On 1 January 2025, Poland will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, giving it the opportunity to set the agenda and draw attention to the issue. Poland wants to focus on the illegal gambling industry.

According to Poland, Europe could lose up to more than EUR 7 billion in unrealised taxes from the illegal gambling market. It therefore calls on Member States to cooperate and develop common regulatory rules. It also proposes the creation of a new working group on gambling, which will work under the European Commission.

The European Betting and Gaming Association has been calling for a unified approach to gambling regulation for years and wants greater cross-border cooperation. Illegal gambling is a growing problem in the European Union, with countries such as Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and Belgium still experiencing high levels of illegal gambling, despite strict regulations in the country.

We have seen closer cooperation between countries recently when Switzerland and Liechtenstein entered into an agreement to share lists of banned gamblers. Players who are banned from Swiss casinos are also banned from casinos in Liechtenstein from 7 January 2025 and vice versa. This ban applies not only to land-based casinos but also to online casinos.

How much did the gambling companies pay in fines?

Now we take a look at the amounts of fines that have been handed out by gambling regulators not only in the European Union, but all over the world. In 2024 alone, regulators handed out more than €177.4 million worth of fines. Although this figure is huge, fines have fallen compared to 2023. In fact, in 2023, fines amounted to €425.8 million.

The largest financial penalties were imposed by regulators in Spain, where they amounted to €65.3 million. In total, 15 fines were issued to online gambling companies, and of these, up to 13 operated in the country without a licence.

Australia came second, with fines totalling €56.3 million. In this case, it's quite a drop year-on-year, as fines here reached almost €300 million in 2023. The largest fine was SkyCity Adelaide Pty Ltd in 2024, with a whopping 67 million Australian dollars (€40.4 million).

The Dutch Gambling Authority (Kansspelautoriteit) collected €24.7 million in fines. The largest fine imposed was on Gammix Ltd, which paid up to €20.5 million for illegal gambling, a record fine in that country.

In fourth place is again a European country, namely Sweden, which issued fines worth €11 million. In fifth place is the USA, where fines amounted to $9.4 million (€9 million). The highest fine came in January 2024 and was received by MGM Resorts. The fine was $7.5 million (€7.2 million).

The year 2025 has only just begun and we have already seen the first fine. This was given to Alimaniere Sociedad De Responsabilidad Limitada by the Dutch regulator for offering gambling products without the required licence. The amount of the fine is €1,050,000.

Source - gamblingnews, com, bloomberg.com, gamblingindustrynews.com, kansspelautoriteit.nl, abc.net.au, officechai.com, epthinktank.eu