

Compliance Updates
Seven Commissioners Appointed to the UK Gambling Commission
The Secretary of State has appointed seven Commissioners to the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC).
Charles Counsell, Helen Dodds, Sheree Howard and Claudia Mortimore have been appointed for terms of five years. Lloydette Bai-Marrow, Helen Philips and David Rossington have been appointed for terms of four years.
Lloydette Bai-Marrow
Lloydette is an anti-corruption expert and economic crime lawyer. She is the Founding Partner of Parametric Global Consulting, an economic crime investigations consultancy.
Lloydette is the Chair of the Board of Spotlight on Corruption, a UK based anti-corruption charity, she sits on the Legal Panel for WhistleblowersUK and is a trustee for the Unite Foundation. She is a Member of the Conduct Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales.
Lloydette is a Senior Visiting Lecturer at the International Anti-Corruption Academy in Vienna, Austria. She is a Co-Founder and Director of the Black Women in Leadership Network (BWIL), a non-profit network committed to increasing the representation of black women in leadership and decision-making positions.
Charles Counsell OBE
Charles was Chief Executive Officer of The Pensions Regulator from April 2019 to March 2023. Prior to this he was CEO of the Money Advice Service and Executive Director of Automatic Enrolment at The Pensions Regulator.
As CEO of The Pensions Regulator, Charles developed the new corporate strategy to put the pension saver at the heart of the Regulator. He delivered their first Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy and Climate Change strategies – both focused on driving change in the regulator and across the Pensions Sector.
Throughout his career, his roles have focused on setting up and delivering large change programmes requiring significant stakeholder relationship engagement: initially in the private sector and latterly in senior public sector appointments.
Helen Dodds OStJ
Helen Dodds is an international lawyer, consultant and board member. She is currently a board member of the Human Tissue Authority, a director and trustee of the St John’s Eye Hospital Group, a director of LegalUK, and an Honorary Senior Fellow of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law. Prior to this, she was a board member of the London Court of International Arbitration.
She is a qualified (now non-practising) solicitor and in her executive career she was Global Head of Legal, Dispute Resolution at Standard Chartered Bank. She has a degree in Modern History from Oxford University.
Sheree Howard
Sheree has over 25 years’ experience in the UK financial services industry with knowledge of the process of regulation and a key focus on risk management, audit and controls. Sheree is currently the Executive Director of Risk and Compliance Oversight at the Financial Conduct Authority. She is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.
Sheree has held roles in banking in areas of risk and compliance including Director of Advisory (Compliance), Commercial and Private Banking for the Royal Bank of Scotland; and Chief Risk Officer at Direct Line Group.
Sheree has been a Governor, including Chair, for more than 10 years of a maintained Special Needs School and has provided pro bono advice to a number of other charities.
Claudia Mortimore
Claudia has over 25 years’ experience of criminal law and regulation. She spent the first 10 years of her career working as a barrister then, after a career break to raise three children, prosecuted drugs, tax and money-laundering offences for the Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office and fraudulent trading offences for the Department for Business.
Since 2013 Claudia has worked in senior positions in the Enforcement Division of the Financial Reporting Council, the body which regulates accountants, auditors and actuaries in the public interest and which sets the UK Corporate Governance and Stewardship Codes. Claudia has led major investigations into serious and complex audit and accountancy failures.
Claudia has a particular interest in Diversity and Inclusion, she has also played a key role in promoting the importance of mental health and well-being at the Financial Reporting Council.
Helen Phillips
Dr Helen Phillips is an experienced executive and non-executive, with a career spanning the public, private and not for profit sectors. Helen’s current non-executive appointments include Chair of NHS Professionals Ltd and Chair of the Chartered Insurance Institute. Helen is concluding a nine year term as Chair of Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
In 2015 she was appointed as a lay member of the Legal Services Board (LSB), she was appointed independent Chair in 2017, and served a six year term to 31 March 2023. She served as a non-executive director of Social Work England from 2018 to 2021. Helen has also held non-executive director roles in Higher Education and the schools sector. Previously Helen was Board Director of Yorkshire Water and Chair of Loop Customer Management Ltd, a Kelda Group subsidiary. Prior to that, her career as a regulator was as founding Chief Executive of Natural England and a Director of the Environment Agency.
Helen has a BSc in Zoology and a PhD in Environmental Science from University College Dublin. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Insurers.
David Rossington CB
David is a former senior civil servant. He has worked for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), including as Finance Director and acting Director General, and other Government departments including what is now the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
Since stopping full time work, he has been a member of the Advisory Committee on National Records and Archives and currently serves as its Deputy Chair. He is Treasurer and Deputy Chair of Stoll, a charity for veterans and Treasurer of Arts at the Old Fire Station, an Oxford community arts charity.
David holds a degree in History and French from Oxford, a Masters in Public Policy from the Kennedy School, Harvard University, and an economics MSc from Birkbeck College, London. David took an accountancy qualification while a civil servant, although is no longer in practice.
Campaign for Fairer Gambling
Crime Still Dominates U.S. Online Gambling – Legalization Increases Total Losses by 261%, Warns CFG

The Campaign for Fairer Gambling (CFG) releases a supplement to its USA National Online Gambling Report 2024 which exposed that illegal online gambling takes 74% of total gross gambling revenue (GGR) in America. Commissioned by CFG and produced by online market intelligence platform, Yield Sec, the supplement analyzes all 50 states according to their regulatory status and shows that state legalization of online gambling – without the reduction and removal of illegal online gambling – increases total losses for American consumers by up to 261%.
The supplement groups US states into one of three regulatory realities:
• States with no legal online gambling (e.g. California, Texas)
• States with one form of legal online gambling – sports betting (e.g. New York, Florida)
• States with all forms of legal online gambling – sports betting and casino (e.g. Michigan, New Jersey).
The CFG State Supplement #1 demonstrates the effect of GGR per capita (the total marketplace value for legal and illegal online gambling divided by population) as a percentage of average income 2024 to further illustrate the burden across American consumers:
Total online GGR (Legal + Illegal) per capita as a percentage of income:
– USA National: GGR per capita is 0.62% of average income
– States with no legal online sports betting or casino (e.g. California, Texas): GGR per capita is 0.31% of average income
– States with legal online sports betting only (e.g. New York, Florida): GGR per capita is 0.77% of average income
– States with both legal online sports betting and casino (e.g. Michigan, New Jersey): GGR per capita is 1.12% of average income.
The supplement data makes clear that legalization of online gambling, without enforcement against illegal online gambling, increases the total loss and harm. When states legalize online sports betting only, GGR per capita as a percentage of income increases by 148% (from 0.31% to 0.77%). When both online sports betting and casino are legalized, it jumps by 261% (from 0.31% to 1.12%). If legalization truly replaced illegal gambling, the dominance of illegal gambling would diminish – but, the reality is that this is not a zero-sum game.
“Ohio is the alarm bell America needs to hear. Just one year after legalizing online sports betting in 2023, losses for Ohioans had already reached 1.33% of average income per capita to online gambling – the heaviest burden in the country, and more than twice the national average. Across the US, we’re not seeing illegal gambling being replaced, we’re simply seeing total consumer losses grow. In states with full legalization, losses are now 261% higher than where there’s no legal online gambling at all. This isn’t progress, it’s escalation,” states Derek Webb, Founder of CFG.
Ismail Vali, founder and CEO of Yield Sec, added: “Yield Sec surveillance shows that the legal industry is being undermined at every turn by criminal competitors who offer greater value, bigger bonuses, and lower barriers, since they pay no tax, no licensing and exploit all forms of regulation in the absence of sincere monitoring, policing and enforcement against them.
“It is a vicious cycle: failing to deal with crime causes loss from theft. Across the country, legalization without enforcement against illegal operators, only gives criminals another edge. The outcome is predictable: legal revenue collapses, tax income shrinks, and criminals walk away with hundreds of millions. If states want to make the money they should, enforcement against crime must come first and always – to reduce and remove illegal gambling’s appeal and availability.”
The post Crime Still Dominates U.S. Online Gambling – Legalization Increases Total Losses by 261%, Warns CFG appeared first on Gaming and Gambling Industry in the Americas.
Compliance Updates
DraftKings to Introduce Transaction Fee in Illinois

In response to the recent and prior sports wagering tax increases passed by the Illinois state legislature on all mobile and online sports wagers placed with licensed operators, DraftKings Inc. announced that it will implement a 50-cent transaction fee on all mobile and online bets placed in Illinois through DraftKings Sportsbook, effective September 1, 2025.
“Illinois has been an important part of our growth, and we’re proud to have contributed meaningfully to the state through tax revenue, job creation, and a sustained investment in responsible gaming tools and resources. We are disappointed that Illinois policymakers have chosen to more than triple our tax rate over the past two years, and we are very concerned about what this will do to the legal, regulated industry. Meanwhile, Illinois continues to fuel the rapidly growing illegal industry, which pays no taxes or fees and provides none of the consumer protections that regulated operators offer,” said Jason Robins, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of DraftKings.
The post DraftKings to Introduce Transaction Fee in Illinois appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
Africa
Uganda: National Lotteries and Gaming Regulatory Board and Uganda Police- Rwizi Region Deepen Ties in Enforcing the Gaming Law
The National Lotteries and Gaming Regulatory Board (NLGRB) recently held a high-level stakeholder engagement with the Uganda Police Force Officials in Rwizi Region. The engagement, hosted at Lake View Hotel in Mbarara on May 27, 2025, brought together District Police Commanders (DPCs), Officers in Charge of Criminal Investigations (OCIDs), local leaders, the media and other technical stakeholders from across the region.
The engagement focused on aligning enforcement strategies, enhancing compliance and deepening the understanding of Uganda’s gaming laws under the Lotteries and Gaming Act, Cap 334. In his opening remarks, NLGRB CEO Mr. Denis Mudene emphasized the strategic collaboration between the Board and the Uganda Police Force in enforcing gaming law to protect citizens, end underage gaming and maintain public order.
“Gaming is not a money-making venture. It is a leisure activity or entertainment, and we encourage only those of legal age to participate responsibly,” Mr. Mudene said.
Mr. Mudene raised concerns over the growing trend of children using parents’ phones to gamble online. He warned parents against registering SIM cards under their names and passing them on to minors, as this facilitates undetected underage gambling.
“93% of gambling happens online, mostly by corporates. However, when a phone registered in a parent’s name is used by a 15-year-old, they pass all verification checks,” he explained, urging responsible digital parenting.
In response, the Mbarara City Mayor, Robert Mugabe Kakyebezi, commended the Board’s efforts in bringing regulatory oversight closer to communities. He raised alarm over the prevalence of unlicensed betting operations and children misusing school fees or resorting to theft to fund gambling.
“As you enforce the law against illegal operators as well as those with minors in their betting shops, remind them of what the law says and apprehend them. This sets an example to those who think they can break the law and get away with it.”
The Deputy Regional Police Commander Rwizi Region, Senior Superintendent of Police Bosco Bakashaba, reaffirmed the Uganda Police Force’s commitment to upholding the law in partnership with the NLGRB.
“We shall offer total support to reduce offenses and illegal operations. Gaming houses that admit underage individuals or operate without licenses, especially in villages, will face legal consequences,” SSP Bakashaba asserted.
He pointed out that crime intelligence and informants are key tools in detecting and shutting down illegal slot machines and unauthorised betting centres.
“Gaming is like a razorblade, used correctly, it’s useful. Used wrongly, it causes harm,” he concluded.
The post Uganda: National Lotteries and Gaming Regulatory Board and Uganda Police- Rwizi Region Deepen Ties in Enforcing the Gaming Law appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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