UK Watchdog Flags Meta for Hosting Ads Linked to Illegal Gambling
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has been systematically cashing in on what it publicly claims to prohibit.
The precise amount is hard to quantify in 2025 and 2026, but in 2024 Reuters reckoned Meta made about $16 billion from running online ads for scams and banned goods.
In the latest development, Meta stands accused by a UK watchdog of raking in money from illegal gambling operations while turning a blind eye to both local laws and its own advertising guidelines.
Tim Miller, Executive Director at the UK’s Gambling Commission, states, “Now, 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 gam stop’ 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 was actually a very good speech, which is unusual for a regulator, and direct in its message.
Miller adds, “Now we have engaged with Meta on this and aside from a few warm words we have got very limited progress. Their suggestion was that we should deploy AI tools ourselves to monitor and find these ads and then report them. I would be very surprised if Meta, as one of the world’s largest tech companies is incapable of proactively using their own keyword facility to prevent the advertising of illegal gambling. 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.
“And in this global forum it is important to note that this is not unique to Britain but is repeated country by country. The situation we all face is that regulatory resources or tax payer money around the world is currently having to be spent on doing Meta’s job for them.
“So it does leave Meta with the question of ‘Whose side are you on?’ The consumer and users of your platforms, many of whom are seeking to escape gambling harm, or the criminals and con artists who are using your platforms to prey on vulnerable people right in front of your eyes and whose clutches you risk pushing those vulnerable people into?”
Those questions will need to be answered by Meta, but its internal estimates reveal users encounter 15 billion scam advertisements daily, with a significant portion promoting illegal gambling operations that violate local laws worldwide.
But the issue lies in Meta’s enforcement threshold. The company’s own internal policies show they only ban advertisers when automated systems predict at least 95% certainty of fraud. This effectively creates a massive gray area where illegal operations can flourish with near-impunity, as long as they maintain even a sliver of plausible deniability.
The platform’s algorithms make the problem worse by design. Meta’s systems cause anyone who clicks on a scam or unlicensed casino promotion to see more advertisements for illegal businesses, creating a spiral that traps vulnerable users in an ecosystem of illegal gambling content.
The scope of Meta’s legal violations spans continents, with recent investigations revealing the platform is violating local laws and company guidelines in at least 13 countries.
The UK fights back
British regulators aren’t standing idle. The UK Gambling Commission has escalated enforcement efforts, issuing over 3,140 cease and desist notices since April 2024.
Their multi-platform approach specifically targets social media giants. UK authorities have expanded efforts across Meta, TikTok, X, and YouTube, successfully removing 84 illegal lottery URLs from social media platforms between April and June 2025.
When enforcement works, the results are dramatic. Effective disruption campaigns have achieved an average 32% decrease in engagement with illegal gambling websites, proving coordinated action can significantly impact these operations.
British regulators have also adapted to evolving tactics, recognizing that illegal operators are beginning to adapt, including changes to URL structure, rotating domains, and embedding gambling content within unrelated websites.
A Meta moment
Meta’s response to mounting criticism has been notably defensive and inadequate. In November 2025, company spokesperson Andy Stone dismissed accusations as presenting “a selective view that distorts Meta’s approach to fraud and scams.”
The real-world implications extend far beyond corporate profits. Meta’s own safety staff estimated in May 2025 that the company’s platforms facilitate one-third of all successful scams in the United States, highlighting the devastating impact on vulnerable users worldwide.
Meanwhile, countries like Malaysia have grown increasingly frustrated with Meta’s inaction. Malaysia’s communications minister has repeatedly criticized Meta after revealing the government had sent the company more than 120,000 content removal requests related to illegal gambling on Facebook, with limited response from the platform.
As regulators worldwide intensify pressure and public awareness grows, Meta faces a critical inflection point. The company can either prioritize user safety over short-term profits or continue profiting from illegal operations while risking massive regulatory backlash.
The question remains whether Meta will voluntarily clean up its act or wait for regulators to force their hand through increasingly severe penalties and oversight measures that could reshape how social media platforms handle advertising forever.
Wikimedia is selling enterprise access to Wikipedia to Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon, shifting AI firms from scraping to paid data feeds for training.
