Australia gambling reform stalls, OFAC sanctions Shelbit and Aban Tether, and Lithuania’s Walletto comes under scrutiny

This round-up is mostly about one thing: where the payment rails start to bend under gambling and crypto risk. From sanctions and bank account freezes to regulators and industry groups putting pressure on PSPs, the operational message is simple enough for high-risk teams: counterparty risk is moving closer to the center of the decision.

1. Australia may walk away from gambling reform because there is not enough support in parliament. For operators and payment providers, that means the current regulatory setup may stay in place for longer than expected, at least until the political math changes.
2. The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added the crypto exchanges Shelbit and Aban Tether to the sanctions list for laundering funds on behalf of Iran. For PSPs, this is the familiar but still annoying part of the business: sanctions exposure does not stay inside the crypto bucket for long.
3. The European Gaming and Betting Association has asked the Bank of Lithuania to review the payment institution Walletto, saying an investigation found the provider servicing illegal sites in Europe. That is exactly the sort of allegation that gets attention from acquirers and partner banks, because it turns a PSP review into a reputational and compliance issue fast.
4. In Cyprus, the regulated betting market exceeded €1.3 billion in 2025. For payment companies active in the jurisdiction, that is a reminder that regulated gambling volumes can be material even in smaller markets, which is why local licensing and bank appetite matter.
5. In the United States, senators called for restrictions on wildfire prediction markets because of the risk of arson. The payments angle is obvious: when a market starts looking like it could create perverse incentives, processors and financial partners tend to get very interested very quickly.
6. Italy will launch a single portal for complaints against gambling operators. That sounds administrative, but in practice it makes player complaints easier to aggregate, which is useful to regulators and can feed directly into licensing and payment-risk discussions.
7. In Brazil, banks blocked 323 accounts on suspicion of links to unregulated gambling sites. That is the cleanest reminder in the batch for high-risk operators: local banks are still willing to move first when they think the exposure sits outside the regulated perimeter.