Welcome to this week’s iGaming news roundup! The Nostrabet.com team and I decided to dive into the latest trends and industry updates and provide you with the most important information. Whether you are a seasoned player or new to the world of iGaming, it’s time to learn the most important information.
The National Gambling Board in South Africa Launched a Special Online Verification Portal
The National Gambling Board decided to unveil a special new online portal. Its goal is to help users against unlicensed operators. The portal will basically list all gambling operators with a valid license in the country.
People wishing to access it can find it on the NGB’s website. Once you open it, the portal will have a register, which is where you can search for a given company’s name. The interesting thing is that the register contains both online and land-based operators.
As expected, the database will be updated regularly and will help people make the right decisions. One of the reasons why the NGB decided to introduce it is that there has been a huge increase in the amount of money people spend. Based on some stats, players in South Africa wagered close to $89B during 2024/2025, which is 31.3% more than before.
Latvia Merged the Gambling Watchdog with its Tax Authority
Latvia decided to make an important regulation change as the Lottery and Gambling Supervision Inspectorate was integrated into the State Revenue Service. The idea of the reform, which officially came into power on April 1, is to simplify the administrative processes. The change should reduce bureaucratic fragmentation and make every process easier to complete.
Bear in mind that this is the 2nd regulatory change in Latvia this year. On January 1, the country announced a tax increase, raising the rate from 12% to 15% of GGR (for gambling) and from 15% to 18% for betting. As for bingo, the tax rose from 10% to 12%.
According to local authorities, the new taxes should generate losses of up to 9.2M EUR in revenue.
Portugal Launched a New Self-Exclusion Portal
Portugal is slowly but steadily becoming one of the largest gambling markets in Europe and it seems like the local authorities are aware of it. That’s the reason why the country’s Gaming Regulation and Inspection Service decided to introduce a centralized online self-exclusion platform. It came into power on April 8 and allows people to revoke their access to all licensed online gambling and betting sites in the country.
The idea of the new portal is to be easy to use and help people who have problems. Aside from individuals, third parties acting on behalf of someone can also enable the self-exclusion. The exclusion measures will apply across all licensed online gambling sites in the country.
Again, this move does not come as a surprise because Portugal’s gambling industry is booming. Keep in mind that Portugal is not the only country with such a portal. Brazil decided to do something similar and Russia also launched a self-exclusion option for gamblers in September last year. Germany also experienced a significant spike in self-exclusion registrations, with more than 350,000 registrations in OASIS.
BC.Game Launched in Nigeria
BC.Game is one of the leading cryptocurrency operators and it recently expanded into a crucial African market. The site secured a sports betting and casino license and continues to expand into Africa’s regulated markets.
BC.Game’s license is from the Lagos State Lotteries and Gaming Authority and is the site’s second African market. The first one is from Kenya and BC.Game obtained the permit last year.
The reason why BC.Game chose Nigeria is because of the country’s promising market. The youthful population and growing mobile penetration made it among the hottest gambling markets in the world. It seems like the brand believes in the country’s potential and decided to invest in it.
Keep in mind that the site was recently involved in a controversy because it had to withdraw its license in Curacao. This happened in December, but one month before that, BC.Game was even declared bankrupt. The site was even stripped of its white-label license in the UK, but the good news is that it’s slowly recovering.
Thai Police Arrested a Suspected Chinese Crime Boss
According to the news from Thailand, local authorities arrested Pei Min Si, an online gambling kingpin from China. He has been linked to various networks and people consider him a key figure in the iGaming underground in Myanmar. The network operated different platforms across more than 239 channels and included 330,000+ active members in several Chinese provinces. Needless to say, China does not allow online gambling at all and its land-based gambling is only allowed in Macau.
An interesting fact about Pei is that he fled Thailand for Laos several years ago. However, he managed to “buy himself” a passport from St. Kitts and Nevis after making the required payments. Even though the amount of money is pretty high, stats show that his illegal gambling network has generated more than $409M over the years.
What’s important to note is that China has zero tolerance towards these kinds of schemes. In fact, the government recently carried out the execution of 11 members of Myanmar’s Ming family, who were convicted of telecom fraud, murder and drug trafficking. Should Pei be sent to China, chances are he will also receive a severe punishment for his actions.
Hong Kong Delayed its Legal Basketall Betting Start
Hong Kong is one of those places where people can only bet on horse racing (legally). However, the administrative region decided to grant its citizens greater freedom and legalized basketball betting. It should have been legalized by now, but due to the growing concerns about the prediction markets, the authorities have not made any changes yet.
These decisions came after it became clear that the prediction markets have become incredibly popular in HK. Some stats reveal that locals have wagered more than $64B in 2025, which is 200% more than before. Considering what happened, the HK government decided it needs more time to research everything before it makes such a drastic move.
The Dutch Gambling Regulator Funds a New Project
Based on the information we have, the Dutch Gaming Authority (known as the KSA) decided to fund five separate projects related to preventing gambling-related harm. These projects are as follows:
- Anonymous Gamblers Foundation
- Gamblers’ Environment Foundation
- Dutch Association for Psychiatry
- Trimbos Institute
- Naas Foundation
All five authorities will receive funding from the Addiction Prevention Fund, established in 2021. This decision came after the KSA conducted research that reveals 20% of people who engage in gambling are at risk of developing an addiction.
Each of the five projects mentioned above has its specific goal and knows how to achieve it. We assume other countries will follow what happens and take similar action if these measures prove to be successful. Bear in mind that the Netherlands is also one of the countries that heavily invests in helping minors when it comes to gambling.
Indonesia Froze 1000 Accounts of Online Gamblers
Indonesia is one of the Southeast Asian countries with strict anti-gambling laws. The county’s authorities have been trying to battle the illegal gambling scene and it seems like they have made some progress.
Based on the information, the Financial Services Authority ordered the blocking of 1,000 bank accounts used for online gambling. Following this move, the total accounts blocked for such actions have reached 33,252.
Gambling has always been banned in the country, but there was no new legislation targeting online gambling since 2024. After that, the country’s regulators started taking more serious actions and ended up blocking more than 1.3M online gambling content online. The regulators even plan to block the usage of e-wallets for online gambling.
It should be noted that gambling in Indonesia comes with strict penalties. People can face prison time and receive fines that can reach as much as $66,000. Despite the strict regulations, Indonesia has a thriving underground gambling scene that usually spikes during major sporting events. Considering the country’s population, it will be interesting to see how the restrictions will play out in the future.
Scribe won the Legal Battle against Betnacional to use the Aviator Name
Aviator is one of the world’s most popular online casino game and many people believe it’s what made crash games so trendy. With that said, there was a legal conflict between Spribe, the company that invested in this game, and Betnacional over the use of the name Aviator.
Following several court hearings, the Court of Justice of Pernambuco ruled in favor of Spribe, which means that Betnacional has to stop using the Aviator trademark. This also includes the usage of any identical or confusingly similar signs related to Spribe’s product.
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