Compliance Updates
EGARA & CityMaaS Launch First Gambling-Focused Accessibility Toolkit Ahead of June Compliance Deadline
Digital accessibility has become a legal, reputational, and operational risk that gambling operators can no longer afford to ignore. With less than three months until EU Member States must begin enforcing national laws implementing the European Accessibility Act (EAA), gambling industry stakeholders face a fast-approaching compliance challenge.
Failure to meet accessibility requirements could expose operators to financial penalties, enforcement action, public scrutiny, and consumer litigation—especially if key features like responsible gaming tools are not accessible to all users. We’ve already seen how this can unfold in the United States, where thousands of lawsuits have been filed under the Americans with Disabilities Act against digital platforms, including online gambling operators.
In response, gambling advisory firm EGARA and accessibility technology and certification provider CityMaaS have announced a strategic partnership to deliver the first-ever accessibility solution tailored to gambling operators by combining their respective fields of expertise.
This includes accessibility audits, product integration support, certification, and staff training—all delivered with a deep understanding of the unique demands and risks faced by licensed operators in highly regulated gaming markets. It addresses a long-overlooked risk area that also ties directly into responsible gaming, fairness, and user protection.
Key highlights of the EGARA x CityMaaS Partnership:
- Readiness check: The partnership between EGARA and CityMaaS offers operators a readiness check and manual to implement across their business.
- Certification: The partnership offers operators a solution to certify their accessibility offering. This will prove highly important for operators as several gambling regulators have confirmed the regulations are in scope and are already themselves being called to action by accessibility enforcement bodies.
- Audit function: The partnership offers a tailored auditing, reviewing platforms’ accessibility offering, ensuring they reach more customers, more effectively in line with the projected regulations, while ensuring critical features like responsible gaming tools are available to everyone with fairness, transparency and actual protection of all groups.
- ESG and Responsible Leadership: The collaboration offers bespoke advice and training to ensure operators lead— and not just comply—by embedding fairness and inclusion into the core of digital player experiences across all offerings including websites and customer service functions.
- Technical Solution: CityMaaS’s technology incorporates the latest advancements in accessibility, providing a robust and reliable solution for EGARA’s clients in the gambling industry.
Operators and platform providers can begin accessibility readiness assessments now: www.egara.co/contact-us.
Jessica Maier, Co-founder of EGARA said: “Despite its transformative potential to harmonize accessibility standards across the EU, the European Accessibility Act has surprisingly remained underdiscussed within our sector, leaving many organisations unprepared for its imminent impact. Through our partnership with CityMaaS, we’re enabling operators to rapidly close any existing gaps to reduce legal and reputational risk, and ultimately make gambling platforms more inclusive and sustainable, bolstering responsible gaming efforts and providing opportunity for sustainable growth.
“CityMaaS is thrilled to collaborate with EGARA to bring our state-of-the-art accessibility solutions to the gambling sector. Together, we are setting a new standard for accessibility and user experience,” said Rene Perkins, CEO of CityMaaS.
The post EGARA & CityMaaS Launch First Gambling-Focused Accessibility Toolkit Ahead of June Compliance Deadline appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
The Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB) has initiated investigations into unlicensed sports prediction markets operating within the state. These platforms, which bypass Michigan’s regulatory framework, have raised significant concerns about consumer protections.
Michigan’s investigations align with similar actions already taken by other state regulatory bodies and focus on how this form of unlicensed sports betting may jeopardize the integrity of Michigan’s legal sports betting system.
“We take consumer protection very seriously and are committed to ensuring that Michigan residents are engaging with safe and legal sports betting options. Unlicensed entities not only pose a risk to consumers but also undercut the integrity and revenue-generating potential of the state’s regulated sports betting industry. We are actively investigating these practices and will pursue appropriate measures to protect Michigan bettors,” said Henry Williams, Executive Director of the MGCB.
The unlicensed platforms offer what they describe as innovative financial products that allow users to trade their predictions on the outcomes of sports events. By sidestepping the regulatory protections of Michigan’s legal sports betting market, these platforms pose a serious risk to consumers. They create potential confusion among bettors and blur the line between sports betting as entertainment and sports betting as a financial trading vehicle.
Beyond concerns over lost tax revenue, these unregulated platforms may expose Michigan residents to various risks, including fraud, identity theft, and inadequate data security. Unlike licensed sportsbooks, which are required to adhere to strict regulations including age verification, Know Your Customer (KYC) protocols, anti-money laundering (AML) measures, self-exclusion policies, and integrity monitoring, unlicensed entities may operate without these safeguards. As a result, consumers can be left vulnerable to financial harm.
The MGCB is also concerned that promoting sports betting as an investment opportunity directly contradicts Michigan’s established responsible gaming principles.
“Sports betting is meant to be a form of entertainment, not a financial investment. By framing sports contracts as investment vehicles, these platforms risk confusing consumers and undermining the state’s commitment to responsible gaming. Moreover, many of these unlicensed platforms are often accessible to individuals as young as 18, in stark contrast to Michigan’s 21+ age requirement for legal sports betting,” Williams added.
The post MGCB Opens Investigations into Unlicensed Sports Prediction Markets appeared first on Gaming and Gambling Industry in the Americas.
EQL Games has officially secured a GCGRA Gaming-Related Vendor license in the UAE. The license will allow EQL Games to offer a suite of high-end gaming products in the UAE on any regulated gaming platform with a focus on lottery.
The General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA) is an independent executive entity within the UAE Federal Government, established by Federal Law by Decree. The Authority holds exclusive jurisdiction to regulate, license and supervise all commercial gaming activities and facilities in the UAE.
“Securing this license marks a significant step for EQL Games as we continue our mission to bring innovative, secure, and responsible lottery solutions to markets worldwide. We are honored to be recognized by the UAE’s regulatory authorities and look forward to supporting their vision for a well-regulated digital lottery experience,” said Brad Cummings, CEO and Founder of EQL Games.
This achievement aligns with EQL Games’ broader strategy of expanding its footprint in worldwide markets while maintaining a strong focus on responsible gaming and compliance. EQL’s licensing in the UAE is a testament to its ability to meet the highest industry standards and operate within the most rigorous regulatory frameworks.
The post EQL Games Secures Gaming-related Vendor License from UAE’s GCGRA appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
Compliance Updates
KSA: Spring 2025 Monitoring Report Shows Positive Effect of Responsible Gaming Policy
The measures introduced in October to protect players have had a positive effect: players are losing fewer large amounts and the percentage of extreme losses has fallen sharply. This is evident from the latest monitoring report from the Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA). The figures also show that the majority of Dutch players still play with legal providers. However, the amount of money circulating in the illegal market has increased.
The gross gaming result (GSR, stakes minus prizes paid out) for the whole of 2024 is 1.47 billion euros. This is a growth of 6% compared to 2023, when the GSR amounted to 1.39 billion. In the second half of 2024, the GSR was 10% lower than in the first half of the year. This could be due on the one hand to a peak during the European Football Championship in June, but also to the introduction of new rules to better protect players, which also include a deposit limit.
Young adults
Young adults (18 to 23 years old) receive extra attention in the monitoring report, because they are a vulnerable target group. Together, they lost 11% of the BSR in the second half of 2024, while they make up 9% of the adult population. They do spend less money on average; they lose an average of €48 per month, compared to €148 for 24+ players. It is striking that young adults gamble relatively more on sports events than older age groups; of the money they spend, 29% goes to sports betting, while for other players this is 22%.
Number of players and accounts
In the last six months, an average of 1.19 million accounts were played per month. This is a slight increase compared to half a year earlier, when there were 1.1 million. In the last quarter, the number of new accounts increased; this could be due to the new measures for safe gaming. A player can have multiple accounts, so the number of accounts is not equal to the number of people gambling. An estimated 788 thousand players were active with legal providers in the last six months, 5.4% of the adult population. Six months earlier, this was 5.5%, so the number of players is stable.
Loss
The average player aged 24 and over lost €148 per month on gambling in the second half of 2024. That is lower than the first six months, when it was €160. Although players have been playing with more accounts since the introduction of the responsible gaming policy, the average loss is lower than before the introduction. The number of accounts with extreme losses has also fallen sharply. Before October 2024, 4% of accounts lost more than €1000 per month, after October that is only 1.2%. Before October 1, 2024, 73% of the BSR came from players with losses of more than 1000 euros. After the introduction of the rules, this percentage has dropped to 23%. This means that providers generate less income from player accounts with large losses.
Canalization
The monitoring report shows that the channelling in terms of players and the channelling in terms of money differ greatly. Of all people who gamble online, the vast majority (91%) do so with legal providers. On the illegal market, significantly more money is spent: of the total amount that Dutch people spend on gambling, 50% is spent with illegal parties.
Problem gamblers
There are no hard figures on the total number of people with a gambling addiction in the Netherlands. There are figures on the number of people who are being treated for a gambling addiction. In 2023, 2456 people were treated. At the time of publication of this report, there was no update of that figure. The total number of players who have excluded themselves from risky gambling with a Gokstop with a registration in the Cruks register was 87,345 people in January 2025. Half of them are under 32 years of age. Of the total number of Cruks registrations, 16% are young adults.
Source: kansspelautoriteit.nl
The post KSA: Spring 2025 Monitoring Report Shows Positive Effect of Responsible Gaming Policy appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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