London Police Hail Results From Operation Creative

By Brian Cullingworth, Last updated Jul 1, 2023

Gambling advertisements inadvertently placed on illegal copyright infringing websites dropped 87 percent

The City of London Police’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) has hailed its “Operation Creative” as highly successful saying adverts for licensed gambling operators being inadvertently displayed on illegal sites that infringe copyright have dropped 87 percent in the past twelve months.

A statement from PIPCU describes the operation as “ground-breaking.”

PIPCU provided 40+ UK-licensed gambling operators, and members of the IWL, with an up to date list of copyright infringing sites from its Infringing Website List (IWL), which enabled operators to identify illegal websites and stop placing or pull existing advertisements from them.

“These illegal websites harm not only the UK’s creative industries but also the UK consumer,” PIPCU said.

Data gathered by whiteBULLET on the 40 gambling operators show positive results for these gambling companies whose aim is to prevent their advertising budgets ending up with criminals.

Overall, whiteBULLET showed that there has been a 64 percent decrease in advertising from the UK’s top ad spending companies on copyright infringing websites, due to the IWL system.

Acting Detective Superintendent Peter Ratcliffe, Head of the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU), said: “The success of a strong relationship built between PIPCU and The Gambling Commission can be seen by these figures. This is a fantastic example of a joint working initiative between police and an industry regulator.

“We commend the 40 gambling companies who are already using the Infringing Website List and encourage others to sign up.

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