Revealed: how black market betting sites are preying on gambling addicts
Dozens of websites are advertising black market bookmakers directly to customers who have signed up for the industry's flagship self-exclusion scheme, GamStop.
An investigation by the Racing Post into the betting black market has found disturbing evidence of how online portals target people who have excluded themselves from legal operators using player protection tools, and the staggering ease at which they can be found, signed up to and bet through.
GamStop lets users self-exclude themselves from betting online for a period of between six months and five years. All major UK bookmakers, such as bet365, Ladbrokes, Coral, Betfair, Paddy Power, Tote and William Hill feature among the 149 firms listed on GamStop's website as being participants in the scheme, which is a condition of licence for Gambling Commission-regulated firms.
Read the full story
Read award-winning journalism from the best writers in racing, with exclusive news, interviews, columns, investigations, stable tours and subscriber-only emails.
Subscribe to unlock
- Racing Post digital newspaper (worth over £100 per month)
- Award-winning journalism from the best writers in racing
- Expert tips from the likes of Tom Segal and Paul Kealy
- Replays and results analysis from all UK and Irish racecourses
- Form study tools including the Pro Card and Horse Tracker
- Extensive archive of statistics covering horses, trainers, jockeys, owners, pedigree and sales data
Already a subscriber?Log in
Published on 25 August 2021inFeatures
Last updated 14:42, 26 August 2021
Copy- Government says it is working 'at pace' to have white paper measures in force by the summer
- 'The only thing you can do is lie fallow and regroup' - Meades to return with scaled-back operation following blank period
- The Gambling Commission has launched its new corporate strategy - but what are the key points?
- 'It was tragic it happened to Paddy but it was a good thing for the jockeys who followed - good came out of bad'
- Acquisitions, exits and retail resilience - what we learned from Flutter and 888's results
- Government says it is working 'at pace' to have white paper measures in force by the summer
- 'The only thing you can do is lie fallow and regroup' - Meades to return with scaled-back operation following blank period
- The Gambling Commission has launched its new corporate strategy - but what are the key points?
- 'It was tragic it happened to Paddy but it was a good thing for the jockeys who followed - good came out of bad'
- Acquisitions, exits and retail resilience - what we learned from Flutter and 888's results