October 2023

And are your policy and compliance handbook still up to date?

There was low-key but significant move in Colombo, Sri Lanka, recently. Reported on 6 October in Sri Lanka’s online Daily News*, the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) met with businesses and compliance officers from market intermediaries to emphasise the importance of the compliance officer role.

The growth of sports betting in the US, since 2018 and especially since the end of the pandemic, has accelerated exponentially. There are serious consequences for public health across the nation.

Sports betting is now lawful in 37 States plus DC. With this liberalization has come an increase in gambling addiction. It should not have been a surprise and for many observers it was expected. Europe and Asia have shown what happens when gambling is inadequately regulated, especially when it’s online.

In the financial services sector, political and security constraints seem to grow ever more complex. At the same time, more and more business is conducted digitally. Fraud and unintended breaches of compliance are ever-present hazards. The interaction between these forces affects more of us, and does so more forcefully, than ever before.

Sanctions lists are updated frequently, and criminals leverage digital technology with skill. Anti-money laundering features prominently in compliance. In this world, it’s essential that the mechanisms in place to make appropriate checks are robust and responsive.

For many, gambling is the harmless purchase of an occasional lottery ticket. And the majority of gamblers exercise good self-control, keeping even regular betting to a modest discretionary spend.

For others the picture is different. Those who are pre-disposed to addictive behaviours are easily drawn into gambling, sometimes with tragic consequences. Social harm caused by gambling can be extensive, and it’s estimated that, worldwide, addiction rates1 vary by country between 1.2% and 6.0% of the population.

Compliance costs money – something well understood in the financial services sector, including niche areas such as Gambling, and Travel Money and Remittance providers. But making compliance cost-effective can seem elusive.

As geopolitical tensions multiply, and as criminal activity expands in the digital environment, legislation and regulations multiply. The burden on individual businesses intensifies.

The post 2018 relaxation of sports betting laws in the US has growing consequences, especially since the end of the pandemic. Not all of them are good.

Sports betting is currently lawful and under way in 34 states plus DC, and lawful and soon to be active in 4 more. State governments have sought and welcomed the extra revenue they’ll receive. For the same reason, many sports teams and their sports’ governing bodies have generally welcomed the move too.

Interviewed recently for SBC Americas1 (a gambling industry news service covering the Americas), Odds on Compliance’s John Wellendorf set out structured advice for internet gambling operators.

His commentary reflects the reality of gambling regulation – that many US states have moved from a top-down model of imposing rules (which may still apply but have proved difficult to police) to requiring gambling platforms to demonstrate the use of effective internal responsible gaming management.