Wild Moon Thieves

What is Wild Moon Thieves?

During a livestream on Sunday, he said he had met with “eight victims of online betting”. To reinforce his criticism of the sector and in an attempt to win over conservative voters, he pointed out that one gambler had made 1,400 instant fund transfers (Pix) to a betting site. Lula criticised the Central Bank for failing to detect such a high volume of transactions to a single company.

However, that responsibility does not lie with the Central Bank. It is the role of the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets to monitor and regulate the sector. Betting companies submit detailed daily reports on bettors’ financial transactions with the sites. A specific module within Brazil’s betting management system detects recurring transfers.

“Today I met a young man who made 1,400 Pix transfers in three months, and the Central Bank didn’t detect that this was an excessive number of transfers to the same company?” Lula said.

What is Wild Moon Thieves?

“Sometimes what data tells you is uncomfortable because it’s challenging the norm,” he said at the time. “For me [it’s about] where we can make some marginal differences by using player data and challenging the perspectives of what the industry thinks should and does happen.”

The Gambling Commission suspended both licences with immediate effect on 28 August after enquiries revealed suspected social responsibility and AML failings. Reviews are now taking place under section 116 of the Gambling Act 2005. But in the wake of the suspension, the two sites have bowed to the inevitable and shut down completely.

According to the Commission’s licensing registry, Bet St George surrendered its four gambling licences on 4 September. BresBet surrendered its own licences on the same date.

What is Wild Moon Thieves?

Various tier one and two retail operators, such as William Hill and Betfred, have scaled back and closed hundreds of shops between them this year.

Non-remote betting was reported at £2.4 billion (down 3.3%) with non-remote casinos at £933.9 million (up 0.4%) and non-remote bingo at £703.8 million (up 8.2%).

Gaming machines in arcades recorded £800.1 million in GGY (up 10.7%), mainly across adult gaming centres (£761.4 million, +11.3%). Gaming machines overall contributed £2.7 billion to GGY, reflecting a 4.3% uplift.