Weekly News Desk
Here are some stories you may have missed from another whirlwind week
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Now on to the News Desk!
Euro Trip. Ukraine is planning to launch a national gambling monitoring system. The intent is to improve transparency and tax compliance along with limiting unregulated gambling markets.
Why does it matter. According to reporting from Next.io, the system will “log every legal bet in real time and provide data on accepted and returned bets, as well as winnings.” It will also allow public access to aggregate data. The new system is being solicited while Ukraine also puts in place a new national regulator. While such a national system seems like a quaint idea in the U.S. given the labyrinth of state laws and regulations, it will be interesting to see the data generated, how easily the system will be able to detect problematic bets, and what the increased transparency means for both operators and users.
More Europe. The Dutch gambling authority is stepping up its efforts to stop the advertising of illegal gambling outlets. In the Netherlands, legal gambling outlets must register with the state and that includes connecting themselves to the national self-exclusion register. The regulator is now warning media companies that they will start investigating the marketing supply chain to ensure that outlets aren’t running ads for unsanctioned casinos or sportsbooks.
Why does it matter. This week’s news roundup is heavy on overseas content. I think Europe is a really helpful place to look sometimes because while their laws, regulations, and culture around gambling differ from the U.S., in some respects they are farther down the road in regulating gambling on a national scale. If nothing else, the U.S. can look at some of the steps they’ve taken, see what works and what doesn’t, and learn from their mistakes.
Congress Beat. A bipartisan bill aimed at cleaning up the complex web that is college athlete compensation started making its way through Congress this week. The SCORE Act was introduced on July 10th and marked up by the Energy and Commerce Committee on July 15th.
Why does it matter. Student athletes are about to get paid a lot more than they ever have, and the NCAA is about to loosen the rules around student athletes gambling. As long as the NCAA, the College Sports Commission, conferences, and universities don’t have a clear picture of what enforcement or even all of the rules look like, it’s hard to blame Congress for wanting to get involved. It will be interesting to see if this legislation spurs other lawmaking or what, if anything, comes in the way of an Executive Order from the President.
Scandinavian Scandal. I know— lots of Europe this week. But Swedish journalists found that bodyguards for the Swedish Royal Family and senior government officials inadvertently leaked location information about their protectees by uploading workout information to the popular social fitness app Strava.
Why does it matter. On its face, this has nothing to do with gambling or sports integrity, but I’ve written before about how much personal information people share with sports gambling apps. Some of it is necessary for anti-money laundering and other security purposes. Some of it is voluntary. Regardless, we’ve seen examples of reporters being able to connect someone’s phone number to a gambling site. I’ve written before about how I think Responsible Gambling efforts should expand to include educating users on how to protect themselves online with basic cyber hygiene efforts and this is another reminder of that.
Research Corner. New research came out this week from extremism expert Cynthia Miller-Idriss in the journal Frontiers in Psychology. The article focuses on how gaming helps channel everyday sexism into violent extremism. It explores one explanation for “how online misogyny has become so ubiquitous and mainstream.” The paper also looks at how gender-based violence is a “precursor to and occasional mobilizer of mass violence.”
Why does it matter. The paper’s focus on gaming is not the type of gaming I usually write about here (sports gambling, iGaming, etc) but rather video games (think Call of Duty, Minecraft, or Grand Theft Auto). But increasingly, digital sports books have social components built in or gamblers take to forums like Reddit or Discord for that social component. The developments and insights that Dr. Miller Idriss outlines are important ones for the sports gambling world to consider as potential precursors or mobilizers to violence.
"If nothing else, the U.S. can look at some of the steps they’ve taken, see what works and what doesn’t, and learn from their mistakes."
This is funny.