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Regulatory changes affecting the iGaming industry

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New changes to country regulations and restrictions have an impact on the online casino industry.


There are always new changes in the online casino industry that can impact a player’s experience.

Regulatory changes and restrictions play a significant role in the experience customers have and how operators perform in certain regions.

Here are some of the latest restrictions and regulations impacting the online casino industry in different countries.

High-risk countries

The European Commission, an executive branch of the European Union (EU), calls for stricter customer checks by EU gambling operators in their new list of high-risk countries.

According to the Commission, the high-risk countries are those with strategic deficiencies in their anti-money laundering scheme.

Due to this, all operators based in the EU offering services to such countries must now carry out even stricter security checks. The list was initially published in 2016 and has been updated many times with countries that are cause for concern.

The latest countries added to the list include Burkina Faso, the Cayman Islands, Haiti, Jordan, Mali, Morocco, Myanmar, Philippines, Senegal, and South Sudan. All countries added to the list are those that tick the boxes on the Commission’s criteria list.

Belgium regulatory amendments

The latest changes proposed for Belgium’s iGaming industry have been given a thumbs down. One of the new proposals is to separate betting and gaming accounts which received severe backlash from the Belgian Association of Gaming Operators (BAGO). The latter sees this potential shift as one that can be a considerable risk considering safer gambling efforts.

The plan is to amend the bill that was first introduced in the Chamber of Representatives in 2019 and, in doing so, ban operators from offering different class games on a single website. The amendment has been put on hold for over two years.

With this change, users will have the opportunity to access different URLs from a single operator with one account. The amendment changed, stating that users cannot access different casino games on different URLs with a single player account, nor are players allowed to transact between different player accounts.

According to BAGO, this can be a serious threat to consumer protection leading to players losing control of their spending. This is because they will have to keep track of various accounts, which will make it even more challenging to keep track of player behaviour.

BAGO also believes that these changes could push players towards unregulated sites. The association suggests keeping the single-player account per operator in play, leading to better customer protection.

More restrictions for Dutch players

There may be some more restrictions for players at Dutch online casinos on the way. The Dutch Minister for Legal Protection, Franc Weerwind, is looking into applying time and stake limits across all operators.

Currently, all players are expected to limit their gameplay which is not as effective according to the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) as many operators have very high limit options available.

Weerwind states he is looking into two options: setting a maximum to existing limits and seeing if it is viable to apply a limit across all providers. He continues by saying that while it has not been possible to monitor online gaming behaviour due to privacy, he will investigate to see if there have been any technological advancements to allow this.

Published: May 2, 2022

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Article by Stelly

CasinoWow Contributor

Hey there! I am Stelly, and happily, I'm part of CasinoWow's content team. It excites me to be able to write and share with all gambling enthusiasts unbiased reviews and news that contribute to the gambling community and industry. Thankfully, I also have the chance to help you make an informed choice for casino brands and games, as well as provide interesting guides and news.

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