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Public prosecutors have closed a three-year investigation into unlicensed online gambling platforms and decided not to bring any criminal charges, according to an association of leading online gambling companies active in Chile.

The Chilean Association of Online Betting Platforms said the decision had vindicated its position that online gambling is not illegal under current laws, even though the activity is not subject to regulation.

“Now the task is for the legislative branch to establish how online betting sites should be operated and, above all, taxed,” stated Matias Balmaceda, a lawyer for the association whose members include Betsson, Betano and BetWarrior.

Chile’s Senate is presently reviewing a bill to establish a national licensing system and impose an effective tax rate of more than 35 percent on operators. The measure was passed by the lower house of Congress in December 2023.

Brazil’s Ministry of Sport has published the results of a consultation on esports betting, indicating strong popular support for expanding the range of esports eligible for wagering in the country’s regulated online gambling market.

The ministry opened a public consultation in February after its December 2024 ordinance initially restricted betting on esports to events approved by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

According to published on Monday (April 14), 89.2 percent of respondents said that esports betting should not be limited strictly to IOC-approved events.

Between 87 and 90 percent of respondents specifically suggested that Counter Strike, League of Legends and Valorant contests should be eligible for betting.

The Ministry of Sport has yet to update its list of permissible betting events to include additional esports contests. Last week, the ministry published a separate ordinance to confirm that it would be inspecting licensed operators’ platforms to verify that they are complying with the restrictions.

“With this public consultation, we were able to identify the most popular offerings practiced in Brazil, with the aim of strengthening, promoting and boosting esports … while protecting the integrity of sports betting,” said Giovanni Rocco, the secretary for sports betting within the ministry.

The Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA) has handed out its first fine for failing to protect young adults against excessive gambling and gambling addiction.

The €734,000 fine was announced on April 15, but the licensee has not been named as it successfully requested an interim injunction from the court to prevent publication.

“The judge has ruled that the question of whether the fine was correctly imposed is too complicated to answer now,” according to the KSA.

Michel Groothuizen, chairman of the KSA board, said: "We have intensified our supervision of the online duty of care and we take tough action against violations such as those we find here, because we really do not want to see providers continue to fail in their duty of care, especially for vulnerable young players.”

An investigation into some of the unnamed company’s ten players with the largest losses was conducted, revealing a host of infractions.

“These were young adult players (18 to 23 years old) who gambled away tens of thousands of euros in often a relatively short period of time,” according to the KSA.

The Netherlands’ online gambling market saw revenue decline by 12.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024, after new responsible gambling restrictions were introduced in October, according to a 91����ԭ�� analysis of Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA) data published on Monday (April 14).

Total revenue for the fourth quarter was €306.4m ($347.8m) versus €349.2m in 2023, with revenue from online casino games dropping by 18.5 percent compared with the prior year.

From October 1, new regulations banned Dutch players from depositing more than €700 in a month unless they first pass an affordability test.

The KSA said the financial data demonstrated how the new rules “have had a positive effect: players are losing fewer large amounts and the percentage of extreme losses has fallen sharply”.

The regulator said that prior to October, 73 percent of overall revenue had come from accounts losing more than €1,000 per month.

“After the introduction of the rules, this percentage has dropped to 23 percent. This means that operators generate less income from player accounts with large losses,” the KSA said.

A bill to put a Nevada state lottery on the ballot next year has come up short after Democratic Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager announced that AJR 5 would not move forward.

The measure would have removed the state’s 159-year-old constitutional prohibition on operating a lottery. The bill passed in both legislative chambers in 2023, but it requires a second approval before it can be placed on the Nevada ballot in 2026.

The proposal was supported by the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 but opposed by the Nevada Resort Association.

“It’s irresponsible that Democratic leadership in the Nevada legislature refused to even give AJR5 a hearing, killing legislation they supported last session and denying Nevadans the opportunity to have their voices heard,” Ted Pappageorge, Culinary Union secretary-treasurer, said in a statement on Monday (April 14).

Yeager’s decision came on Friday, a deadline for bills to be passed out of committee or be shelved for the 2025 Nevada legislative session.

Nevada is one of five states without a lottery, alongside Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii and Utah.

The Secretariat for Prizes and Bets (SPA) published an on Friday (April 11) to suspend four provisional licences for fixed-odds betting that were granted at the end of December.

The SPA’s ordinance suggested the four operators had failed to submit compliance certification reports within a required 60-day period. Their licences are now suspended for 90 days but can be restored if certifications are submitted within this time. 

The four suspended licensees include two major operators in Brazil’s Caixa Loterias national lottery and media conglomerate Grupo Silvio Santos’ Todos Querem Jogar that have yet to launch their online betting platforms in the Brazilian regulated market.

However, another operator named in the SPA ordinance was PixBet, one of the most prominent online betting brands in Brazil and the main sponsor of Flamengo football team.

In a statement, PixBet said it believed it had submitted the required certifications and that the company would be working directly with officials at the SPA to resolve “a possible error of analysis in the technical process”.

According to BNLData, PixBet on Saturday obtained an emergency order from a Brazilian federal court to allow the company to remain in operation. 

The gambling authority for Argentina’s Buenos Aires Province has opened a tender process to award new concessions for the province’s seven land-based casinos.

The seven properties are all being operated under extensions to their original concessions, and operators applying for a new 20-year contract will be required to invest in modernising the facilities through upgraded slot machines and entertainment offerings, according to a statement published by the Provincial Institute of Lotteries and Casinos (IPLyC) on Friday (April 11).

Bids on the concession contracts are due by July 8.

The seven casinos are located in the towns of Necochea, Mirama, Tandil, Sasso, Hermitage, Mar de Ajo and Sierra de la Ventana.

The wider gambling market of the province of Buenos Aires includes seven licensed online gambling platforms and several dozen bingo halls that are also permitted to offer slot machines.
 

West Virginia is set to become the third U.S. state to authorize fixed-odds betting on horse races after was approved by the state legislature.

The state’s House of Delegates voted 55-43 to pass the bill on Friday (April 11), some three weeks after the measure was first approved in the Senate. Senators voted again on Saturday to concur with amendments made to the bill in the lower house.

SB 576, which still must be signed into law by Republican Governor Patrick Morrisey, specifically authorizes licensed sports-betting operators to offer fixed-odds wagers on both horse and dog races alongside football, baseball and other sports.

Tax revenue derived from betting on horse and dog races via sportsbooks will be redistributed to the state’s four licensed racetracks and used to supplement race purses or pay for capital improvements.

Fixed-odds wagering on horse races is also authorized through regulations in New Jersey and Colorado.

The Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA) will form an “alliance” with other industry stakeholders, including banks and payment providers, to tackle illegal gambling.

KSA chair Michel Groothuizen welcomed calls from lawmakers and the secretary of state to expand powers to tackle illegal gambling in a blog post published on Thursday (April 10).

“We are trying to push illegal parties further and further into a corner, with existing and ever-new tools in our toolbox and to do more and more to make safe gaming a reality for everyone in the Netherlands,” Groothuizen said.

However, he added, “before the introduction of new legislation has taken effect, we will have to wait at least two years.” 

In the meantime, the KSA has been working on a plan to tackle illegal gambling.

“The fact that we also receive help (and brainpower!) from legal providers and their affiliated partners will help us to fight the illegal market even more effectively,” Groothuizen said.

As illegal gambling operators are often located outside the Netherlands, the KSA has strengthened cooperation with other gambling regulatory bodies.

Just last week, the KSA issued a €1.2m ($1.4m) fine to Kahnawake-licensed Techno Offshore Limited for offering illegal gambling, and announced that it has “intensified” supervision of illegal gambling apps, having removed 20 from app stores since the start of 2025.

The gambling regulator is also receiving more reports on illegal gambling from the industry.

“Report Fake Gaming" (Meld Vals Spel), established by two trade groups, the Licensed Dutch Online Gambling Providers (VNLOK) and the Dutch Online Gambling Association (NOGA), recently reported dozens of ads for illegal gambling on online platforms, with some ads featuring bank logos without permission.

The United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) gambling regulator has granted “gaming-related vendor” licences to gaming technology titan Novomatic and Kentucky-based lottery developer and aggregator EQL Games.

The website of the federal General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA) has confirmed the licences, which Novomatic and EQL Games welcomed in separate statements on Thursday (April 10).

“Receiving this licence as one of the first gaming technology groups worldwide is a significant milestone for Novomatic,” said Stefan Krenn, a member of Novomatic AG Group’s executive board.

Novomatic said the licence enables it to “expand its presence with a comprehensive portfolio of state-of-the-art land-based gaming solutions” in the UAE.

EQL Games said its licence will allow it to “offer a suite of high-end gaming products in the UAE on any regulated gaming platform with a focus on lottery”.

“We are honoured to be recognised by the UAE’s regulatory authorities and look forward to supporting their vision for a well-regulated digital lottery experience,” EQL Games CEO and founder Brad Cummings said.

Novomatic and EQL Games are the fifth and sixth companies to receive gaming-related vendor licences after Aristocrat Technologies Europe, Smartplay International, PayBy Technology Projects and Xpoint Technology.