UKGC blasts Meta over Instagram and Facebook illegal gambling ads

• Ads promote "not on GamStop" casinos, directly undermining self-exclusion efforts
• Users attempting to control gambling risks are being lured back by targeted promotions
• Miller highlighted that even casual browsing exposes users to these illegal ads

The UK Gambling Commission has offered scathing criticism of Meta Platforms, the company that owns social media networks Instagram and Facebook, and accused the Silicon Valley tech giant of willingly ignoring illegal gambling ads.

The regulator insisted, in a statement delivered at ICE Barcelona 2026 by UKGC Executive Director Tim Miller and shared on the regulator’s website, that Meta Platforms was aware of the platform but had chosen to condone this behavior as it resulted in revenue.

A known problem elicits poor to no response, argues UKGC's boss

Miller further highlighted that the illegal gambling ads were hard to ignore, as anyone who had spent a nominal time browsing the social media networks would have seen the advertisements.

"Anyone who spends even a little time on their platforms will more than likely have seen ads appearing in their feed for illegal online casinos. Most notably, and perhaps most worryingly, many of these aimed at GB users are for the so-called ‘not on GamStop’ sites. These are targeted at consumers who have taken the often difficult step to self-exclude from online gambling through the use of GamStop, Britain’s multi-operator self-exclusion scheme," the executive said in a quote statement from the regulator’s website.

Miller railed against some ads in particular, arguing that there were promotional materials that openly invited people who were participating in the self-exclusion system - GamStop - to try the casinos suggested in the ads instead, defeating the entire purpose of consumer protection.

Miller insisted that since the regulator was able to easily flag these ads, Meta Platforms would be able to do so - if it wanted to. No significant progress has been made, Miller said, about securing Meta Platforms’ assistance in turfing out these ads.

The executive argued that Meta Platform left the impression that the company was "quite happy to turn a blind eye and continue taking money from criminals and scammers."

A previous report by Reuters indicated that Meta Platforms was aware of the issue, and it had plans in place to limit these ads, but to do so gradually lest it sees a significant dip in revenue.

As to Miller, he was left asking: "Whose side are you on? The users or the criminals and con artists?"

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