Regulators’ anti-illegal gambling week quietly comes to a close
By Joe Ewens
Published
You would be forgiven for having missed the end of Illegal Gambling Awareness Week on Friday, after the new venture dreamt up by international regulators passed without many of them even acknowledging its existence.
Following its recent conference in Peru, the International Association of Gambling Regulators (IAGR) declared that November 9-13 would be Illegal Gambling Awareness Week (IGAW).
The initiative, the association said, would raise consumer awareness of unlicensed online gambling
“The reach of online gambling makes this a shared challenge for regulators,” said Ben Haden, the then president of IAGR.
“By coordinating our consumer communications, we can help more people understand why local licensing matters and where to find reliable information before they engage with an operator,” he said.
Haden’s employers at the UK Gambling Commission, where he is the director of research and statistics, turned out to be one of the very few European regulators to publish any information about IGAW on their own website or social media.
The commission released a statement also covering its plans to crack down on offshore sites via the use of a new government grant, promising to put pressure on payments providers and suppliers in its quest to push offshore operators out of the UK.
Few if any other European gambling regulators published any kind of news related to the initiative.
There were no press releases issued by regulators in France, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, for example.
Sal the snake
This low uptake was despite marketing firm R&R Partners having been commissioned by IAGR to develop a mascot and other branding materials.
A cartoonish snake named Sal, complete with voice acting, has been created as an avatar for “the fictional face of an illegal gambling operator”.
There was more adoption of IGAW messaging outside of Europe, with regulators in Canada and the US making a handful of social media posts featuring Sal and directing consumers to an IAGR-run website that lists local-licensed operators.
However a google search for mentions of the website url “checkbeforeyouplay.org” returns only 47 results at time of publication.
The website is a consumer-facing tool that allows users to enter the URL of a gambling website to discover if it is legal in their jurisdiction.
If it does have a licence, the user is informed with a green tick, while a red one comes attached to a warning message that advises checking the local regulator’s official list of licensees.
“People often mistake visibility for trust,” said Kevin Mullally, CEO of IAGR.
“A professional-looking website or a recognisable name can give consumers confidence without knowing whether the site is properly licensed in that location. We want consumers to routinely check the licensing status of a site before opening an account or making a deposit.”
A couple of weeks
UK industry trade group the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) mentioned Illegal Gambling Awareness Week once, in a post on social media website X to “welcome” the commitment by the Gambling Commission to ramp up its black market fight.
However the trade group did cap the week with a warning that the UK black market is in line for a £500m windfall ahead of an important season of horse racing events.
The National Hunt season, which runs from October to April, features several high profile racing events and the BGC has said that independent analysis by marketing research firm WARC shows that as much as a half a billion pounds is likely to be bet on these events with operators in the black market.
The BGC has meanwhile been much more vocal about the upcoming Safer Gambling Week, an international initiative designed to promote healthy gambling engagement that runs from November 16.
Safer Gambling Week’s higher profile is proving controversial, however, with commentators claiming that it acts as PR for the gambling industry that disguises the true harm it causes.
“It's been cleverly designed to appear as something kind, but the reality is far from it - so it's important we shine a light on it,” said Will Prochaska, the head of the Coalition to End Gambling Ads.
He called on UK gambling minister Vicky Foxcroft to disavow the initiative.
Another round?
Whether or not Illegal Gambling Awareness Week returns for another outing in 2027 is in the hands of IAGR’s new leadership.
At its conference in Peru, the association elected a new president, with Brian Krolicki replacing Ben Haden after three years in the top job.
Krolicki is a member of the Nevada Gaming Commission and the former lieutenant governor of Nevada.
The chief operating officer of the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, David Philips, was elected as vice president.
“Addressing illegal gambling will remain central to [IAGR’s] agenda,” said Krolicki, but the regulator appeared to acknowledge IGAW’s low take-up.
“In 2027, we need to assess the campaign’s results, apply what we learn, and increase participation,” he said.