EGBA highlights safer gambling and AML in 2026 annual report
The European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) has published its annual activity report for 2026, in which it highlighted a number of organisational developments and achievements from throughout the past 12 months, including efforts towards safer gambling, as well as anti-money laundering (AML).
Continued safer gambling initiatives
The EGBA said that its members have made “significant strides” in promoting safe and sustainable gambling. It said that this was done through things such as “the expansion of the European Safer Gambling Week, the launch of a new player-facing resource platform, and the approval of the first European standard on markers of harm”.
It described the past twelve months as having “marked a milestone” in its efforts to raise player protection standards.
Focusing on the European Safer Gambling Week, the EGBA said that the 2025 edition, which was the fifth edition, achieved record participation, with 221 partners from 24 countries. It said that the number of participating partners increased by 14 per cent from 2024. It continued that the social media campaign, which reached 4.1 million people, was itself a 32 per cent increase from 2024.
EGBA Director of Communications Barry Magee commented that the record participation achieved with the 2025 edition is a demonstration of how safe and sustainable gambling is a “key priority” for the sector, “with more than 220 organisations uniting in a collective commitment to enhance player protection”.
Magee added that the involvement of major European football clubs was a particular highlight, as, for the first time, the campaign’s safer gambling messaging was displayed at live televised football matches across Germany, Italy, Bulgaria, and Greece.
Maarten Haijer, EGBA Secretary General, remarked that “it was a landmark year for EGBA in several respects,” as he described European Safer Gambling Week 2025 as “the most impactful” edition yet. He also spoke of new standards for influencer marketing, as well as continued progress under the EGBA’s anti-money laundering guidelines.
Anti-money laundering efforts
The EGBA stated that it continued to lead the sector’s engagement with the EU’s evolving AML framework over the past year, “as the new EU AML rules moved from legislation into implementation and the new Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA), which officially began operations in Frankfurt on 1 July 2025, started developing its supervisory architecture”.
It said that it has “engaged extensively” throughout the process in order to ensure that the online gambling sector’s characteristics and compliance practices are reflected in emerging EU standards.
Dr Ekaterina Hartmann, EGBA Director of Legal and Regulatory Affairs, said that the EGBA has, from the outset, “actively engaged with AMLA to ensure the online gambling sector has a voice in the discussions shaping the EU’s new AML framework”.
“The next phase will be decisive,” she said. “Achieving a proportionate, risk-based framework with consistent interpretation across Member States. This will be essential to ensuring the new AML framework works in practice, for regulators and for the operators committed to meeting its requirements.”
Continuing on the topic of AML, the EGBA said that its members have completed the second annual reporting process under its industry AML guidelines, as it said that the process helps ensure that guidelines remain effective and comprehensive, identifying areas where updates may be needed so that emerging challenges are adequately addressed.
With that in mind, it said that revisions of the guidelines will begin in 2027, and added that it continues to encourage non-member operators to apply the guidelines and participate in the annual reporting process, “demonstrating our sector’s collective commitment to financial crime prevention”.
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