Regulatory authorities in Australia, the Netherlands, and Denmark win International Regulatory Award 2024 accolades (Image by icetrayimages794410 on Vecteezy)

Winners of three awards up for grabs in October 2024’s International Regulatory Awards were the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), Kansspelautoriteit (Ksa) of the Netherlands, and the Danish Gambling Authority.

Each of these organisations won accolades for their dedication to protecting consumers. Two of the 2024 awards handed out specifically focused on recognition of enhancing responsible gambling in their respective jurisdictions, while one was for a campaign designed to discourage underage gambling.

As for the awards themselves, they come via the reputable and globally recognised International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR), specifically for regulatory authorities.

For those of you who have not heard of the IAGR, the organisation is set up to connect all gambling regulatory bodies as well as regulators in player-focused areas such as advertising, responsible gambling, and consumer protection.

As for the organisation itself, it exists to foster collaboration between authorities that work within or connect to the gambling industry.

Topics most often discussed include the prevention of underage gambling, problem gambling, taxation, and criminal activities such as anti-money laundering policies. The IAGR also gives regulatory authorities a forum where they can share stats on how specific rules in their respective jurisdictions across the globe have been a success, failure, or simply how certain rules have affected their gambling markets.

Looking for news covering awards or licensing news? If you like to stay up to date with licensing news, we have a dedicated Gambling Legislation News section here. Plus, for all of you out there that specifically like to catch up with awards, we have the Casinoplusbonus awards news tag in the footer of this article.

Regulatory Excellence Award – ACMA (Australia)

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) won an award due to its focus on responsible gambling.

The launch of its BetStop National Self-Exclusion Register has meant that the country now has a centralised system so those who want to self-exclude don’t simply exclude themselves from one sports book. I say sportsbook because there are no legal online casinos in Australia.

BetStop’s system is very much like the UK’s GAMSTOP self-exclusion system, which all UK online gambling platforms must offer to players along with mandatory responsible gambling tools. On both GAMSTOP and Australia’s BetStop system, if a player self-excludes for 1 week, 1 month, 1 year, or life, the self-exclusion replicates to all other online gambling platforms in the country.

It means that players cannot simply self-exclude from one website and then have the urge to gamble and sign up for another gambling site. In fact, I wrote a news report covering the new BetStop system last October, so just over one year ago from the date this news report – Australians Join Self Exclusion Register.

Chair of ACMANerida O’Loughlin said at the awards: “The IAGR award for regulatory excellence is recognition of the dedication and collaboration of ACMA staff in delivering this important safeguard which has supported the more than 30,000 Australians registered to date.”.

Regulatory Innovation Award – Kansspelautoriteit (The Netherlands)

The Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) won its regulatory innovation award thanks to its enhanced consumer protection Markers of Risk system. The system identifies players who may be at risk of developing problem gambling habits, while also detects those who clearly already have a gambling addiction issue.

As we don’t cover Dutch gambling news, this particular piece of regulatory innovation is new news for me, but we are seeing this type of system pop up in across several jurisdictions such as the UK. These systems can engage with players and help them assess their gambling, while also trigger alerts fed through to online gambling platform support teams, who can then contact the person flagged.

Chairman of KSA Michel Groothuizen said: ‘I was honoured to be in Rome on behalf of our organization. I greatly appreciate the international acknowledgement for ‘Markers of risk’.

Best Regulatory Campaign Award – DGA (Denmark)

The Danish Gambling Authority won the best regulatory campaign award for a project called ‘One Armed Bandit’. Already I like the name, as of course, I am a slot player and when I began playing one-armed bandits were just about still around before being phased out.

This campaign was to put out a clear message that focused on deterring underage gambling in Denmark. The DGA came up with a character for the campaign that would connect with their young audience.

Director of the Danish Gambling Authority, Anders Dorph said: ‘Preventing underage children and young people from gambling and gambling harm is an important agenda for the Danish Gambling Authority which is why I am particularly proud of the award.’

International Regulatory Award 2023

In 2023 the winners were:

• Regulatory Excellence Award: Norwegian Gambling Authority (NGA)

• Best Regulatory Campaign Award: Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation, Queensland, Australia

• Regulatory Innovation Award: NSW Independent Casino Commission (NICC), Australia

Source: To ensure you receive honest gambling news from Casinoplusbonus, were possible we always like to add the source of information so you can fact check the original news story versus our version. For this latest report, my source was the offcial website of the International Association of Gaming Regulators news-media.