Dogs Playing Poker: Where art meets gambling
You might not immediately expect a history lesson from us. But this iconic series of paintings is certainly worth mentioning. Perhaps you have come across these works somewhere?
You might not immediately expect a history lesson from us. But this iconic series of paintings is certainly worth mentioning. Perhaps you have come across these works somewhere?
On 23 April last, in a commune in the Côtes-d’Armor region of Brittany, an occasional couple saw their lives turned upside down. That evening, they each filled in a Loto grid. Nothing out of the ordinary on the surface. And yet luck struck twice, with mathematically improbable precision.
In Austria, the gambling landscape is dominated by a state monopoly: win2day, operated by Österreichische Lotterien. However, the digital boom has enabled many foreign operators, often based in Malta or Curaçao, to offer their services to Austrian players without legal authorisation.
On 30 May 2025, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police arrested Makoto Chomabayashi, a 38-year-old man from Iwaki in Fukushima prefecture. He is suspected of betting around 28 billion yen (around €172 million) on the online gambling site Stake between August 2022 and April 2024. The authorities claim that he mainly played baccarat. Chomabayashi has admitted the facts.
A large-scale police operation in Turkey has dismantled a sprawling criminal network involved in illegal betting, online fraud, and child pornography. The raids, carried out across 52 provinces, led to the seizure of $127 million in assets and the arrest of 145 individuals.
While the deal between Betsson AB and Holland Gaming Technology looked set to close in February 2024, the Swedish group surprised the iGaming industry by announcing in early June that it was cancelling the planned acquisition outright. The deal, worth a total of €27.5 million, included Holland Gaming Technology Ltd and its in-house studio Holland Power Gaming BV.
A year after the entry into force of strict restrictions on gambling advertising and a few months after the minimum age for participation was raised to 21, the Gaming Commission (GC) is sharing the results of a new study carried out by DataSynergy on gambling behaviour, similar to the one carried out in 2023.
In May 2025, the Dutch gambling regulator Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) published new guidelines on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and chatbots in the online gambling industry. The guidelines state that AI can be used to support responsible gambling practices, but should not replace human staff in this crucial area.
During the 2024 European Championship, Belgian viewers saw gambling-related communications remarkably often. More than half remembered sponsored messages on social media, even though these have been banned in Belgium since July 2023.
The fight against match-fixing is very similar to the way we fight money laundering. Money laundering is all about finding suspicious money flows. You can apply the same thinking to suspicious betting.
On Wednesday 4 June 2025, the Gaming Commission (GC) announced a temporary interruption of several of its online applications, including the voluntary exclusion system. This maintenance, scheduled to last all day, is intended to improve the security and reliability of the services offered to Belgian players.
The Dutch political party PVV withdrew from the coalition. PVV leader Geert Wilders immediately receives a wave of criticism.
On 3 June 2025, a strategic agreement was signed between Marie Barsacq, Minister for Sport, Youth and the Voluntary Sector, and Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, President of the National Gaming Authority (ANJ).
On 15 May 2025, Lotteritilsynet launched an investigation into Norsk Tipping, the Norwegian state-owned gaming operator, following an alert from a bank reporting a large transfer of money from a minor’s account to the gaming platform. Under Norwegian law, gambling is strictly prohibited for people under the age of 18.