Happy Monday! While you were looking for the strength to get out of bed, the EU's illegal gambling market found €13B. Let's see how everyone's week is going 👇

⚡️ $36B in losses, €13B in illegal market profits, and record taxes: how much iGaming earns — and loses

Fresh numbers on gambling money, regulatory shifts, and figures that show the true scale of both legal and illegal markets.

📌 Follow the money

— Singapore's gambling tax revenue reached $2.84B for the fiscal year — up 11.9% year-on-year

— Australian players spent a record $36B on gambling in the 2025–2026 fiscal year — $1.2B more than the year before

— In France, the total tax burden on online betting reaches 59.3% of GGR: 33.7% fiscal levy, 15% social, 10.6% sports. The highest rate in Europe

— In Brazil, operators have received $3.5M in fines since 2025, with 66,000+ domains blocked

— Also in Brazil: 14 licensed betting sites suspended over SPA compliance violations

— Gen Z and millennials made up 88% of all online bettors in the US in July 2026. On average, players lose 25 cents of every dollar sent to a bookmaker

— The EU's illegal gambling sector may hit €13B in net profit in 2026. Already 35% of payments on illegal sites are made in crypto — the share could reach 70% by 2030

— Crypto payment risks for iGaming operators in 2026 — full breakdown on 3S.INFO

📌 GEO news

— Armenia will start blocking illegal gambling sites via internet providers from February 2027

— In Russia, 717 self-exclusion applications were filed via MFC service centers in the first week of September alone — not counting those filed through Gosuslugi

— From October 2026, Cambodia will temporarily suspend live games across all its venues

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👉 Which story surprised you most this week? Drop it in the comments.

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🔥 Betting Disguised as Trading? The Main Debate Around Prediction Markets

A bookmaker and a prediction market can offer the same prediction — for example, which team will win. But from a regulatory perspective, they are two different products.

📌A bookmaker operates under the rules of a specific state. Entering a new market may require a separate license, a local partnership, product certification, as well as compliance with advertising, geolocation, KYC, and responsible gambling requirements. The operator also pays the state-mandated tax on gambling revenue.

📌Prediction markets use a different structure: a user purchases a financial contract on the outcome of an event. If the contract is traded on a registered exchange, its regulation falls under the CFTC. Instead of separate gambling licenses, a federal regulatory framework applies.

This is where the main legal dispute arises: if a user predicts the winner of a match, is it a sports bet or a financial derivative?

One of the main participants in the dispute is Kalshi, a CFTC-registered exchange for event contracts. The company considers sports contracts to be financial derivatives, while state gaming regulators view them as unlicensed sports betting.

✔️ In March 2025, New Jersey authorities ordered Kalshi to stop offering sports contracts to state residents. Kalshi went to federal court and obtained an injunction blocking enforcement of the order. In September 2026, New Jersey appealed to the US Supreme Court over the division of regulatory authority.

This also matters for traffic operations: a change in the legal status of prediction markets could affect advertising, registration, and affiliate program terms.

👉 Why has the dispute between federal and state regulators emerged around prediction markets? Read the full analysis here.

Can prediction markets compete with bookmakers on equal terms? 👇