Recent content by conker

Affiliates are captured, actually. The definition of wagering advertising in the bill covers content by, on behalf of, or for the benefit of a licensed provider, and that reaches affiliates and platforms. Enforcement's another question entirely.

The Greens and Pocock voted against it, which tells you something about how it's landed. Pocock called it a betrayal. Jenny Ware, who actually sat on the 2023 inquiry, has criticized it as well, and she's Liberal. So you have reform advocates saying it's too weak and the industry sayin it's too...

@BillThornes going back to your question, the honest answer is that racing was carved out because racing is treated as a sport with a heritage attached and slots are treated as a product. Once policy decides something is a product rather than a culture, it becomes taxable in a way the other...

The Treasury's own position wasn't hidden though. They stated they expected operators to pass on up to 90% of the increase to consumers through higher prices or reduced payouts. That was in the documentation. So the "they didn't know this would happen" argument doesn't hold. They knew. They...

thats a genuinely good point and it hadn't occurred to me. enforcement pushing the product toward the most legally contested category

worth noting the platforms know this now and are moving on it faster than any regulator asked them to. kalshi put in guardrails in march stopping politicians trading their own races and athletes trading their own leagues. polymarket published market integrity rules the same week what none of...

worth noting that's the pattern anywhere standards rise, not something curacao-specific. operators who can meet the bar stay and get more credible. ones who cant leave and get less credible. overall standard of the licensed market goes up, overall standard of what's available to players stays...

theres a wrinkle in the swaps argument that hasnt come up and i think its the most interesting thing happening right now. soldier charged over the maduro trades - van dyke - his lawyers filed a letter earlier this month previewing a motion to dismiss. their argument is that the cftc has no...

probably yes to both, and applied across the licensed estate rather than just at betfred, because every compliance team in the country read that decision and asked whether their own review lag would survive the same assessment. the awkward part is that operators overcorrecting on automated...

technically it's not a fine at all it's a payment in lieu of a financial penalty as part of a settlement, plus they cover the cost of the investigation. that distinction matters more than it sounds. a settlement generally means the operator engaged early and put an action plan in place, and the...

evoke situation is the part that worries me most of this. william hill and 888 and mr green under one group, exploring a break-up or full sale because the 40% rate makes their debt-to-EBITDA ratio difficult to service. a major american company acquires a distressed UK gambling asset at a...

sure could do. the UKGC didn't publish a list. spribe was the visible one because the suspension immediately killed a game with 10 million+ UK users and was impossible to hide

i spot broader pattern that is worth noting. aviator's UK suspension happened because of a technical licensing gap from 2020. spribe held a software license but not the specific hosting license. that distinction - software vs hosting - is something the UKGC has been increasingly strict about...

american system and uk system have both arrived at roughly similar conclusions this year through completely different routes. US: tax the player directly on net winnings with a deduction cap. UK: nearly double the operator tax and let the market pass it through. both produce worse outcomes for...

i think worth being clear about who this hits and who it doesn't. you have to itemize deductions to claim gambling losses at all. standard deduction is $15,000 for single filers in 2026 after the OBBBA adjustments. anyone whose total itemizable deductions don't clear $15,000 was never deducting...