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“What is striking here is the level of activity that apparently failed to trigger effective intervention,” Williams says. “These were obvious indicators requiring further scrutiny, and it is difficult to understand why they did not result in more effective intervention.”

He adds that the recurring weakness is often not an absence of policies but a failure to ensure “technology, algorithms and operational processes actually work in practice”. Some of the QuinnBet issues followed a platform migration, underlining the need to retest controls whenever systems change.

As QuinnBet is also licensed in Gibraltar, Williams expects its regulator to consider the UK’s findings under the jurisdiction’s strengthened Gambling Act 2025. That would not necessarily require a second sanction, but Gibraltar must satisfy itself that any underlying weaknesses have been addressed, he says.

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The three markets have reached the same point by different routes. Morocco has an incumbent defending its exclusivity through the courts, so far without success.

Tunisia has competing bills to prohibit or regulate online betting, neither of which has advanced. Egypt has relied on enforcement measures.

In all three, private online betting has no licensing route. Governments are tackling offshore demand through blocking, prohibition and criminal enforcement.

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A cross-party committee covering gambling in the House of Lords has recommended a comprehensive ban on gambling advertising across the UK, identifying a reduction in marketing reach as the most effective measure to combat gambling-related harm in Great Britain.

Published on 17 September, the House of Lords Liaison Committee’s follow-up report revisits their 2020 inquiry into the social and economic effects of the gambling industry, with a focus on advertising, marketing and sponsorship. 

The committee concluded that current evidence justified taking “meaningful steps” against the sector, including a comprehensive advertising ban, to reduce exposure especially among children and vulnerable groups, and to curb problem gambling.