🗞 Key News of the Week: main developments covered from August 31 – September 5

🗞 Key News of the Week: main developments covered from August 31 – September 5

🇧🇬 Bulgaria’s gambling affiliate licensing regime is now in force. The framework combines licensing with a €6,000 fixed annual charge and a 10% tax on commissions linked to performance. Banks and payment providers can be ordered to block transfers to unlicensed affiliates, bringing traffic suppliers directly into financial enforcement.

🇵🇰 Pakistan opened its crypto licensing portal. Providers operating on or before March 5 faced a September 5 deadline to apply for a No Objection Certificate or cease operations. The NOC provides a preliminary route towards local incorporation and a full licence; a separate sandbox pathway supports supervised product testing.

🇦🇷 An Argentine senator revived a proposal for tighter online-gambling controls. It would ban gambling advertising, strengthen identity checks and restrict payments to debit cards and digital wallets. Credit-funded gambling would be excluded, while a two-hour session would trigger a mandatory ten-hour break. These measures remain proposed legislation.

🇺🇦 Ukraine is developing automated gambling restrictions for military personnel, targeting implementation by December 24. The planned module would check state registers through Trembita and return an eligibility decision without revealing military status to operators. Access controls would become part of the registration process.

🇵🇱 Poland’s UOKiK is examining betting operators’ interfaces and contractual terms. Its review targets potentially manipulative design, unclear conditions and obstacles to suspending or closing accounts. AI tools will help identify questionable practices. The proceedings themselves do not establish wrongdoing by the operators concerned.

🇨🇱 Polla Chilena filed a complaint against 11 online-betting platforms, alleging unauthorized operations. The state lottery wants investigators to examine corporate structures, financial flows and payment relationships, including contracts held by Transbank. Payment intermediaries’ documentation forms part of the evidence being sought.

🇨🇦 Approximately one in three Canadian players uses offshore platforms, according to CasinoCanada’s analysis of Blask data. Provincial differences are substantial. Ontario’s roughly 91% figure refers to participation in the regulated market—an important distinction when assessing whether a particular licensing model successfully attracts players.

🇧🇷🇷🇺 Russian users gained access to Pix purchases through the My MTS app. Customers can scan Brazilian merchant QR codes and fund purchases in rubles using Russian bank cards, with conversion at the time of payment. The service accepts users of any mobile operator.

🇸🇾 Visa and Mastercard completed their first international card transactions in Syria. Visa worked with Fransabank and Paymera, while Mastercard partnered with QNB. These initial transactions mark a step towards restoring international card acceptance, with merchant coverage expected to expand gradually.

🇨🇱 Chile’s Central Bank is preparing a regulatory framework for domestic stablecoins. The planned consultation will address conditions for issuing tokens that can function as payment instruments. Its broader agenda also includes making instant bank transfers easier to use for everyday merchant payments.

#news #digest

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