Santas Kiss

What is Santas Kiss?

It requires operators to describe in detail how they will responsibly wind down their operations should their licence not be renewed or be revoked. Or if they decide to leave the market midway through the five years between renewals.

The regulator noted that several operators received “additional points for attention”, indicating that while these applicants met minimum legal thresholds, the KSA expected continuous improvements in compliance practices.

In June, one of the operators, TOTO online BV, was reported for violating the ban on featuring role models in advertising materials.

What is Santas Kiss?

Both routes require significant investment. However, as Curwen, adds: “There are plenty of people in this industry with great ideas, brands, audiences or distribution who don’t want to build an entire slot studio from scratch.”

Studio in a Box is designed to provide another option. Yggdrasil handles the technology, infrastructure and support, leaving its partners to concentrate on the brand, creative ideas and commercial direction of their games.

The result, according to Curwen, is “democratising game creation”.

What is Santas Kiss?

Overall, it’s been a busy stretch for the board since the start of 2025. In that time the regulator has issued five multimillion-dollar anti-money laundering fines to entities on the Las Vegas Strip, an unprecedented run of sanctions for America’s gambling capital.

Four of the investigations – those involving Resorts World Las Vegas, MGM Resorts, Caesars Entertainment and the Venetian – centred around AML violations related to illegal bookmaker Mathew Bowyer, who was placed on the state’s exclusion list in April. The other case involving Wynn Las Vegas did not pertain to play from Bowyer.

Wynn forfeited $130 million to the federal government for a slew of proxy betting violations, which was “believed to be the largest forfeiture by a casino based on admissions of criminal wrongdoing”, per federal prosecutors.