With less than hundred days to go before the London 2012 Olympic Games begin, organisers, gambling businesses and sports federations are stepping up efforts to stem match fixing and suspicious betting patterns ahead of the Olympic Games. / read more

The European Commission (EC) adopted, on 11 April, a report on the application of the Third Anti-Money Laundering Directive, which highlights gambling as a possible extension to the rules. / read more

An Israeli Court has ruled that blocking illegal gambling websites should not be allowed. On 12 April, the Tel Aviv District Court ruled that Israeli police do not have the right to order internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to offshore gambling websites. / read more

Does Vietnam's Minister for Finance Vuong Dinh Hue's recent visit to Singapore, to witness first-hand Singapore's success in regulating gambling, signal a shift towards potential legalisation of the Vietnamese gambling market? Possibly, since Hue has revealed his department will be submitting plans to legalise sports betting. / read more

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The UK Government's recent Budget has brought gambling regulatory reform, particularly in regards to online gambling regulation and taxation, to a head. The Government's intentions to amend the Gambling Act 2005, will result in a number of changes that will significantly impact the UK gambling industry, the most prominent of which will see remote gambling taxed at the 'point of consumption' rather than the current 'point of supply'. Tony Coles, Partner at Jeffrey Green Russell, examines the recent intended amendments to UK gambling regulation both on online gambling and land based casinos. / read more

The use of virtual currency and virtual goods has increased alongside the rise of social media. Used primarily within social games, virtual currency is what separates gaming from gambling and enables providers of social games, to escape paying gambling duty and being required to hold a gambling license. Kevin Flood, the CEO of Gameinlane Inc., discusses this legal loophole that deems virtual currency valueless and whether this definition will change. / read more

Italy is a forerunner in the liberalisation of the gambling market and following a succession of regulations over the last four years it is fair to say that the Italian gambling and online gaming market is rather turbulent. Gianluca Benedetti and Rodolfo G. La Rosa, of Baker & McKenzie, provide an in-depth update on the Italian online gaming market and the expected developments to come. / read more

As many Asian economies are booming, many Asian consumers have more money to spend and new technologies make it easier for many to find gambling and gaming websites, irrespective of whether they are regulated or legal in their country. General prohibitions can be easily circumvented. As a result, the Asian gambling market - with China and Vietnam in particular - is growing rapidly, as George Mangion, Senior Partner at PKF, discusses. / read more

The UK's Coalition Government is currently working on changes to UK gambling policy, which in recent years has fostered the most open gambling market in the EU. The two strands of change proposed by the British Government, however, need to be justified on legitimate grounds according to EU law. Dervla Broderick, an Associate at Olswang, discusses the current situation in the EU and evaluates whether the potential changes to UK gambling policy will be in conflict with EU legislation. / read more

The European gambling and gaming market is experiencing dynamic times. In many of the major markets gambling and gaming laws have been - or are being - amended, and at European level a number of recent developments have taken place. Michiel Willems spoke to Sigrid Ligné, Secretary General of the European Gaming and Betting Association in Brussels, about new EU initiatives as well as recent legislative developments in Germany, Hungary, Greece, France and Italy. Ligné also discusses match fixing, website blocking and a number of recent rulings by the European Court of Justice. / read more