Author: Maisie Morrison

TLDR Police caught 71 children aged 10 to 13 for gambling crimes in the first seven months of 2026, matching the totals seen for all of 2024 and 2025 combined. Children under 14 cannot be charged criminally in South Korea, but they still made up nearly one in five youth gambling arrests this year. Only 6 of South Korea’s 15 regional gambling treatment centers offer services built for young people. The national gambling treatment agency’s 2026 budget is about $16.3 million, yet just 0.5% of that goes to training specialists. Officials are pushing for a permanent system linking schools, police…

TLDR About 174.3 billion illegal stream views were tracked during the 2026 World Cup. Roughly 95% of those streams carried ads for unregulated gambling sites. Gaming Compliance International says $409 billion of a $593 billion global betting handle went through unregulated channels. The Spain v Argentina final was the most pirated match, drawing 6.2 billion views. A separate report from SEON found fraud and suspicious withdrawals rose sharply during the tournament. A new report from Gaming Compliance International, or GCI, says illegal streams of the 2026 FIFA World Cup carried gambling ads on a massive scale. The group tracked about…

TLDR Foreign worker exclusions from Singapore Pools online betting jumped to about 24,000 in 2024, up from around 4,100 in 2022. Jackpot machine room exclusions rose to about 28,000 in 2024, compared with roughly 5,100 in 2022. Casino exclusions stayed steady at about 155,000 foreigners per year, making up 13% of foreign work permit holders. Employers filed two thirds of casino exclusion requests, often before gambling problems start. Financial strain from recruitment loans can push some migrant workers toward gambling as a way to earn fast money. Foreign workers in Singapore are being excluded from more types of gambling activity.…

TLDR South Korea’s media regulator has ordered internet providers to block access to Polymarket, a US-based prediction market platform. The Korea Media and Communications Commission ruled that Polymarket’s activities fall under gambling law after consulting police and gambling oversight agencies. Regulators pointed to Polymarket’s winner-take-all payout structure and markets on topics like Seoul rainfall as reasons for the block. Polymarket argued it isn’t subject to Korean law because it uses non-custodial, blockchain-based transactions, but the commission rejected that defense. Polymarket is already blocked in dozens of countries, including several in the Asia-Pacific region, and no start date for the South…

TLDR Hokkaido received responses from 3 overseas casino operators and 12 domestic firms interested in an integrated resort. The responses came after the 6th meeting of Hokkaido’s IR expert panel. Tomakomai and Hakodate expressed interest in hosting an IR, though Hakodate’s position remains uncertain. 172 of Hokkaido’s 179 municipalities have responded to location questionnaires as of August 17. Japan’s second IR application round runs from May 6, 2027, to November 5, 2027. Japan’s Hokkaido prefecture has received responses from casino operators and domestic firms interested in building an integrated resort in the region. Three overseas operators and twelve Japanese companies…

TLDR Cambodia revoked 20 casino licenses and suspended 29 more as part of a nationwide scam crackdown. Authorities acted against 751 scam facilities in total, with 605 already shut down. Courts received 388 cases involving 4,147 suspects from 27 nationalities between July 2025 and July 2026. Officials say scam centers operate as organized criminal networks using encrypted apps and VoIP calls. Cambodia’s tourism arrivals fell 47.8% in the first five months of 2026 amid the ongoing scrutiny. Cambodia has revoked the licenses of 20 casinos as part of a nationwide crackdown on online scam centers. Another 29 casino licenses have…

TLDR EsportsBetting.com Group and GG.BET have announced a partnership for coverage of The International 2026. The deal brings GG.BET’s tournament data into EsportsBetting.com Group’s editorial content. The International 2026 started August 13 in Shanghai and runs through August 23. Sixteen teams competed in the opening stage, with eight advancing to the main event. Coverage will continue through the Grand Final on August 23. The EsportsBetting.com Group has partnered with GG.BET to support its coverage of The International 2026. The tournament is one of the largest events in competitive Dota 2. The International 2026, also called TI15, began on August 13…

TLDR Denmark’s financial regulator, Finanstilsynet, issued an injunction against payments firm Inpay. The order follows a March 2026 inspection that found breaches of the Money Laundering Act. Inpay is temporarily barred from onboarding new online gaming clients. Inpay says it paused new igaming onboarding on its own on July 27, before the ruling. Existing customers, in online gaming and other sectors, are not affected by the injunction. Denmark’s financial regulator has taken action against a payments company that serves the online gambling industry. The Danish Financial Supervisory Authority, known as Finanstilsynet, issued an injunction against Inpay on Monday. The regulator…

TLDR A $2 spin on the game Long Xing Da Da paid out $2,949,857.40, the biggest online casino win in Hard Rock Bet’s history. The winner, Rose M. of Linden, New Jersey, hit the jackpot on Aug. 14, 2026. The payout beat the operator’s previous record from July 4 by $852,814.10. It is the fourth seven figure Mega Jackpot win since the New Jersey network launched in April. New Jersey’s online gaming revenue hit $276.9 million in July 2026, up 12% from a year earlier. A player in Linden, New Jersey turned a $2 spin into a record payout. Rose…

TLDR A new Gallup poll finds 45% of US adults gambled in the past year, down from 64% in 2016 State lottery participation fell to 31%, down from 49% in 2016 Only 7% of respondents reported betting on professional sports, matching 2007 levels A parallel online survey found 53% gambling participation, eight points higher than the phone survey Prediction market platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket face legal disputes over whether their contracts count as gambling A new Gallup poll shows that fewer Americans say they gambled in the past year compared to a decade ago. The survey found that 45%…