Stakeholders in the licensed gambling sector will be painfully aware of the marketing shenanigans by black market operators running free across major social networks.
For some time now, the case has been that all social media platforms – from X, through Facebook and Instagram, to TikTok – have seen an infestation of illicit gambling ads in one form or another.
Black market operators leveraging these communication channels to target domestic market consumers has been a widespread practice in the UK in particular, with even Google – although not your traditional social media platform – hosting lists of available unlicensed casinos.
It is obvious that these Big Tech companies have a significant role to play in curbing the multi-billion-pound black market.
However, in an exclusive interview with SBC, Tim Miller, Executive Director of Research and Policy at the UK’s Gambling Commission (GC), sounded more frustrated rather than satisfied with the cooperation he’s seen from Big Tech over the last years.
In his words, these global tech giants are “essential” strategic partners when it comes to taking on the black market, as how illegal operators market themselves is mainly through their channels.
“If they don’t play their role – and frankly they’re not at the moment – it massively undermines the efforts that the rest of us are putting in place,” said the GC’s top researcher.
To give an example of what these efforts look like, the UK is home to GamStop – a massive multi-national operator, self-exclusion scheme which perhaps operates on one of the biggest scales nation-wise across Europe.
Needless to say, a lot of money has been invested into the scheme, with even more time spent on laying the foundations and bringing it into action.
Meanwhile, a simple ‘non-GamStop casinos’ search on Google will bring multiple results of unlicensed operators available to UK consumers. Ads about them are also running free on social media.
On that note, Miller said: “I find it almost incredible that you read in the news all of these kinds of tech billionaires competing to be the first one to put a man on Mars. They think they can deliver that. Yet, they seem to claim that they are incapable of stopping non-GamStop ads appearing on their platforms. I mean, that’s just nonsensical.”
Miller is not the only one seemingly frustrated with Big Tech and how it’s dealing with the issue, however. He represents the frustrations on the regulatory side. Meanwhile, licensed operators are also starting to lose patience.
Grainne Hurst, the Chief Executive Officer of the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) trade body, recently published an open letter calling for tech giants to engage in active dialogue with the regulated gambling sector – signalling that Big Tech is starting to see pressure from multiple sides.
But perhaps this is exactly what needs to be done, as Miller explained that companies like Meta become most proactive when there is pressure.
“Everything that I have seen particularly over the last couple of years is that they only act when they’re really pushed.
“In fairness, when we refer illegal sites to them and illegal ads to them, they take action to take them down. Fantastic. But actually, the harm has already started happening there. What we’re not seeing is them being sufficiently proactive to stop those kinds of routes to the illegal market appearing in the first place.”
Obviously, the GC is not standing still either, having received a £26m budget to take on the black market head on.
The Illegal Gambling Taskforce, spearheaded by Gambling Minister Baroness Twycross and encompassing regulators, operators, payment providers and tech firms, is also there to help. But to what effect exactly remains to be seen.