The United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC) is teaming up with the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) in a bid to improve oversight on gambling marketing throughout the country.
The sweep underscores regulators’ growing scrutiny of social-first gambling marketing, where brands use memes, football clips, quizzes and viral-style posts to drive engagement. Such content increasingly resembles entertainment accounts rather than traditional betting advertisements.
Gambling businesses put on notice
The (CAP) has issued an enforcement notice to all gambling businesses, emphasizing that marketing content must not strongly appeal to individuals under 18. CAP will conduct a monitoring sweep using its AI-based Active Ad Monitoring System in partnership with social media platforms.
CAP warns that any non-compliant ads must be amended or removed immediately, with potential sanctions for failures, including referrals to hosting platforms or the UKGC. The notice also reiterates that all gambling advertising, including consumer-facing social media content, must comply with CAP and Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) codes to ensure marketing is socially responsible and protects children, young people, and other vulnerable groups from harm or exploitation.
The ASA said it secured the removal or amendment of 22,383 advertisements in 2025, underscoring the regulator’s growing reliance on proactive enforcement and AI-driven monitoring. According to its latest annual report, the watchdog scanned nearly 60 million online ads during the year and handled more than 40,000 complaints, with the takedowns spanning a range of breaches identified through both consumer reports and its own investigations.
Fake gambling ads resurface on Meta platforms, months after UKGC complains
Lloyds Bank has warned that fraudulent activity on Meta’s platforms remains widespread, with the UK lender reporting that roughly two-thirds of fraud cases reported by its customers originated on Facebook and Instagram. The findings are likely to raise concerns for the gambling industry, which has repeatedly linked Meta’s platforms to traffic flowing toward unlicensed betting operators.
Lloyds said scammers were targeting users across multiple sectors, including ticket sales and retail, often exploiting major events and periods of heightened online engagement. Regulators will be taking a keen eye ahead of the World Cup, which gets under way on June 12th.
Pressure on Meta is also mounting from legal action. Law firms Richardson Hartley Law and Humphries Kerstetter said they are preparing a group claim on behalf of victims who lost money after responding to fraudulent advertisements on Facebook and Instagram, arguing the company should be held accountable for the losses.
Meta said scammers are using increasingly sophisticated methods to evade detection but stressed it is actively combating fraud. The company said it removed more than 159 million scam advertisements last year, with 92% taken down before they were reported, and highlighted ongoing cooperation with banks and law enforcement agencies.
The latest warning adds to growing criticism from gambling regulators across Europe. Dutch regulator the KSA recently described social media platforms as being “awash” with illegal gambling advertising, while UKGC executive director Tim Miller accused Meta of continuing to profit from criminals and scammers.
Council in Blackburn bans gambling ads in bus shelters
Meanwhile, a local authority in northwest England is banning gambling advertisements from bus shelters and digital billboards after research found gambling-related harm in the area was around three times the national average. Councilor Damian Talbot said the restrictions will help reduce public exposure to betting marketing and address addiction-related harms.
He said: “Gambling is an addiction that destroys lives. For too long, gambling has not been treated in the same way as other addictions,” adding that the council hoped to raise awareness of the issue through the advertising ban.
The decision was welcomed by anti-gambling campaigner Steven Bate, who described the restrictions as “the only avenue the council has” to address the problem locally. Bate, who has campaigned against gambling advertising for years, said he hoped other councils would follow suit as concerns grow over the reach of online betting and gambling promotions.
The UK’s premier sports product, the Premier League, has also taken the step to remove gambling adverts from kits, which is leaving its clubs with a difficult financial decision. More than half of the teams in the division are searching for new front-of-shirt sponsors ahead of next season.
Eleven clubs carried betting brands on the front of their match shirts last season, and several are reportedly struggling to secure replacement deals that match the financial value offered by gambling operators. The sponsorship restriction was agreed by Premier League clubs in 2023 in an effort to reduce gambling visibility in football and avoid potential government legislation, although betting companies will still be permitted to sponsor shirt sleeves and other club assets.
