EGBA’s Annual Activity Report highlights AML work, safer gambling growth and market data

The European Gaming and Betting Association has detailed its work on anti-money laundering, player protection and industry standards in its Annual Activity Report 2026, which also includes aggregated 2025 market data from its members on return-to-player rates, customer winnings, products and licenses.

The report highlights EGBA’s involvement in the implementation of the European Union’s new anti-money laundering framework as the Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) began operations in Frankfurt on July 1, 2025.

Dr. Ekaterina Hartmann, EGBA Director of Legal and Regulatory Affairs, said the association had “actively engaged with AMLA to ensure the online gambling sector has a voice in the discussions shaping the EU’s new AML framework”.

“The next phase will be decisive,” she said. “Achieving a proportionate, risk-based framework with consistent interpretation across Member States. This will be essential to ensuring the new AML framework works in practice, for regulators and for the operators committed to meeting its requirements.”

Dr. Ekaterina Hartmann, EGBA Director of Legal and Regulatory Affairs

EGBA members also completed the second annual reporting process under the association’s industry AML guidelines. The process is intended to identify areas requiring updates, with revisions scheduled to begin in 2027.

The association also said it continued to encourage non-member operators to apply the guidelines and join the reporting process, “demonstrating our sector’s collective commitment to financial crime prevention”.

In other highlights, the fifth European Safer Gambling Week drew 221 partners from 24 countries in 2025, up 14% from 2024. Its social media campaign reached 4.1 million people, a 32 percent increase.

For the first time, safer gambling messages were shown during live televised football matches in Germany, Italy, Bulgaria and Greece. EGBA Director of Communications Barry Magee said the participation showed that safe and sustainable gambling was a “key priority” for the sector, “with more than 220 organisations uniting in a collective commitment to enhance player protection”.

The association also launched safergambling.eu, which provides country-specific helplines and self-exclusion resources, and secured approval for the first European standard on markers of harm for online gambling, an initiative it proposed in 2022. It also introduced a Responsible Influencer Marketing Pledge with the European Advertising Standards Alliance.

EGBA’s Annual Sustainability Report 2025 included members’ tax contributions to European economies for the first time.

During the year, Tipico also became the association’s ninth full operator member, Yaspa joined as an associate member, and three employees were added across policy, regulatory affairs and EU institutional engagement.

EGBA Secretary General Maarten Haijer

“It was a landmark year for EGBA in several respects: the most impactful European Safer Gambling Week yet, the approval of the first European standard on markers of harm, new standards on influencer marketing, and continued progress under our AML Guidelines,” EGBA Secretary General Maarten Haijer said.

“Finland’s transition to a multi-licensed market is also a major development that we have long called for, and validates our long-standing position that competitive, regulated markets are the most effective way to protect consumers and address the illegal market. Looking ahead, we’ll continue our efforts to set standards across the industry and to promote balanced and smart regulation across Europe,” Haijer added.