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Gambling companies should refuse to take bets from “vulnerable” footballers because they are easy targets, says ex-Stoke winger Matthew Etherington. The 35-year-old lost £1.5m at the height of his gambling addiction. He sympathises with Burnley midfielder Joey Barton, who admitted suffering from the problem on Wednesday after being banned...

The long-awaited revamp of PokerStars’ VIP rewards program will start rolling out in June, the company has announced. The system will replace the current decade-old “volume-driven” loyalty program with a personalized system of awarding random prizes. In a corporate blog post, Severin Rasset, PokerStars’ Director of Poker Innovation and...

Can you put a price on misery? When it comes to problem gambling the answer, apparently, is yes. A team of economists has calculated that if the UK’s hundreds of thousands of problem gamblers were to be cured of their addictions, the boost to the nation’s collective happiness would be equivalent...

The Gambling Commission, which regulates all betting and gaming in the UK, has delivered a damning verdict on the gambling industry’s procedures for resolving complaints and disputes and warned that operators must act now to halt a sharp decline in the number of customers who believe gambling “is fair...

Legislative framework of gambling regulation ◊ Status: Law stated as at 01-Nov-2016 | Jurisdiction: England, Wales Contents ♦ Legislative framework of gambling regulation    ◊ Overview    ◊ Definitions of gambling    ◊ Regulatory authorities    ◊ Gambling products ♦ Land-based gambling    ◊ Regulation/licensing ♦ Online gambling    ◊ Regulation/licensing...

A betting loophole that allows gambling websites to offer cut-price bets on the EuroMillions lottery draw is intended to be closed by the government as it takes “money away from good causes”. Although the Gambling Act prohibits betting on National Lottery games, websites get around the law by offering...

Problem gambling costs the UK up to £1.2bn according to a report by charity GambleAware, with spending related to police intervention, mental health services and homelessness putting pressure on the system. The charity warned of the “narrow” focus on fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs), known as the “crack cocaine of...

UK bookmakers William Hill saw their operating profit fall 10% in 2016, a 12-month span their interim CEO called “a challenging year.” Figures released Friday show Hills’ revenue inching up 1% to £1.6b last year, while operating profit fell 10% to £261.5m. Interim CEO Philip Bowcock (pictured) said 2016...

The man tipped to lead the UK’s second-biggest bookmaker has broken ranks with the industry by offering support for a curb on TV gambling adverts. Betting companies have largely rejected suggestions that their ads are seen by too many vulnerable people and children, but William Hill’s finance director said he understood people’s...

Problem gambling experts have criticised rival factions of the betting industry for waging a “selfish” war of words to protect their own interests amid the threat of tighter regulation. The UK’s leading gambling charity also warned that a “narrow” focus on controversial fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs), potentially ignoring online betting...

Two men who admitted breaching gambling laws over a website that allowed children to bet on Premier League football matches using a virtual currency earned in the video game Fifa have been ordered to pay fines and costs. Dylan Rigby, 33, and Craig Douglas, 32, pleaded guilty to breaches...

I was one of those who said it could never be done: that a computer wouldn’t ever manage to beat the best at the game of poker. I was romantic and wide-eyed at 18, when my heroes were the cowboys from Texas who ruled the felt. They were uneducated...

Britain and Gibraltar count as one EU state in terms of a key aspect of the single market, a senior EU lawyer has said in an opinion that could affect the territory’s life after Brexit. The lawyer rebuffed a challenge by Gibraltar’s huge electronic gambling industry, the mainstay of...

The Gambling Commission has entered a heated discussion over events at Cheltenham on New Year’s Day, asking anyone to come forward who may have evidence of bookmakers forcing an unwarranted deduction from winnings on the last race, won by the favourite, Cap Soleil. A deduction of five pence in the pound...

The National Lottery operator, Camelot, is “considering its options” after the man who allegedly claimed a £2.5m prize by fraudulent means was named in the media as a convicted rapist. The Gambling Commission said on Thursday that it had fined Camelot£3mfor paying out the £2.5m prize in 2009 on a ticket that...