The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) revealed that recently-held research has found that operations of illegal lotteries available on the social media platform Facebook were disrupted.
During the investigation, which was preliminarily focused on the unlicenced and illegal lotteries’ operations, the major gambling regulatory body in the UK has worked in collaboration with local law enforcement agencies through the Government Agency Intelligence Network (GAIN). The UKGC has also joined forces with specialists from the social networking platform.
The services of lotteries operating without an operating licence or in violation of the country’s gambling laws are believed to be posing great risks to consumers and more vulnerable individuals. That is why they have been regarded as services featuring a high risk for British gamblers, especially for individuals who find it hard to control their gambling habits.
As revealed by the UK Gambling Commission, the illegal lotteries, which offered not only cash prizes but also a variety of children’s toys and clothing, saw two individuals identified for the promotion of the unlawful activity and removed from associated groups on Facebook after the North East Regional Special Operations and the South West Regional Organised Crime Units approached them with cease and desist letters, respectively.
People Operating Illegal Lotteries on Social Media Platforms Are the Actual Winners of the Unlawful Activity
The UK Gambling Commission’s executive director, Helen Venn, explained there were currently hundreds of people who take part in these lotteries, which made it even more important for the country’s gambling watchdog to identify the ones who had unlawfully been organising and moderating such lotteries. Ms Venn shared that, while working in collaboration with the police and their colleagues at Facebook, the regulatory body’s officers remained pleased that some key individuals had been identified and the activity that boosts the risk of gambling-related harm had been ceased.
The executive director of the major gambling regulatory body in the UK further noted that illegal lotteries, including the ones that take place through social media channels, such as Facebook, would remain as a primary focus for the watchdog’s enforcement work in 2022. Ms Venn said that the UK Gambling Commission intended to link up closely with platforms such as Facebook in order to not only monitor their activity but the executives behind it and more efficiently identify the ones who are breaching social media standards and gambling rules.
The executive director of the Commission, who currently leads the licensing, compliance and enforcement operations of the gambling regulatory body, explained that many of the illegal lotteries do not share any of their revenue with good causes in the country, and customers who take part in their draws are not legally protected against possible harm.
The GAIN Coordinator of the North East Regional Special Operations Unit, Kevin Benson, shared that it is important to acknowledge the harm that can be caused by illegal gambling operations, especially in cases when unregulated lotteries take advantage of the most vulnerable society members on social media platforms. The GAIN Coordinator of the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit, David Gill, added that the actual winners in unlawfully operating lotteries are actually the people who run them, and such people are usually persistent in their attempts to keep running such operations.
Both coordinators confirmed that they would continue to partner with the UK Gambling Commission in targeting such illegal schemes and disrupting their operations in order to protect vulnerable people who are often promised high-value prizes but end up empty-pocketed.
- Author
Daniel Williams
