After years of operating in a regulatory grey zone, online casino gambling is now subject to a formal licensing regime in New Zealand. The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 (the Act) is now in force, and the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) has opened the first stage of a competitive process to award a strictly limited number of licences.
Prediction markets in Italy are back at the top of the gaming law agenda, after the Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli (ADM) ordered a fresh wave of blackouts against unlicensed online gambling and put Polymarket.com back on the list. For a vertical that generated record trading volumes worldwide only a few months ago, the message from the Italian regulator could hardly be clearer: without an Italian remote gaming license (i.e. a so-called concession), the door stays shut.
Gambling regulation in Hungary is set for a dramatic transformation following the opposition's landslide election victory in April 2026, with the new government expected to dismantle the restrictive monopoly system and introduce a competitive, EU-compliant licensing framework that could reshape both land-based and online gaming sectors.
