The Gambling Industry Monthly Review - October 2022 - ReelNews by GamblersArea

In iGaming business, October is marked with providers racing to release their Halloween-themed slots. However, this one saw some super exciting streams and interesting happenings in the online casino streaming industry, as well as some changes in gambling legislation. Let's push the rewind button and revise everything that happened last month. 

New Games On The Market

As one of the most popular holidays, Halloween is marked this October as well. In the iGaming industry that meant the release of many games with various spooky themes.

Muertos Multiplier Megaways slot by Pragmatic Play stood out the most with its compelling, colourful visuals celebrating El Dia De Los Muertos and a big winning potential of up to 10,000x the bet. Thanks to the Megaways mechanics it offers 117,649 ways to win and thrilling gameplay with Wild Multiplier, free spins and progressive win multiplier. 

Hacksaw Gaming has released a slot with a skeleton theme, 17 paylines and a maximum prize of 3,333x the stake. Break Bones is the addition to the provider’s 3x3 slots series and it comes with special features flying left and right - Wild Multipliers, Global Multipliers, Echo Spins, free spins and Bonus Buy. 

Two more games by Pragmatic launched in October came with a max winning potential of 10,000x the bet, Sword of Aries and Big Bass Bonanza - Keeping It Reel. Inspired by Greek mythology, Sword of Aries comes with exploding symbols and a progressive multiplier, while the other release is the newest addition to the provider’s Big Bass series and boosts an upgraded bonus round. 

Still, when it comes to big wins and rewards, Big Horn slot by Nolimit City marked the month with its incredible winning potential of up to 25,676x the stake. On unusual 3-4-5-3-2 reel formation with 360 ways to win, this game comes with multiple trademarked No Limit City xMechanics, including the new xMount feature. 

Casino Streamer’s Big Wins In October

If you recall the iGaming industry review for last month, the most popular online casino streamer Roshtein decided to change the environment and travel to Canada. That certainly didn’t stop him from staying connected with his community and streaming while abroad. 

During one of the bonus openings, the maestro did it again - he broke one more personal record! This time, the slot in question is the Sweet Bonanza Xmas slot that cashed out a win of $566,960. 

At a $500 bet per spin, Roshtain activated the bonus round consisting of 10 free spins and it didn’t take long for the slot to pop like never before. It took only three spins for the streamer to achieve his personal best score in this game. 

Thanks to the tumbling reels, the clusters of symbols brought in $7,960, but what made the win skyrocket are amazing multipliers. Multipliers of 50x, 3x, 12x, and 3x that dropped on reels took the win to $541,280 which accumulated to the record-breaking $566,960. 

While praiseworthy achievement, one event stole its thunder. The fans of casino streaming got a special treat when Roshtein joined the famous Drake on his StakeXDrake stream. It was clear that they both have a lot of fun playing live roulette and giving some astonishing giveaways at the same time. 

The most memorable win of this epic stream was $12,240,000 hit when the ball finally landed on the 11 black. Rothstein and Drake were ecstatic, jumping and laughing, celebrating the incredible win. This amazing stream is lasted 2 hours and was special for one more reason - it was the latest episode of Drake VS Stake series on Twitch.

Speaking of Twitch, the streaming platform has started enforcing its announced changes in gambling meta policy, banning the streaming of unregulated casino sites. The ban came into force on 19th November, but the awaited specific details weren’t disclosed on this occasion either. 

Twitch simply stated:

“We consider many factors in determining whether a site is allowed, including whether the site includes safety protections, such as deposit limits, waiting periods and age verification systems. We also take into account whether streamers use or encourage VPNs to evade geoblocking, and whether the site is licensed in the US or other jurisdictions that provide sufficient consumer protections”.

Streaming free-to-play social versions of these websites are also banned, but Twitch reiterated that it would still allow streams of sites focusing mostly on fantasy sports, sports betting or poker.

Changes In Gambling Legislation

The proposed 1% turnover tax won’t be added to the new legislative decree on sports betting in Italy. Instead, the tax on retail betting revenue will be 20% and 24% for online according to new rules. Winnings for any fixed-odds bet are capped at €50,000, while a €1 minimum bet is also introduced. 

Meanwhile, Gibraltar is set to implement a new, tiered system for gambling licence fees to replace the one-size-fits-all licences. As part of a package of reforms for the point-of-supply market, this means that larger operators will pay more and smaller ones less. Following its earlier proposal for a new Gambling Act, the British Overseas Territory launched a consultation on new licence fees.

The Senate of Spain has passed a new law on gambling which will introduce a higher focus on problem gambling prevention and further ad restrictions. Among other restrictions, the bill emphasises social responsibility measures in advertising where operators must not market their products as beneficial to social status, physical health, economic stability or mental health.

In Belgia, a new €200 weekly loss limit has officially come into effect. There is an option for players to request to have their limit raised, but only if they are not registered as defaulters with the Central Individual Credit Register of the National Bank.

Moving on to Africa, Nigeria is set to introduce a new remote operator permit for offshore-licensed operators, allowing businesses to offer online gambling in the country without a local presence. Businesses that wish to offer their services to Nigerian players must already hold a licence in another jurisdiction to be eligible for a remote operator permit.