The Guardian News

Yesterday, the Belgian minister of justice, Koen Geens, announced the result of an investigation that the country’s Gaming Commission conducted into video game “loot boxes”, a mechanic that lets players pay real money for a chance at winning virtual items. It found that three popular games – Overwatch, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive...

The government’s Gambling Commission should pressure Camelot to change the way it runs the national lottery to ensure more money goes to good causes amid rising profits for the company, a cross-party committee of MPs has said. The current lottery licence, which runs until 2023, is overly long and too inflexible,...

A Gibraltar-based company that allows Australians to bet on overseas lottery results should “simply take their bat and ball and go home”, the anti-gambling advocate Tim Costello has said. Lottoland, which runs synthetic lotteries allowing punters to place wagers on the outcome of overseas results, is seeking to expand...

The Gambling Commission is considering banning people from using their credit cards to place bets. The regulator said on Monday gambling on credit cards “increases the risk that consumers will gamble more than they can afford” and it would “consider prohibiting or restricting the use of credit cards” in order to...

When the Gambling Commission published its long-awaited review of gaming machines and social responsibility measures last week, the final document ran to nearly 50,000 words. Yet the news reports and analysis that followed concentrated almost exclusively on a number, £30, which was taken by some at least to be the...

“Iself-excluded from the major online casinos but there was always a new company I could open with and some of them don’t make it easy to self-exclude,” says Michael, a bricklayer from Glasgow, who started betting on football and greyhounds when he was 15, before developing a serious gambling...

Thinktank trials scheme to teach children about problems that can ‘wreak havoc on people’s lives’ Lessons about the risks of gambling have been trialled in secondary schools in an attempt to address high levels of gambling among school-age children. Around 25,000 children in the UK are currently classed as problem gamblers, with one...

The takeover of Ladbrokes Coral by GVC, the Isle of Man-based firm behind Foxy Bingo, could trigger up to 1,600 job losses, the companies said, as they published fresh details of a deal worth up to £3.9bn. Online casino company GVC and bookmaker Ladbrokes said up to 6% of their combined 26,800 workforce...

The National Lottery’s blue “Millionaire 7s” scratchcard game, which costs £5 a go, boasts of “six top prizes of £1m”. But if you go and buy one today, the shopkeeper probably won’t tell you that all six £1m jackpots have already been snapped up. Meanwhile, the Camelot-owned lottery’s £250,000...

The Co-op is taking on the National Lottery with the launch of its own scratchcards, which will give as much as four times to good causes. The member-owned business says a minimum of 20% from the sale of each of its own-brand cards will go to “local good causes”....

Um juiz de um tribunal federal concluiu que a Crown Melbourne e um desenvolvedor de máquinas de pôquer não violaram a lei do consumidor ao projetar uma de suas populares máquinas de jogos eletrônicos. O caso foi movido pela ex-viciada em jogos de azar Shonica Guy , que foi...

Could gambling addiction be treated with a nasal spray? A group of Finnish researchers are launching a study to find out. The fast-working spray contains naloxone, which is commonly used as an emergency treatment for overdoses of opiates such as heroin, opium and morphine. It blocks the production of...

Five online casino companies could lose their licence to operate, after industry regulator the Gambling Commission warned they were not doing enough to stop criminals using their websites to launder money. The commission has written to 17 online casino companies, flagging up the “serious nature” of its findings on their controls...

The company behind thousands of the UK’s fixed-odds betting terminals(FOBTs) is offering gambling-style apps on Facebook without age checks, prompting allegations that children are being exposed to the risk of addiction. Earlier this month, the industry watchdog warned that more than 60,000 children were either gambling addicts or were in danger of...

A crackdown by the European regulator on high-risk online bets has sent shares in spread-betting firms plummeting. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) said late on Friday it was considering a ban on the marketing, distribution or sale to retail clients of binary options, amid fears they are too...