Cheeky Emperor

What is Cheeky Emperor?

“Are we remaining passive while society drowns in debt? Are we remaining passive while society is driven to madness – because this is an illness? People lose their minds; they contemplate suicide or abandoning their homes. So, we are going to take serious action.”

During the livestream, the president stated that he had spoken with a woman who said her 26-year-old son had taken his own life because of online betting. He also mentioned hearing from a bettor who had racked up BRL2 million ($388,410) in debt in just three months of wagering.

Lula said he intends to discuss the matter with his team and analyse potential measures to consider the social impact of online betting.

About Cheeky Emperor

According to the deal investor deck, the combined group expects online betting and gaming to be its largest vertical, as it accounted for 48% of the group’s combined pro forma adjusted EBITDA in H1.

Distributed gaming followed at 27%, then casinos at 25%.

Again highlighting his view that this was a low-risk merger, Angelozzi described Spain and Italy as “among the best globally” in terms of markets.

What is Cheeky Emperor?

While acknowledging Google’s cooperation in removing paid advertisements promoting illegal casinos, the KVA emphasised the need for the company to take more comprehensive measures addressing organic search results.

Dutch MPs have raised similar concerns before. In December 2025, CDA MP Straatman asked the state secretary whether websites advertising as “Beste casino’s zonder Cruks” should be taken offline immediately. 

In a written response published in January 2026, Arno Rutte, the state secretary at the time acknowledged that enforcement against such sites remained limited, particularly for domains not registered under the .nl extension.