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    Gambling

    This Month

    Laurence Escalante built Virtual Gaming Worlds into a multibillion-dollar business. But competition and regulatory pressures are mounting.

    Billionaire Laurence Escalante’s gaming empire under attack

    Virtual Gaming Worlds is facing increasing competition and regulatory pressures in the United States, its main market.

    • Primrose Riordan and Zoe Samios
    Tabcorp ads appear in the second half of games at Brisbane’s The Gabba.

    Coalition holds trump card in gambling debate

    If the government wants to limit sports betting ads, the Coalition is the only realistic source of support.

    • Phillip Coorey
    As it turns out the AFL wasn’t concerned about protecting its profits but all this time they were concerned that our children’s ability to participate in Saturday sport.

    We’ve heard TV stations and footy codes prophesise doom before

    The gambling lobby has a well-thumbed playbook developed from earlier health warnings and advertising restrictions on tobacco and alcohol.

    • Martin Thomas
    Communications Minister Michelle Rowland during question time this week.

    Rowland wins some, loses more in gambling advertising debate

    Pointless non-disclosure agreements, an agitated backbench – miscalculations have marred long-overdue reform to wagering advertising rules.

    • Ronald Mizen and Sam Buckingham-Jones
    Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during Question Time on Wednesday.

    Gambling ad ban MPs to go over Rowland’s head and lobby PM direct

    The direct approach over the head of the communications minister illustrates growing frustration in Labor ranks over the party’s position on gambling advertising.

    • Ronald Mizen and Sam Buckingham-Jones
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    A total ban on gambling advertising seems a distant prospect.

    Labor backing a loser with its gambling ads bet

    Readers’ letters on gambling ads; the hidden value of private health insurance; rare earths mining; a fix for education; and bidding au revoir to the Paris Olympics.

    Teenagers, especially young men, are the cohort identified most at risk of problem gambling.

    Ban all gambling ads and let the kids play the game, not the odds

    Kids appear to know as much about multi bets as they do about the players they are watching.

    • Zoe Daniel
    Google search may be able to keep running sponsored gambling results.

    Google search exempt in Labor’s gambling ad crackdown

    Wagering-related search terms are not included in Communications Minister Michelle Rowland’s blanket ban on social media and digital platform gambling ads.

    • Sam Buckingham-Jones and Ronald Mizen
    Sportsbet CEO Barni Evans with former 2IC Tania Abbotto.

    Sportsbet CEO’s sherpa walks out during the storm

    The country’s largest online bookmaker has lost its adult in the room at the worst possible moment.

    • Mark Di Stefano
    Anthony Albanese during question time on Monday.

    Labor facing internal backlash on gambling ads

    Communications Minister Michelle Rowland is facing growing backbench pressure to introduce a total ban on gambling advertising.

    • Ronald Mizen

    July

    Tabcorp’s director of corporate affairs, Daniel Meers.

    Meet the lobbyists aiming to keep the gambling dollars rolling in

    With the Albanese government’s gambling ad policy still up in the air, the Financial Review looked at who’s been hitting the corridors of power for sports betting firms.

    • Ronald Mizen
    Beau Fermor and Jayden Campbell in the Gold Coast Titans’ 2024 jersey, which is sponsored by The Lottery Office

    ‘Concerning’ offshore lotteries, online keno face crackdown

    Communications Minister Michelle Rowland is assessing whether more regulation is required. 

    • Zoe Samios
    Online gambling accounts should display the amount of money that punters have won or lost to better inform problem gamblers, a technology entrepreneur has proposed.

    Betting apps should let gamblers know ‘if they’re up or down’

    Online gambling accounts should display the amount of money that punters have won or lost to better inform problem gamblers, a technology entrepreneur has proposed.

    • John Kehoe
    Perth’s Laurence Escalante who built Virtual Gaming Worlds into a multibillion-dollar business.

    Perth billionaire Escalante battles copycats and hostile letters in US

    The businessman created a lucrative gambling market stateside from scratch. Now competition and regulation may force the company to change tack.

    • Primrose Riordan

    June

    Former AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan will step into a big new role at Tabcorp.

    Businesses failing to weigh wider risks

    Readers’ letters on the need for boards to consider risks beyond their organisation; the links between gambling and sport; and the fight against inflation.

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    Gillon McLachlan cut the AFL’s first wagering deal with Tabcorp in 2006. Last week, he was named the new CEO of Tabcorp.

    How the AFL got hooked on harmful gambling

    The insidious link between professional sport and betting was exposed by Gillon McLachlan’s appointment as chief executive of Tabcorp.

    • John Kehoe
    Global bookmaker Bet365 is in hot water with Communications Minister Michelle Rowland over credit card-backed deposits.

    Bet365 probed over credit card ban loophole

    The gambling regulator began making inquiries after The Australian Financial Review was able to deposit credit cards funds into Bet365 via third parties.

    • Ronald Mizen
    Laurence Escalante is the founder of Virtual Gaming Worlds.

    Laurence Escalante’s Virtual Gaming Worlds delivers monster dividend

    The record payout for shareholders comes despite increasing legal scrutiny of the company’s business and its popular Chumba Casino and Luckyland Slots.

    • Primrose Riordan
    Lottery Corporation could give customers the chance to win more after a better-than-expected second half.

    Bigger, more frequent Powerball jackpots on the way: Citi

    The investment bank’s analysts have told clients that The Lottery Corporation is cashed up and will defend its most popular game by offering more prize money.

    • Zoe Samios

    May

    Left to right: Arthur Laundy, owner of Laundy Hotels, Melbourne Cup winning jockey Kerrin McEvoy, Sky Racing presenter Kiersten Duke, TAB’s Brenden Varcoe

    Tabcorp recruits Laundy in pub fight

    The ASX-listed wagering group will upgrade its betting terminals and broadcast displays across the Laundy Hotels portfolio, but lock its rival out.

    • Zoe Samios

    The Australian Financial Review Magazine

    Daisy Knatchbull: “The Deck is for every woman. Every size. Every shape. We don’t discriminate, except when it comes to gender.”

    BOSS Financial Review

    Saul Cannon, CEO of Port of Melbourne.

    Life & Leisure

    Rich List

    Anthony Pratt at the 2024 Met Gala in New York. He and his sisters argue their half-sister’s claim to the family’s $23 billion empire should be dismissed.