Could the Betting & Gaming Council Sue Meta Over Illegal Gambling Ads?

The industry body representing the gambling industry in the Netherlands is taking Meta to court.

The Dutch Online Gambling Operators Association (VNLOK) will attempt to sue the Facebook and Instagram operator over allegations that it continually turns a blind eye to illegal betting ads hosted on its sites.

It’s a situation that has been mirrored in the UK, with Gambling Commission officials already taking Meta to task over their unwillingness to oversee change, so could we see a scenario in which the Betting & Gaming Council also sues the American conglomerate on behalf of its members?

Meta's Illegal Gambling Ad Problem

Research published by VNLOK claims that nine in every ten gambling ads displayed on Facebook are from unlicensed or illegal sites.

And after alerting Meta to the situation in both June and July of this year, they reported that only one in six illegal ads was actually removed from the site.

Instagram is another social media platform where marketing by black market operators has increased in recent years, while WhatsApp – another Meta product – has come under fire in the UK for doing nothing to stop unlicensed bookmakers from targeting punters and taking bets via the messaging service.

Day In Court

But they could be forced to change their policies and procedures if VNLOK are successful in court. Their chairman, Bjorn Fuchs, commented: “We have alerted Meta to the nature of the problem several times and asked them to cooperate for a structural solution. This has not delivered the results we hoped for.”

VNLOK has also appealed to government officials in the Netherlands to grant the Dutch Gambling Authority more power, including the ability to impose financial penalties on Meta and other social media providers that refuse to combat illegal ads on their platforms.

Meta Turning a Blind Eye to Illegal Ads

It was earlier this year that Tim Miller, the then executive director of the Gambling Commission, warned that Meta was ‘turning a blind eye’ to illegal gambling ads on the UK-facing versions of Facebook and Instagram.

To make matters all the more alarming, many of those adverts were paid for by operators that were not part of GamStop or any other self-exclusion services.

If punitive action wasn’t taken against the media giant, Miller claimed, they would ‘continue taking money from criminals and scammers until someone shouts about it.’

And referring to the ads directly, he said: “If we can find them then so can Meta. They simply choose not to look.”

Fake Tesco Casino Ads

When quizzed on those allegations, Meta retorted that they enforce strict advertising policies around online gambling, with any ads that violated their code of conduct ‘promptly removed’ once identified.

All of which makes you wonder how one scam site was able to advertise under the banner of TescoSlots on Facebook for more than a week… despite having no UK operating licence or any official connection to the Tesco supermarket chain.

First made accessible earlier this month, it took more than four days for Meta to remove the adverts – even after Tesco itself alerted the City of London Police to the illegal activity.

TescoSlots labelled itself as the ‘official Tesco casino’, using company branding to pass itself off as legitimate. Its owner, who remains anonymous at the time of writing, somehow managed to secure a Curaçao Gaming Authority licence.

Could the UK Follow Suit?

All of which brings us back to VNLOK, who have decided to cut out the middleman. Rather than targeting the illegal operators themselves, why not target the media firms that let them advertise with impunity?

It makes you wonder whether the Betting and Gaming Council, the UK gambling industry body, will be watching the case unfold with interest…