Betfred Chief says company’s entire UK high street betting network could vanish under proposed tax hikes Summary Fred Done, co-founder and chairman of Betfred, has warned that the company could close all 1,287 betting shops across the UK if proposed gambling tax increases go ahead, putting about 7,500 jobs at risk. Done told the BBC […]
Chicago considers 10.25% local sports betting tax on top of state levies Summary Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has proposed a 10.25% local tax on adjusted gross revenue (AGR) from sports betting as part of his fiscal 2026 “Protecting Chicago Budget” to help close a $1.15 billion shortfall. The measure would sit alongside Illinois’ progressive online […]
EU Court dismisses Dutch appeal in state aid case and rules in EGBA’s favour Summary The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has dismissed the Netherlands’ appeal in a state aid dispute about the 2014 extension of monopoly licences for incumbent betting and lottery operators. The judgment upholds the EU General Court’s 2023 […]
Weekend Report: Betfred warns of shop closures, Dutch Lottery risk officer exits Summary Betfred has warned it may close all 1,287 of its UK high-street betting shops if proposed gambling tax increases go ahead, potentially putting around 7,500 jobs at risk. The Weekend Report also covers the departure of Jet Roos-van Aerssen as chief financial […]
Building an AI-Ready Culture: Turning resistance into readiness. Summary Change often brings hesitation and fear — particularly when jobs and livelihoods feel at stake. Martijn Gribnau argues that leaders must turn resistance into readiness now, or risk falling behind as the global AI market expands rapidly. The article highlights four practical AI capabilities boards should […]
Amazon cloud computing outage disrupts Snapchat, Ring and many other online services Summary Early on Monday a major Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage caused widespread disruption to dozens of popular online services. A DNS-related problem in the US-EAST-1 region led to increased error rates and latencies across around 64 internal AWS services, affecting apps and […]
The FTC Is Disappearing Blog Posts About AI Published During Lina Khan’s Tenure Summary The US Federal Trade Commission has removed or redirected several blog posts about AI that were published during Lina Khan’s tenure as chair. Posts discussing “open-weights” models, consumer concerns about AI, and risks of consumer harm were either redirected to the […]
Build vs. Buy: Optimise AI by Fixing the Data Foundation Summary This article argues that the biggest barrier to useful AI is not models but the quality of customer data feeding them. Poor, fragmented or duplicate customer records undermine AI accuracy, personalisation and predictive insights. The piece recommends moving beyond a binary “build vs buy” […]
Steve Cohen’s Queens Casino Project to Bring in $33B in Tax Revenue Summary The Metropolitan Park proposal — a partnership between New York Mets owner Steve Cohen and Hard Rock International — has submitted an extra application to the New York State Gaming Facility Location Board ahead of the October 14 cutoff. The $8 billion […]
Will political bribery attempts renew Thailand’s regulation debate? Summary Thailand’s Digital Economy and Society Minister, Chaichanok Chidchob, says he was offered a 40m baht (£910,390) bribe to stop enforcement against illegal online gambling platforms and call-centre scams. The claim comes amid a large-scale crackdown: the Ministry of Justice reported 52 arrests linked to multiple online […]
