Australia fines illegal online poker operators $16.8 million as Italy, the EU, and Tanzania move on gambling taxes

This batch of gambling updates is mostly about one thing: governments tightening the screws on where betting and gaming money can flow, and on what gets taxed when it does. For PSPs, acquirers, and banks, the useful bit is not the headlines themselves but the map they draw: which jurisdictions are adding pressure, which are writing off old exposure, and where the compliance cost just went up.

1. Australia’s court imposed a $16.8 million fine over illegal online poker services. For operators and payment providers, that is a straightforward reminder that unlicensed poker traffic remains a live enforcement target, not a legacy issue.
2. Italy may introduce targeted levies on bookmakers of up to 230 million euro per year. If that plan moves forward, it would add another layer of cost for sportsbooks already dealing with a regulated but heavily taxed market.
3. The European Union lost almost 23 billion euro in taxes to illegal online gambling in 2025. That is the sort of number regulators like to use when justifying more enforcement, and the sort of number payment teams should expect to hear again in policy debates.
4. Russia’s sports poker market reached 1 billion rubles, while the number of clubs increased 15 times. That combination matters because fast venue growth usually means faster payment volume growth too, even before the market looks orderly on paper.
5. Gamdom bought a similar domain from competitor Duel after a public dispute. Domain control may sound like a branding spat, but in practice it can also affect traffic routing, customer confusion, and where payments end up landing.
6. The Supreme Court of the Netherlands ruled that operators active in the Dutch market before iGaming was legalized in 2021 are not liable. For anyone still carrying legacy Dutch exposure, this is the kind of ruling that can change how old files are treated.
7. Tanzania plans to introduce a 5% tax on sports bets. That is a clean policy signal: even in markets where the headline is “growth,” the state usually wants its cut as volume rises.