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European Gaming and Betting Association

EGBA

The European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) represents online gaming and betting operators established and regulated in the EU.

Lobbying Activity

Response to Consumer Agenda 2025-2030 and Action Plan on Consumers in the Single Market

4 Aug 2025

The European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) represents Europe's leading online gambling operators, who are licensed and regulated in over 20 European countries. EGBA works closely with national and EU authorities, as well as other stakeholders, to promote a well-regulated online gambling market that prioritises consumer protection and safer gambling. EGBA welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the New Consumer Agenda and strongly supports efforts to improve consumer protection online. At the same time, the gambling sector continues to face persistent challenges such as the rise of unregulated websites, run from outside the EU, the black market and fragmented national regulations. For more information see the document attached.
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Meeting with Egelyn Braun (Cabinet of Commissioner Michael McGrath)

9 Jul 2025 · Exchange of views on the forthcoming Digital Fairness Act

Meeting with Radek Maly (Head of Unit Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs)

26 Jun 2025 · Follow up to the Workshop on a Single Market Barrier Prevention Act (27/03/2025)

Meeting with Ilhan Kyuchyuk (Member of the European Parliament)

11 Mar 2025 · online gambling & impact on young people

Meeting with Peter Agius (Member of the European Parliament)

18 Feb 2025 · Introduction with association

Response to Revision of EU rules on Anti-Money Laundering (new instrument)

18 Nov 2021

EGBA is the Brussels-based industry body representing the leading online gaming and betting operators established, licensed and regulated within the EU. AML is of one the key compliance priorities for gambling operators coming from the licensing obligations and the very nature of our industry. That is why EGBA has always fully supported the inclusion of gambling sector into the EU AML framework EGBA has also been on the forefront of work on AML for the gambling sector by educating and encouraging operators to enforce highest standards. Thus, EGBA is working on the first pan-European Guidelines on fighting money -laundering for the online gambling industry. Sector-specific guidance is unfortunately still lacking across the EU and EGBA aims to fill in that gap by introducing self-regulation rules that will cover recommendations for conducting risk assessment, customer detection and conducting due diligence for the gambling sector. EGBA is looking forward to more guidance from AMLA such as on customer due diligence measures, enhanced due diligence and even customer risk assessment, which will be very valuable (especially from the perspective of conflicting nature of AML and Data Protection regulations). EGBA has also been calling for the introduction of sector specific STR forms for many years (among others), which may be best achieved by organizing work within AMLA via an industry-specific structure with clusters. It is also important that the tasks of the centralized authority and the national authorities are clearly divided as to prevent potential duplication of reporting and higher administrative and compliance costs. The Regulation EGBA welcomes the new proposal in a form of a Regulation, instead of a Directive, since we believe that more binding and directly enforceable rules will contribute to a unified, strengthened and predictable legal framework. EGBA considers that the divergence in the application of the 4th AMLD across the EU has been very wide and detrimental to a consistent application of the EU AML Framework. It has lead to a lot of unnecessary gold-plating as well as huge compliance and administrative costs for the sector. EGBA welcomes the approach of the EC to gambling. The existing thresholds are reasonable and strict but they need to be applied in a consistent manner, which a Regulation will bring. We also welcome the strengthening of the rules for granting exemptions by Member States to prevent abuses. Member States need to conduct a much more thorough and reasoned assessment before an exception is granted to ensure the system works without gambling sectors being unduly exempted simply because of national lobbying. EGBA also welcomes the new horizontal rules. In particular, the harmonisation of Customer Due Diligence (CDD) measures such as internal policies and procedures for risk management, clearer rules on the identification of suspicious transactions, and requirements on customer risk analysis will lead to more clarity by introducing uniform rules and their interpretation in the whole of the EU. EGBA would like to bring to your attention several issues to keep in mind in this process. The requirement of application of EU Regulation in non-EU countries where a Group has branches and subsidiaries has to be clarified as it may lead to conflicts with third-country national laws. Although we recognize the importance of establishing a business risk profile very early on in the customer relationship, specifically, in the gambling industry the purpose and nature of the business relationship are self-evident and it is not necessary to establish that before entering the relationship. Finally, it is also of paramount importance to ensure AML rules do not conflict with other rules, such as those of the GDPR, and that obliged entities should not have to undertake functions not within the framework of their business relationship.
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Response to Digital Services Act package: ex ante regulatory instrument of very large online platforms acting as gatekeepers

5 May 2021

Please find the comments of the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) in the attachment.
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Response to A New Consumer Agenda

7 Aug 2020

The European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) is the Brussels-based industry body representing the leading online gaming and betting operators established, licensed and regulated within the EU. The European online gambling market is the largest market for online gambling worldwide. In 2018 total EU online gambling market generated €22.2 bn in Gross Gaming Revenue, accounting for 49,2% of the global online market. Despite the cross- border nature of online gambling, online players are not equally protected throughout the EU, as each Member State is responsible for developing its own rules. The level of protection for European players depends solely on where they live. A 2018 study published by the City University London showed that European players are being exposed to unequal and inadequate consumer safeguards across EU member states. The study reviewed the implementation of the European Commission’s 2014 Recommendation on principles for the protection of consumers and players of online gambling services and for the prevention of minors from gambling online, by all Member States. The Recommendation includes safeguards for player identification, minor protection and social responsibilities, only one Member- State however, has implemented it. Another study commissioned by EGBA, which examined the regulatory framework for gambling advertising in 15 countries, found that only 6 countries have specific legislative rules for protecting minors from viewing gambling advertisements (both studies available on www.egba.eu). The lack of regulatory consistency jeopardises online players’ safety, as it exposes them to the unregulated and unsafe websites of the black market, which profits to the detriment of the European economy. EGBA advocates sector-specific EU regulation for consumer and minor protection. There are simple rules that can be proposed, to ensure that online players, minors and players who are at risk are equally protected. For example, self-excluded players could benefit from a European self-exclusion register, that would prohibit access to any regulated website of the EU. To bridge the gap stemming from inconsistent rules on protecting minors from gambling marketing, EGBA has recently published a European code of conduct to establish minimum requirements on responsible advertising. Greater regulatory cooperation between Member States can also facilitate the dialogue to achieve harmonisation. To this end EGBA regrets the dissolvement of the European expert group for online gambling, as national gambling regulators are deprived from the opportunity to meet and exchange in the framework of a common platform. In light of a new European Consumer Agenda, we believe that introducing a specific single set of consumer rights that apply to the online gambling sector will guarantee a high level of protection for consumers, increase transparency and legal certainty and lead to balanced and fair contract terms and an overall increased security for the player.
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Meeting with Eduard Hulicius (Cabinet of Commissioner Věra Jourová)

4 Feb 2019 · regulation of online gaming industry

Meeting with Markus Schulte (Digital Economy)

7 Jul 2015 · DSM

Meeting with Szabolcs Horvath (Cabinet of Commissioner Tibor Navracsics)

16 Jan 2015 · Online gambling industry

Meeting with Agnieszka Drzewoska (Cabinet of Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska), Kaius Kristian Hedberg (Cabinet of Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska) and logos public affairs

16 Jan 2015 · Gambling

Meeting with Szabolcs Horvath (Cabinet of Commissioner Tibor Navracsics)

16 Dec 2014 · Online gambling industry