Hot Gems

What is Hot Gems?

Pragmatic Play and studio partner Reel Kingdom are extending their Big Bass franchise with Big Bass Splash Halloween 1000. It’s a Halloween-themed release scheduled for October 12, 2026.

The more telling point for slots readers isn’t the game itself. It’s what the game represents: the fourth Halloween-branded entry in a single series, which shows just how aggressively Pragmatic Play iterates on its most recognizable slot IP.

Rather than building a new title from the ground up, the release uses Big Bass Splash 1000 as its base. The franchise’s signature Money symbol collection mechanic stays intact while a seasonal skin gets swapped in.

What is Hot Gems?

Botswana’s parliament published the measure as the Gambling (Amendment) Bill, 2026, Bill No. 15 of 2026.

Botswana’s existing gambling framework sets the legal gambling age at 21. The amendment bill would align that threshold with the country’s general age of majority, which is 18.

Supporters of the change argued that people aged 18 to 20 are already treated as adults in many areas of civic and economic life, and that retaining a separate gambling threshold of 21 could push some towards unlicensed sites.

What is Hot Gems?

“That was the reason why we joined [online as well as land-based]. But we were a full brick-and-mortar company so it took us some time to prepare for that market. In the beginning, the market share was of course higher because you only had 10 operators and we had a very well-known brand name, but now the market is much bigger and you have operators more specialised in sports betting and things like that. We have dropped down a bit.”

The Netherlands has a government that may be a little heavy handed, a regulator that knows this, and a monopolistic operator that’s trying to do its best for the customer. The industry is an active participant in trying to erradicate the growing illegal market. This week, state-lottery operator Nederlandse Loterij took action against the offshore operator behind the brand Skyhills, ordering them to cease serving Dutch players.

What else can Netherlands gambling operators do to stop the flow of players offshore? Holland Casino is a member of online gambling trade association VNLOK which represents 90% of the licensed operators, and Petra answers simply: “If we knew the answer, we would try to reach it.