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Brazil's online gambling market shuts down on 5 October, lawmakers file 38 amendments and a São Paulo court lets Stake keep trading

Brazil's licensed betting market went offline on 5 October, every site and app suspending operations under Provisional Measure 1,394/2026. Days after the measure took effect deputies began filing amendments in Congress, 38 of them, including a transition rule that would let already-licensed operators continue until their original licence terms expire rather than shutting down within 30 days. The measure must be approved by Congress by 23 November or it lapses automatically.

The first round of the general election failed to resolve anything, forcing a runoff between Lula and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, whose Liberal Party has been tipped to secure a majority in Congress. The Federal Court of São Paulo granted Stake Brazil Ltda a partial preliminary injunction allowing it to continue offering fixed-odds betting, while upholding the effects of the provisional measure. Brazilian football clubs are now lobbying alongside the operators, warning that the ban removes multimillion-dollar sponsorship deals, and the ANJL has maintained throughout that the prohibition is illegal.

Illinois court sides with Kalshi, Ohio issues 10 cease-and-desist letters, Coinbase quits Michigan and global regulators ask the Supreme Court to take the case

A federal district court in Illinois granted the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Kalshi preliminary injunctions against the state, finding Kalshi was likely to suffer irreparable harm if Illinois gambling law were applied to its sports-related event contracts. Court wins for prediction markets against state regulators have been rare this year. The CFTC separately sought White House approval for two new rules covering gambling and prediction markets.

Everywhere else the pressure increased. The Ohio Casino Control Commission sent 10 cease-and-desist letters to prediction markets following its Sixth Circuit win, Coinbase agreed with the Michigan Gaming Control Board to stop offering sports event contracts in the state, and the Czech Ministry of Finance added Kalshi.com to its List of Unauthorized Internet Games on 30 September. The International Association of Gaming Regulators and the North American Gaming Regulators Association asked the US Supreme Court to hear the Kalshi case, while the American Gaming Association, tribal leaders and the large casino operators used G2E in Las Vegas to attack the sector. Kalshi filed to end a programme paying participants by trading volume, days after defending unusual activity in its ether perpetual futures market, and launched a perpetual futures contract tied to an index of 500 US companies, the first US-regulated stock-index perpetual, 49 days after filing the US500 contract with the CFTC on 18 August 2026.

Rank Group agrees a £5m Gambling Commission settlement as Regulus Partners warns a 40 per cent machine duty would risk 4,000 betting shops and 28,000 jobs

The Gambling Commission confirmed a £5m regulatory settlement with The Rank Group after an investigation found anti-money laundering and social responsibility failures at three of its operating brands. Grosvenor Casinos Limited, Grosvenor Casinos (GC) Limited and Gaming Group Limited, which between them run 51 casinos across Great Britain, will pay the penalty and undergo a third-party audit. The regulator's executive director of operations, Sue Young, reminded all land-based operators of their responsibilities, noting that enforcement cases of this kind are usually associated with online gambling.

The settlement landed in the middle of the machine games duty argument. Regulus Partners said raising the duty to 40 per cent would be "entirely counterproductive as a tax-raising measure", risking the closure of 4,000 betting shops and 28,000 jobs. The Betting and Gaming Council said Britain's casinos are preparing to invest more than £200m in venues following the government's modernisation reforms, and that the investment is now at risk from further duty rises. The Autumn Budget is on 28 October. Separately, the Upper Tribunal ruled that Jumpman Gaming is in line for significant tax relief on free spins, a decision operators will read closely.

Curaçao leak puts 81 million Norwegian visits to offshore casinos on the record, the Dutch regulator shuts 86 clone sites and Bulgaria moves to ban gambling advertising outright

A leak of Curaçao licensing data revealed the scale of Norwegian play on the black market. A report by NRK, the Norwegian public broadcaster, estimates that more than 700 Curaçao-licensed online casinos drew 81 million visits from players in the country. The data came from the German hacker Lillith Wittman, and the Curaçao Gaming Authority has confirmed it will move to a new gaming portal after shutting down its current platform following the breach.

Enforcement moved in parallel elsewhere. The Dutch Kansspelautoriteit said it has now shut down 86 "fraudulent" and illegal operators running as clones of licensed sites on a different domain extension, and Polymarket went to court in The Hague to fight a €420,000 penalty from the same regulator. Bulgaria submitted draft legislation to the European Commission that would ban gambling advertising completely and prohibit gambling affiliates.

Informa agrees to buy ICE organiser Clarion from Blackstone at a £2.24bn enterprise value, Sportradar sells Atrium Sports for $170m and GiG takes majority control of 888AFRICA

Blackstone is selling Clarion, its international events business and the organiser of ICE, to Informa at an enterprise value of £2.24bn. The deal puts the industry's largest trade show under new ownership at the point when ICE is bedding into Barcelona.

Two suppliers simplified in the same week. Sportradar Group agreed to sell Atrium Sports, the coaching and scouting business of Synergy Sports, to Teamworks Innovations for $170m in cash. GiG Software completed the acquisition of a majority stake in 888AFRICA, which it says is aiming to be a top three African operator by revenues and profits.

Relum's chief executive sets out the aggregation and gamification provider's growth path

Relum chief executive Edmond Ghulyan reports on the casino aggregation and gamification provider's recent growth, in a feature for iNTERGAMINGi.

Affiliate management service launched to cut the friction between operators and their affiliates

PartnerMatrix has launched an affiliate management service. Operators remain reliant on affiliates to drive first-time depositors onto their casino sites, and the company positions the service as a way to reduce the operational friction in running those partnerships.

Rumble Kong CASHINGO built around a new slot mechanic rather than Megaways or Hold and Win

In a slot market dominated by established frameworks such as Megaways and Hold and Win, Alchemy Gaming set out how it approached mechanic design for Rumble Kong CASHINGO, arguing that studio differentiation remains the hard part for developers.

Personalisation's biggest effect is on trust between operator and player, Soft2Bet argues

The Soft2Bet team believes the greatest impact of personalisation is to strengthen trust between operators and players, rather than to lift any single engagement metric.

FanDuel named the first exclusive betting and prediction markets partner of the sports social app Real

FanDuel has become the first official and exclusive partner of Real App for sports betting and prediction markets. Real is a social platform dedicated to sport with more than 1.5 million monthly active users, and the tie-up runs from the start of the 2026 NFL season.