Ali Baba

About Ali Baba

A systemic policy cooperation mechanism is expected, targeting youth gambling prevention and student safeguarding. Rather than implementing short-term campaigns, the focus will be on embedding gambling prevention into everyday school routines. 

It will include combining restrictions on smartphone use with engaging RAS activities to effectively block and fill the time students might otherwise spend being exposed to gambling content.

At the signing ceremony, Gyeonggi education chief An Min-seok emphasised the immediacy of the issue: “To effectively respond to youth gambling problems, close cooperation between the Office of Education, which best understands the school environment, and specialised prevention and treatment institutions is necessary.

What is Ali Baba?

This summer, the Commission reached settlements of £900,000 with Betfred over safer gambling failures, £4.75 million with Evolution over weaknesses in its AML risk assessment and supply-chain oversight, and £122,835 with Stakelogic after games were found to be running faster than permitted.

Taken together, the cases provide further ammunition for the anti-gambling lobby at a time when it is already facing political pressure, tax increases and demands for tighter restrictions. Each apparently avoidable failure makes it harder for the industry to argue that existing regulation is sufficient.

Yet Dan Waugh, partner at Regulus Partners, pushes back against the idea that enforcement notices reveal a fundamentally non-compliant sector.

What is Ali Baba?

The approved text includes a series of restrictions on advertising for online betting and gambling:

Advertising prohibited: Direct or indirect marketing communication regarding betting on radio and television, newspapers, magazines, outdoor media, streaming services, podcasts, social networks, video platforms, apps, websites, blogs, forums, search engines and other internet environments is prohibited.

Messaging and targeted advertising: The restriction also extends to instant messaging, SMS, email, notifications, advertising automatically targeted by algorithms, telemarketing – which shows ads again to people who have already been exposed to certain content – and profiling based on user behaviour.