The Arizona Department of Gaming has launched its first-ever statewide Public Education Campaign focused on protecting consumers, promoting public awareness, and reducing the harms associated with unregulated gambling. This is a significant milestone in the Department’s ongoing efforts to protect consumers and ensure a safe and responsible gaming environment.

Arizona offers a variety of legal, regulated gaming options throughout the state, including tribal casinos, event wagering, fantasy sports, and parimutuel wagering. For 30 years, ADG has safeguarded the integrity of Arizona’s gaming industry through rigorous oversight, licensing, and enforcement in accordance with the Tribal-State Gaming Compacts. This new campaign expands on that mission by educating Arizonans on how to avoid illegal gambling and access support services when needed.

The campaign is designed to inform and empower the public by emphasizing the risks of engaging with unlicensed operators and providing them with tools to identify legal, regulated options. It aims to reduce consumer vulnerability, prevent exploitation, and help individuals make informed decisions if they choose to participate in gaming activities.

The campaign kicks off with a series of Public Service Announcements (PSAs), developed in collaboration with the Arizona Media Association, which will be aired across TV, radio, print, and digital platforms. Available in both English and Spanish, the PSAs will:

• Educate the public on how to identify legal, regulated gaming operators in Arizona

• Emphasize consumer protection and the safeguards provided by regulated gaming environments

• Highlight the role regulated gaming plays in supporting Arizona communities and essential services

• Promote the 1-800-NEXT STEP helpline, which connects individuals to confidential, 24/7 support for problem gambling.

To complement the PSAs, ADG has launched the Check Your Bet webpage, which serves as a centralized resource to verify regulated gaming and access consumer protection tools. The webpage includes:

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• A searchable list and interactive map of authorized Tribal Casinos in Arizona

• A searchable list and interactive map of licensed Event Wagering and Fantasy Sports Operators and their retail locations

• Information on Advanced Deposit Wagering Providers (ADWPs), Off-Track Betting (OTB) locations, and permitted horse racing tracks in Arizona

• How to access the Division of Problem Gambling’s Helpline, a confidential Problem Gambling Self-Screening Quiz, and additional supportive resources

• How to request Self-Exclusion, a voluntary program to prohibit oneself from Tribal Casinos and Event Wagering and Fantasy Sports Contests

• Guidance on submitting tips about suspected illegal gambling to the Department and filing consumer complaints with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.

“We are proud to celebrate 30 years of providing world-class gaming regulation and consumer protection. This campaign is about empowering Arizonans who choose to participate in gaming with the knowledge to make informed, responsible decisions. As illegal and unregulated options on the market increase, the Check Your Bet webpage serves as a key resource for the public to verify licensed operators and access support. By directing viewers from our PSAs to this tool, we’re helping ensure people not only play safely, but also know where to turn if they or a loved one are struggling with problem gambling,” said Jackie Johnson, Director of the Arizona Department of Gaming.

Since its founding in 1995, the Department has worked tirelessly to ensure that Arizona’s gaming industry operates with transparency, integrity, and responsibility. The campaign will run through the end of March 2026 and reflects ADG’s commitment to a safe, transparent, and well-regulated gaming landscape in Arizona.

The Campaign for Fairer Gambling (CFG) has released 2024 CFG USA State Supplement #2: All States, the final report in its landmark CFG USA 2024 Series, warning that the rapid expansion of legal online gambling is fueling more gambling and higher consumer losses – all without displacing crime from the total marketplace.

The analysis, produced by technical marketplace intelligence platform Yield Sec, offers the most comprehensive national and state-by-state breakdown ever produced across the US online sports betting, casino, and poker marketplaces. It shows that states with more legal operators record the highest Gross Gambling Revenue (GGR) per capita as a percentage of income – but, illegal operators continue to dominate, with 74% of total GGR across US online gambling being stolen by crime during 2024.

In 2024, the total US online gambling marketplace was worth $90.1 billion, of which $67.1 billion (74%) was illegal. The illegal sector grew by 64% year-on-year, outpacing the legal sector’s 36% growth.

There are three states with legalized online sports betting where the market is below the average of 0.31% GGR per capita as a percentage of income for states with no legalization, being Oregon, Maine, and Arkansas. These states have operator numbers of Oregon 1, Maine 2, and Arkansas 3, for an average of 2, below the national average of 9.

There are three states with both legalized online sports betting and casino gaming where the market is below the average of 0.77% of GGR per capita as a percentage of income for states with legalization of online sports betting only, being Delaware, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. These states have operator numbers of Delaware 4, Rhode Island 2, and Connecticut 3 for an average of 3, below the national average of 14.

There is a pronounced correlation between having a small number of legal operators and lower GGR per capita as a percentage of income.

The proponents of legalization assert that having more legal operators is better for competition and implies that this will help reduce the size of the illegal sector. The evidence, contained in CFG reporting from years of monitoring and the most comprehensive study ever conducted upon the US online gambling marketplace at both the national and state levels, contradicts this assertion.

Derek Webb, Founder and Funder of CFG, said: “The onus is on the proponents of legalization to provide an explanation as to how they managed to get it so wrong – at the least, they should apologize to the legislators they influenced based on their misleading representations. There should now be a moratorium on state expansion until effective action reduces illegal revenues and enables effective control of online gambling marketplaces.”

Ismail Vali, founder and CEO of Yield Sec, added: “Decades of illegal online gambling in the USA were meant to end with legalization and regulation. The hope was simple: legal, licensed options in each state would ‘channelize’ the marketplace and eliminate illegal gambling. This has not happened.

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“Seven years after state legalization began in 2018, the US online gambling marketplace remains a fortress of crime, and the zero-sum game hope that legalization and regulation would, on their own, remove crime, has failed. Illegal gambling isn’t one problem – it’s many. You can only control it through process – MPEO: Monitor, Police, Enforce, Optimize. Crime has now stolen hundreds of billions of dollars from American commerce and communities over more than three decades – it’s time to make this end.”

AU10TIX, a global leader in identity verification and fraud prevention, announced the launch of a free Child Safety Age Assurance Risk and Readiness Assessment and Age Assurance Readiness Guide designed to help businesses better understand their risk and tailor their strategy to meet regulatory obligations. They support AU10TIX’s Selfie-based Age Estimation service, which delivers the industry’s most precise and unbiased age assessment in just two seconds.

In the US, federal legislation such as the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) requires parental consent for users under 13, while the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) mandates age verification for websites accessed by users under 16. Additionally, 19 U.S. states now enforce mandatory age checks for adult content and gambling platforms. Similar regulations are impacting social media and online services in the UK, EU, and Australia.

AU10TIX’s free Child Safety Age Assurance Risk and Readiness Assessment consists of six short questions about an organization’s sector, security measures, and ID verification processes. Upon completion, participants receive a customized Risk Assessment Report outlining key vulnerabilities and practical recommendations for improving compliance. They also receive a comprehensive 13-page Age Assurance Readiness Guide to help them navigate the complex landscape of age verification regulations.

“As age-based regulations expand globally, businesses are actively seeking guidance on how to balance security, compliance, and user convenience. Our new Risk and Readiness Assessment helps organizations identify their unique risks and stay compliant without compromising the customer experience. This perfectly complements our Selfie-based Age Estimation solution, which adds an extra layer of protection to help ensure safe use of our platform by minors,” said Yair Tal, CEO of AU10TIX.

AU10TIX also offers a Selfie-based Age Estimation solution that leverages advanced AI-driven biometric technology to analyze facial features and estimate age without the need for a government-issued ID. It streamlines the experience by requiring only a selfie, cutting verification time to two seconds while delivering the industry’s most accurate age estimates. It simultaneously conducts a liveness check and analyzes the selfie using AI models trained on millions of biometric data points, which accurately estimate age without storing any personal data. By reducing the need for full ID verification, this approach can reduce costs by up to 10x and boost completion rates by 27%.