The operators will be allowed to change the pay-out percentage, but the new percentage must not be lower than 90%. In this case, the machines will have to be certified again and the percentage will always have to be noted in the terms of the game.

Furthermore, the operators will be allowed to maintain or repair the machines, but in case such actions would concern the parts of the machines that could alter the percentage, the certification will have to be obtained again before putting machines into use.

The Vietnamese government has recently announced that the plan to allow slot machines in international airports is placed on hold. There will be no actions taken regarding the proposal until the government can measure the results of its three-year trial of allowing Vietnamese residents to gamble at two integrated resorts.