SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
SBC News has heard the responses of GAMSTOP and the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) on the issue of a black market casino unrestricted promotion to online audiences by a global PR newswire.
Last week, SBC News uncovered an advertisement for MyStake, an unlicensed igaming provider branding itself as the “Best Online Casino Not on GamStop for UK Players”.
The promotion was distributed via GlobeNewswire, a widely used international press release distributor offering unrestricted access to business news from a wide range of publishers. The PR published on GlobeNewswire promoting MyStake and its ‘no-GamStop casino’ was indexed on Google News UK.
No account is required to view press releases on there, which are also automatically sent to email inboxes if one has subscribed to GlobeNewswire’s newsletter. This is how SBC News caught wind of the promotion, but it could’ve easily also been a UK resident who is suffering from gambling harm and has self-excluded themselves through GAMSTOP.
MyStake’s website does not state that it is a UKGC-licensed company and it is not included on the UKGC’s business register of licensed UK gaming firms.
Player protection requirements for licensed entities include session limits, wagering ceilings, game speed controls, and most importantly – support tools that are there to aid those in need of gambling harm assistance, such as a direct link to the National Gambling Helpline or the GAMSTOP self-exclusion option.
The appearance of an offshore gambling ad on a highly-visible communications platform does raise concerns on whether the Commission can restrict such brazen attempts to target at-risk consumers to engage with illicit casinos.
UKGC aware of exposure
To answer this, a UKGC spokesperson told SBC News: “We are aware of the shameless advertising of unlicensed gambling that is clearly targeting vulnerable people.
“We do, and will continue to, take action to disrupt the unlicensed market – working with technology platforms such as search engines, other enforcement agencies such as HMRC and key facilitators such as payment providers and advertisers.
“Since April last year our Enforcement team has issued over 1,150 cease and desist, and disruption notices.
“Over that same period the Commission has referred over 118,000 URLS to Google and Bing. Over 81,000 have been removed by the search engines. This is more than a tenfold increase in URL takedowns in comparison to the previous year.”
GAMSTOP also advises caution
GAMSTOP, the self-exclusion app whose name is often placed after the word ‘non-’ in the marketing campaigns used by black market operators, also acknowledged the above-mentioned advertisement.
A GAMSTOP representative told SBC News that the group remains vigilant for such occurrences, and that they’re doing everything in their power to track down and take down the dangerous ads – working closely together with the UKGC.
The spokesperson continued: “We are in regular contact with the Gambling Commission’s intelligence and enforcement team, and we have seen encouraging progress in the successful removal of sites and promotion of these sites, following cease and desist requests by the regulator.
“We recognise that there is more work to do to remove all advertising of illegal or unlicensed casinos and to prevent the advertising in the first place. We welcome the Crime and Policing Bill which will give the Gambling Commission greater powers to act swiftly to take down IP addresses and domain names associated with illegal websites.”
Gamstop did also add, however, that it also encourages consumers to use blocking software and bank blocks, the latter of which are being increasingly offered by a range of banks, to ensure a robust defence against “unscrupulous operators target vulnerable consumers”.
