- Joined
- Mar 31, 2005
*I posted this on Monday morning, thankfully I kept a local copy 
Gambling companies have been covertly tracking website visitors and sharing their data with Facebook’s parent company, Meta, without consent—potentially breaching data protection laws. According to an investigation by The Observer and The Guardian, this data is used to profile users as gamblers and bombard them with targeted betting ads.
A hidden tracking tool, Meta Pixel, was found embedded in dozens of UK gambling websites, automatically extracting visitor data—including the pages they viewed and buttons they clicked—before users could opt in or out of marketing.
Testing by The Observer across 150 gambling sites revealed that 52 of them shared data with Meta without obtaining explicit user consent. Among those implicated were major betting platforms such as Hollywoodbets, Sporting Index, Bwin, and Lottoland.
Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith condemned the practice, calling for “immediate intervention.” He stated: "The use of tools such as Meta Pixel without explicit consent seems wholly in breach of the law and should be immediately stopped. The gambling industry’s marketing practices are now out of control."
Data privacy expert Wolfie Christl criticised Meta’s role in this data-sharing, asserting that the tech giant “benefits from facilitating problematic and unlawful data practices for its clients.”
While Meta did not directly respond to the findings, it pointed to its terms and conditions, which require advertisers to obtain consent before data is shared.
The issue adds to growing concerns about the gambling industry’s marketing tactics. A recent case saw Sky Betting & Gaming reprimanded by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for unlawful data processing. Meanwhile, UK regulators have begun clamping down on cross-selling within gambling firms, though third-party profiling remains a loophole.
Following the investigation, several gambling operators have adjusted their websites to curb automatic data sharing or removed Meta Pixel altogether. However, experts warn that tighter enforcement is needed to prevent further exploitation of users' data.
Gambling companies have been covertly tracking website visitors and sharing their data with Facebook’s parent company, Meta, without consent—potentially breaching data protection laws. According to an investigation by The Observer and The Guardian, this data is used to profile users as gamblers and bombard them with targeted betting ads.
A hidden tracking tool, Meta Pixel, was found embedded in dozens of UK gambling websites, automatically extracting visitor data—including the pages they viewed and buttons they clicked—before users could opt in or out of marketing.
Testing by The Observer across 150 gambling sites revealed that 52 of them shared data with Meta without obtaining explicit user consent. Among those implicated were major betting platforms such as Hollywoodbets, Sporting Index, Bwin, and Lottoland.
Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith condemned the practice, calling for “immediate intervention.” He stated: "The use of tools such as Meta Pixel without explicit consent seems wholly in breach of the law and should be immediately stopped. The gambling industry’s marketing practices are now out of control."
Data privacy expert Wolfie Christl criticised Meta’s role in this data-sharing, asserting that the tech giant “benefits from facilitating problematic and unlawful data practices for its clients.”
While Meta did not directly respond to the findings, it pointed to its terms and conditions, which require advertisers to obtain consent before data is shared.
The issue adds to growing concerns about the gambling industry’s marketing tactics. A recent case saw Sky Betting & Gaming reprimanded by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for unlawful data processing. Meanwhile, UK regulators have begun clamping down on cross-selling within gambling firms, though third-party profiling remains a loophole.
Following the investigation, several gambling operators have adjusted their websites to curb automatic data sharing or removed Meta Pixel altogether. However, experts warn that tighter enforcement is needed to prevent further exploitation of users' data.
