CRYPTO CASINO
several Asian-facing UK Premier League sponsors and is allegedly linked to jailed junket tycoon Alvin Chau. It gave up its licence in the Isle of Man after being told it would have to pay a £3.3m penalty and improve its behaviour if it wanted to continue trading. TGP provided white-label services to betting brands including major players Stake, shirt sponsor of Everton football club, Roobet (Chelsea) and Rollbit (Leicester City) as well as bj88, SBOTOP, Sportsbet.io, DEBET and W88, all top-flight football shirt sponsors. TGP’s exit leaves the clubs with unlicensed brand logos emblazoned on their shirts and potentially facing fines or personal prosecutions for due diligence failures. 15 The TGP case reignites debate around the UK’s white label system, a long-criticized framework that allows license- holding firms to rent out their regulatory permissions to foreign-facing brands. While marketed as a compliant gateway to global expansion, critics have argued that the model invites regulatory arbitrage and facilitates access to the UK market for firms that would not otherwise meet licensing standards. 16 The 2023 Gambling White Paper 17 identified white labels as a regulatory loophole which Gambling Minister Fiona Twycross has indicated the government intends to close. For now, TGP’s withdrawal has triggered a reputational crisis for the Premier League clubs involved which may force them to re-evaluate the true cost of their partnerships with Asian betting firms. For operators who rely on third-party licensing to sustain their UK presence, the Gambling Commission’s actions signal it will no longer tolerate business models that outsource responsibility. Any operator pursuing white label deals in the UK can likely now expect greater scrutiny – not only from regulators, but from commercial partners wary of collateral damage. A way forward, or if you can’t beat them… The apparently unstoppable surge in crypto casino means lost taxes and unprotected consumers for jurisdictions
struggling to retain players in licensed channels. But there is one solution open to them: bring crypto casino onshore. Crypto 2.0 is significantly different from last time around. During and immediately after COVID, sharp rises in various cryptocurrencies drew in amateurs tempted to try and ride the wave. Members of the online “meme stock” community saw crypto as a one-way ticket to the kind of wealth not available to them through conventional investments or jobs. Crypto boomed not for its inherent value or function, but because a fear of missing out led those with money burning a hole in their pockets to buy in. This time, there are reasons to think cryptocurrency and the function it provides the gambler are likely to be increasingly attractive to a particular demographic. Wiggin’s Elliott and Bagnall quote a 2023 YouGov survey 18 which found that 15 percent of UK gamblers were interested in placing crypto bets with a third of these citing speed of settlement and weekend withdrawals as key reasons. They also point to other benefits including lower fees and lower likelihood of bank declines. This group is predominantly male, aged 18-34 and London-based – a demographic with one of the highest gambling participation rates and one that is much more likely to hold crypto already. Regulus Partners’ Paul Leyland agrees, predicting that crypto gambling could start to replace regulated real-money gambling among key demographics and in certain geographies withing 3-5 years. “In ignoring crypto, operators are effectively pushing their highest-value customers into an unregulated ecosystem,” he warned. “And once they go, they don’t just disappear: they help build the scale and capabilities of crypto, making it even more of a threat.” “The regulated sector’s fiat-only stance is creating a two- tier market: ‘crypto-convenience’ offshore, ‘compliance friction’ onshore,” say the Wiggin pair. 19 They point out that this disparity combined with the ease with which players can access offshore markets means a wholesale rejection of
15 https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/news/article/tgp-europe-leaves-gb-market-following-commission-investigation 16 https://www.playthegame.org/news/the-root-of-illegal-betting-britains-white-label-industry-that-not-even-the-regulator-oversees/ 17 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/high-stakes-gambling-reform-for-the-digital-age 18 https://business.yougov.com/content/47358-assessing-interest-in-cryptocurrency-gambling-in-the-uk 19 Crypto and gambling: Why regulation - not de facto prohibition - should shape the future of payment options - https://www.lexology.com/
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IMGL MAGAZINE | JUNE 2025
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