All Articles

Spanish regulators have confirmed a massive fine of 17,601,000 euros against CaixaBank following serious breaches of anti-money laundering obligations. The administrative decision was officially published in the Official State Gazette under resolution BOE-A-2025-26201 on December 11, 2025, and stems from failures in monitoring high-value property transactions that took place years ago. The penalty, one of the largest ever levied against a Spanish bank for non-compliance with

Ukrainian authorities have ordered internet providers to block access to Polymarket, a decentralised prediction market platform, after concluding that its services amount to unlicensed gambling under the country’s laws. The decision was issued in December 2025 by the National Commission for the Regulation of Electronic Communications, which instructed internet service providers to restrict access to online platforms that facilitate wagering without holding a Ukrainian licence

Austria’s Ministry of Finance is drawing up a draft law to underpin a new casino tender process in the coming months, pledging “uniform player protection standards” even as gambling operators renew their calls for the country’s long-standing monopoly model to be scrapped. The ministry has confirmed it is preparing the legislative framework ahead of the renewal of the current monopoly tender in 2027, a moment many in the sector see as pivotal for the future of Austria’s gambli

The Federal Trade Commission has asked a federal court in Nevada to hold the operators of payment processor Cliq, Inc. in contempt, alleging they violated a standing 2015 FTC order and seeking at least $52.9 million in compensation for affected consumers. The request, submitted in January 2026, is aimed at former Cardflex, Inc. and two of its top executives, Andrew Phillips and John Blaugrund, whom the agency accuses of systematically disregarding fraud-prevention duties whil

Interest rates set by the Bank of England are likely to keep moving lower as inflation appears on track to return to the central bank’s 2 per cent goal sooner than previously expected, according to comments made by policymaker Alan Taylor on Wednesday.   Speaking in prepared remarks for an event at the National University of Singapore, Taylor said the inflation outlook had improved notably compared with earlier projections. “We can now see inflation at target in mid-2026, rat

Denmark has formally submitted proposed new controls on gambling advertising to the European Commission for scrutiny, as part of an effort to expand the regulatory and enforcement powers of the country’s gambling watchdog.   On 13 January, Spillemyndigheden, Denmark’s Gambling Authority, filed a notification with the European Commission’s Technical Regulation Information System (TRIS), triggering the EU’s mandatory review procedure for draft technical regulations. The process

On the 9th of January, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday moved to dismiss its lawsuit against Guy Elliott, the former chief financial officer of Rio Tinto, bringing to a close a lengthy fraud case tied to a troubled investment in a coal project in Mozambique by one of the world’s biggest mining groups. In a filing submitted to federal court in Manhattan, the SEC said it was ending its civil action against Elliott “in the exercise of its discretion,” withou

Cambodian authorities arrested Prince TCO founder Chen Zhi in January 2026 after the United States Department of Justice connected him to what it described as a vast worldwide fraud empire, a dramatic enforcement move that followed an indictment for wire fraud and the laundering of digital assets valued at 15 billion dollars. Investigators have portrayed Chen as the chief strategist behind an enormous criminal enterprise that relied on forced labor to swindle victims across m

The European Union has acknowledged the substantial progress achieved by South African institutions in closing long-standing gaps within the country’s financial and regulatory framework, following a period of close international scrutiny in which the jurisdiction worked to bring its domestic laws into line with the global standards set by the Financial Action Task Force. Through the introduction of stronger oversight structures and greater transparency around beneficial owner

The Finnish Parliament has approved the Government’s proposal for a new Gambling Act, marking a significant shift in the country’s gaming landscape. Under the reform, Veikkaus’ exclusive right to offer gambling services will end for betting games as well as online slot machine and casino games in the summer of 2027. The company will, however, retain its monopoly on lottery games, scratch cards, and physical slot machines and casino games. Gambling companies will be able to ap

U.S. financial stocks and UK-listed lenders fell sharply on Monday after President Donald Trump proposed a one-year cap on credit card interest rates, threatening a significant revenue stream for the sector. Investors are now weighing the impact of the proposal amid ongoing interest-rate uncertainty, a development that may undercut the potential boost from a rotation into value stocks. On Friday, Trump called for a 10 per cent cap on credit card interest rates starting Januar

Cyprus’ betting market continued its expansion in the third quarter of 2025, with total gross revenue from Class A and Class B operators rising 7 per cent year-on-year to €312.5 million, according to data released by the National Betting Authority (NBA). The figure also marks a 20 per cent increase compared with the same period in 2023. The authority reported that online betting maintained its dominant role during the July to September period. Class B operators generated €235

Nigeria has embarked on a sweeping overhaul of how digital assets are monitored, embedding national identification numbers directly into crypto systems to strip away the anonymity that once protected bad actors. The push arrives alongside the Nigeria Tax Administration Act 2025, which compels every virtual-asset transaction to be tied to a verified, real-world identity. By synchronizing its domestic rules with the global crypto-asset reporting framework, the government intend

A federal jury in Texas has found LaShonda and Marlon Moore guilty of running an enormous pyramid scheme that caused losses exceeding 25 million dollars, bringing a dramatic end to the couple’s operation known as Blessings in No Time. Prosecutors showed that during the global pandemic the Moores preyed on thousands of people through a web of deceptive recruitment practices, pulling in funds that were then laundered to finance their own enrichment. The verdict covers multiple

Authorities in the United States have broadened their enforcement campaign against overseas groups accused of washing billions of dollars in illegal profits through elaborate shadow banking arrangements, a move that follows a detailed briefing from the Congressional Research Service on how these specialized systems enable financial crime for transnational organizations such as the Sinaloa Cartel. The briefing explains that these syndicates rely on underground banking structur

The global server market surged to an unprecedented $112.4 billion in revenue in the third quarter of 2025, marking a new record, according to figures from the International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker.   The quarter delivered another period of robust expansion, with total vendor revenue climbing 61 per cent year-on-year compared with the same quarter in 2024. Growth was driven by strong demand across both traditional and accelerated server seg

Arena Racing Company (ARC) has obtained official authorization to operate as a gaming-related vendor in the United Arab Emirates, marking a significant milestone for the company’s international expansion. The approval, granted by the General Commercial Gaming Authority (GCGRA), permits ARC to provide its racing-focused solutions to operators who are themselves licensed by the UAE regulator, opening the door for the company to establish a presence in a newly regulated market.

Sri Lanka is approaching a decisive moment in 2026 as it prepares for a crucial anti–money laundering evaluation that could shape the country’s economic future and its standing in the global financial system. Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe has recently warned that failure to satisfy international benchmarks could push the country onto the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list, a move that would sharply increase the cost of doing business with the outsid

For much of the past year, Europe’s gambling watchdogs have been fixated on two familiar adversaries: rising taxes and the black market. The higher levies introduced across several jurisdictions in 2025 were designed to raise public revenues and curb excessive gambling, while tougher enforcement was meant to drive illegal operators out of the shadows. Yet the headlines that followed painted a far more complicated picture. Licensed companies complained that their margins were

The Cyprus capital market is expected to maintain a stable growth trajectory in 2026, underpinned by regulatory upgrades, technological progress and enhanced supervisory practices, according to Panikkos Vakkou, Vice-Chairman of the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).   Writing in an article originally published by Stockwatch, Vakkou noted that the domestic capital market is moving through a pivotal period of transformation, influenced by European and internatio

The Colombian government has revised its taxation framework for online gambling, changing the application of the 19 per cent value-added tax (VAT) from player deposits to gross gaming revenue (GGR).   The revised policy came into force on January 1, marking a significant shift in how the sector is taxed by focusing on the actual income generated by operators rather than the total amounts deposited by players.   The original deposit-based 19 per cent VAT was introduced in Febr