Gambling Commission Chief Accuses Meta of ‘Turning A Blind Eye’ to Illegal Gambling Advertisements

A key figure at the UK Gambling Commission has launched a scathing attack on Meta, accusing the social media giant of ‘turning a blind eye’ to adverts promoting illegal firms. 

Tim Miller, an executive director at the independent regulatory body, said that advertisements for illegal casino companies had become commonplace on Meta’s platforms, indicating that it was happy to continue taking money from criminals. 

The majority of these sites champion not being available on “GamStop”, a self-exclusion scheme available in the UK for problem gamblers.

And Miller feels that not only are Meta not doing enough to stop their presence on their sites, they are also failing to act despite being aware of the adverts. 

He said: “Anyone who spends even a little time on their platforms will more than likely have seen ads appearing in your feed for illegal online casinos. 

“Most notably, many of these aimed at GB users are for the so called ‘not on GamStop’ sites. These are targeted at consumers that have taken the often difficult step to self-exclude from online gambling.

“Companies like Meta will tell you that they don’t tolerate the advertising of illegal sites and will remove them if they are notified about them. But that approach suggests that they don’t know about those ads unless alerted. That is simply false.

“Meta has a searchable ad library where you can find all current ads that meet searched keywords. You or I can conduct such a search for ‘not on GamStop’ sites and see for ourselves how many are currently paying Meta to advertise on their platforms. 

“It’s effectively a window into criminality. If we can find them then so can Meta: they simply choose not to look.

“It could leave you with the impression they are quite happy to turn a blind eye and continue taking money from criminals and scammers until someone shouts about it.”

Miller was speaking at ICE 26 in Barcelona on Monday, the world’s largest B2B iGaming summit which attracts thousands of delegates each year, including from Ireland. 

Dublin has become a major hub for technology and social media firms over the last decade or so, with companies such as Alphabet and Meta both having large operations in the Irish capital. 

It will therefore be interesting to see how the newly formed Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI) approaches the topic, as its measures fully come into place over the next two years. 

For now, Irish players should use trusted sources, such as legitimate reviewing platforms, to find new online casinos and refrain from interacting with ads without doing thorough research first.