According to Gambling Industry News, Spain led the way in fines, mostly for operating without local licenses.
Global regulators of the gambling business imposed fines of $184.4 million (€177.9 million/£148.2 million) in 2024, according to the Gambling Industry News website.
Compared to 2023, when fines reached a record $442.6 million, fines decreased by 73.3%. During the calendar year, 70 fines were imposed, as opposed to 96 in 2024.
Spain Tops Most Penalties List
In 2024, the Spanish Ministry of Consumer Affairs (Ministerio de consumo) fined Internet gambling businesses €65,325,000, setting a new record. Fifteen gaming operators received the penalty. Thirteen of those were gaming businesses that weren’t authorized to operate in the local market. The fines imposed in 2024 brought Spain’s total financial penalties since 2021 to €398 million.
In 2024, Australian gaming authorities fined $58.5 million, a substantial decrease from the $311.4 million fined in 2023. Following proceedings started by the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC), the Federal Court of Australia ordered SkyCity Adelaide Pty Ltd to pay a fine of AU$67 million ($44.6 million /€41 million), the biggest fine of the year.
The $25.7 million in fines were collected by the Netherlands Gambling Authority (Kansspelautoriteit). Gammix Ltd. paid a record $21.3 million penalty for unlawful gaming, the biggest amount ever imposed by the commission.
Spelinspektionen, the Swedish regulator, collected $11.5 million in fines during a busy year. Spooniker was fined $2.7 million for providing improper bonuses, the greatest of those punishments. This platform doen’t belong to the group of the best betting sites in Sweden.
In 2024, the US Gaming Commission imposed $9.4 million in fines. The biggest sanction was $7.5 million levied by the US Justice Department against MGM Resorts in January 2024 for unlawful sports betting activities that Scott Sibella, the former president and chief operating officer of Resorts World Las Vegas, knew about.
In 2024, the UK Gambling Commission only made £6.6 million ($8.4 million), a substantial decrease from the £214.2 million they made the year before. Gamesys Operations Limited was fined £6 million ($7.6 million/€6.9 million) in January for social responsibility and anti-money laundering (AML) violations, the biggest fine ever imposed by the UKGC.
These six nations are followed by Finland, Italy, and Canada (Ontario).
