A seasoned professional in the European compliance landscape, Abby Cosgrave has spent a decade safeguarding the online gambling industry from illegal activities and unfair practices. She serves as the senior legal and compliance executive at LeoVegas, a subsidiary of MGM Resorts International.
Abby Cosgrave | Chief Legal and Compliance Officer | LeoVegas
The online gambling vertical is a highly scrutinised industry, and being a part of this complicated landscape means working with the commercial, technical and operational teams to ensure all are on the same page and deliver business requirements thoroughly. At EliteX, we are proud to have Abby Cosgrave as Cover Story of the edition: Impactful Compliance Leaders to Watch, 2025.
She qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales and developed her legal skillset in the media and entertainment industry. She found her calling in compliance in the online gambling industry as it has the potential to radically build credibility for businesses, and it is more about saying “yes” – with safeguards – rather than saying “no”. It is definitely a satisfying journey of building trust with regulators and fostering business growth.
In all honesty, I ended up in this career a little accidentally.
As a legal and compliance professional in online gambling, consistently adapting to the latest legal framework, interpreting complex and evolving laws, and ensuring that commercial strategies revolved around the framework is considered a day to day task.
In short, this would never get boring!
Compliance as a primary consideration; not an afterthought!
For many businesses, compliance can be a cost-centre, but Abby looks at it as a powerful catalyst that propels innovation and long-term sustainability of businesses. She feels compliance considerations must be pivotal during the primary stages of product marketing and customer interaction rather than something that comes later as a condiment.
No single-success moment, every day is a win!
When asked about a particular incident that entailed high-stakes regulatory challenges, Abby quickly cracked a witty one-liner: “We manage these at least daily”.
We second that clever response as she believes compliance is a daily grind of working across diverse jurisdictions, adapting to AML standards, responsible gambling requirements, technological updates such as AI and advanced data analytics and more. It is never a one-off victory moment! Every moment of compliance drills that prevent business disruptions and are executed diligently is a collective win for her and her team.
Embracing technology implies wearing more hats!
Abby is not one of those who dismisses the prowess of AI and machine learning in automation and parsing large volumes of data. She is a continuous learner and humbly so. Today, the compliance landscape relies heavily on Data Analytics and machine learning to study player behaviour, detect anomalies, and safeguard responsible gambling. Having witnessed shifts in the framework, from having prohibitive regulations to increased local licensing with very detailed local licensing requirements, anti-money laundering requirements, and intense data privacy, she affirms keeping pace with an ever-evolving landscape. Moreover, emerging technologies like AI have added a new layer of complexity, pushing her far beyond. Today, Abby is not restricted to having regulatory fluency. Her role has emerged to gauge the customer experience as well and become technically sound.
Leveraging humour as an ice-breaker
Abby believes that drilling down into complex compliance requirements for business owners only keeps them away from adopting the right path. Fear and over-complicating principles just make the entire subject foreign to an already anxious population of stakeholders. Her unique selling point is adding humour, simplifying complexities and presenting regulations to all in an easily digestible way. She sums this up aptly by saying that compliance must be approachable rather than intimidating.
My guiding principle is pragmatism. Just as importantly, I try to bring a human touch to compliance.
Her unique approach to implementing compliance across verticals ensures compliance remains a business enabler, and not just a regulatory checkbox.
A straightforward approach to cross-border regulations
Many would assume that maintaining cross-border regulatory alignment would be complicated, but Abby simplifies it with sheer prudence. She confirms that maintaining a strong core compliance understanding is the key, and tailoring it locally is the next step. Even within the geographical boundaries of Europe, every jurisdiction has its own gambling rules and norms. So, keeping it simple, being abreast of the local nuances, and maintaining close relationships with regulators and industry bodies results in an inclusive yet distinct approach to regulations.
Training, collaboration and more
Training is critical because compliance cannot sit in a silo — it has to live in every department.
Abby tries to build a healthy culture of compliance across her organisation and department by systematically training employees and stakeholders through carefully curated training programs. The programs result in making regulations tangible, focusing on real-life scenarios that resonate with the daily lives of the workforce. She affirms that compliance is not a separate gatekeeper but a shared aspect that overlaps with every discipline, seamlessly.
Leadership lessons through experience
With her decade-long experience as a compliance leader, driving compliance across departments and jurisdictions and a healthy collaboration strategy, Abby believes that credibility comes from consistency. A leader needs to be reliable, pragmatic, honest and principled at all times and might not have all the answers. But the role demands the need for guidance that inspires everybody to do the right thing at the right time. Abby truly comes across as a true leader who believes in the power of her people: the ones that she has chosen and nurtured along the way, and those who challenge and inspire her to stay relevant and improvise.
Advice to the next generation of compliance professionals.
Abby has a valuable piece of advice for future compliance leaders that states that compliance must be approached with a learning mindset. The key is to communicate clearly and respectfully with every stakeholder so that compliance becomes every enterprise’s driver. Through changing regulations and evolving technologies, what stays consistent is a growth-mindset.
Stay curious and adaptable.
2025 and beyond
Abby has a vision of the future of compliance leadership that goes above and beyond the normal mission and vision statements of an organisation. She envisions compliance leaders to be empathetic, agile, adaptable, and technology-savvy to stay relevant and bring about a change. After all, compliance regulations are not just about enforcing rules and regulations, but they exist to make businesses sustainable, ethical and inspiring. In an industry like gambling, the onus lies on the leaders to shape business strategies that safeguard the customers and the enterprises.
The future of compliance will be about building trust, not only with regulators and customers, but within our organisations themselves.
Last but not least, Abby believes that this profession must carry DEI (diversity and inclusion) at the heart of all its undertakings: helping women ace the leadership positions, which would become historic moments in the long run.