Insights
Regulatory analysis for governments and licensed operators.
Licensing regimes, enforcement trends and supervisory practice across gaming, digital assets and financial integrity: written for people who have to build or comply with the rules, not for the headline.
More analysis
Digital Assets
The FCA's sixteen-month runway: what a well-sequenced crypto regime looks like
Final rules in June 2026, applications from September, enforcement from October 2027. The gap is not indecision. It is the part of regime design that most jurisdictions compress and later regret.
19 August 20266 min read
iGaming Regulation
Brazil moves from onboarding to enforcement: what the SPA's first suspensions tell operators
Brazil's betting regulator has suspended 14 licensed operators over responsible-gaming and reporting failures. The lesson is not that licensing is hard. It is that supervision is the part most jurisdictions under-build.
18 August 20266 min read
Financial Integrity
What AMLA actually reaches: the gap between a single rulebook and a single supervisor
Europe's new AML authority is widely reported as taking direct supervision of cross-border gambling operators. It is not. Understanding why matters more than the headline, because the rules and the supervisor are moving on different tracks.
17 August 20267 min read
iGaming Regulation
The sweepstakes reckoning: what happens when a product is designed around a definition
Six states banned the dual-currency model, Illinois ordered 65 operators to block residents, and prediction markets are next in line. Definitional arbitrage has a shelf life, and it is shorter than the business plans assume.
15 August 20266 min read
Digital Assets
Five categories: the SEC and CFTC finally agree on what a crypto asset is
A joint interpretation binding on both agencies sorts crypto assets into five classes and takes mining, staking, wrapping and airdrops outside the securities laws. After a decade of enforcement-led definition, the US has a taxonomy.
14 August 20266 min read
iGaming Regulation
The Dutch renewal cliff: why an exit plan belongs in a licence application
The Netherlands' first cohort of online licences expires in October 2026, and applicants must now file a plan for how they would shut down if refused. Most regimes design for entry. Very few design for exit.
13 August 20265 min read
Digital Assets
Five regulators, one federation: how the UAE is running parallel digital-asset regimes
VARA opened a permanent regime for virtual asset derivatives in March 2026; the federal CMA expanded its perimeter from three activities to eight a month later. Running parallel regulators is a real strategy with real costs.
12 August 20266 min read
Digital Assets
After the MiCA deadline: 204 authorised CASPs, and what happened to the other thousand
The MiCA transitional period closed on 1 July 2026. Roughly four in five nationally registered crypto firms did not make it through: a capacity story as much as a compliance one.
11 August 20267 min read
Digital Assets
Hong Kong's deliberate scarcity: 36 stablecoin applications, a handful of licences
The HKMA received 36 applications and has signalled it will grant very few. Restricting supply is a legitimate supervisory strategy, and it is the opposite of the approach the EU has just finished testing.
8 August 20266 min read
Emerging Markets
The Philippines closed its offshore market. What that says about durable licensing
Republic Act 12312 permanently shut the POGO track, leaving only a domestic, land-based-anchored licence. The lesson is not that offshore licensing fails. It is what makes one survive politically.
6 August 20266 min read
Digital Assets
Singapore's 37: what a deliberately small licensed population buys a regulator
Thirty-seven firms hold major payment institution licences for digital payment token services. In a global financial centre, that number is a policy statement, not a market outcome.
5 August 20265 min read
iGaming Regulation
Ireland's GRAI regime goes live: sequencing a regulator from statute to first licence
Remote betting licences from the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland commenced on 1 July 2026. The sequencing, portal, then notices, then commencement, is a template worth studying.
4 August 20265 min read
Emerging Markets
Three speeds in Latin America, and the case for earmarking gambling revenue
Peru directs 40% of its gambling tax to tourism and 20% to mental health. Colombia has run a stable regime for a decade. Chile is still legislating. The difference is not enforcement capacity. It is political durability.
1 August 20266 min read
Financial Integrity
FATF's June 2026 plenary: the Travel Rule gap is now a market-access problem
Two jurisdictions added to the grey list, two removed, and a fresh consultation on Recommendation 16. For governments, AML performance has become a determinant of banking access rather than a reporting exercise.
28 July 20266 min read
Emerging Markets
Africa's licensing frontier: why Francophone West Africa is the market to watch
The anglophone markets get the coverage. The structural opportunity, and the harder regulatory problem, sits in Francophone West and Central Africa, where much of the statute book predates the internet.
21 July 20266 min read
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