Stars Awakening

What is Stars Awakening?

While the intention is to protect vulnerable households and ensure welfare is spent on essential needs, proposed measures are being complicated by legal, technical and privacy obstacles.

Harris Tsangarides, executive director of the Gaming & Casino Supervision Commission, said his department had noticed spikes in gambling activity coinciding with GMI payment dates, prompting the regulator to consider “technical solution” to cross-reference GMI beneficiary lists with casino membership records.

An issue raised by Giannis Vasiliadis, director of WBAS, was the limited access to recipients’ banking information. This limited data can hint at suspicious activity but cannot conclusively verify gambling transactions.

How to play Stars Awakening

AI also helped Kambi reduce the delay between a customer selecting an in-play bet and being able to place it. Its dynamic live delay technology enables it to set bespoke live delay on an individual bet level, optimising the UX and alleviating friction. Across the Premier League and World Cup, Kambi reduced live betting delay by more than 40% between August 2025 and July 2026.

The result for customers was more choice, shorter suspension periods and faster bet acceptance. For operators, those improvements can support both customer retention and profitability.

While simulations and validation exercises had helped Kambi prepare for the traffic and operational demands of the 2026 World Cup, testing could not establish how performance would compare with the wider market once the football began.

What is Stars Awakening?

Merging Marlins and rewarding Free Spins build momentum throughout the game, creating opportunities for bigger wins.