LONDON, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Britain's Gambling Commission said on Monday that Meta Platforms META.O, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, was turning a blind eye to illegal online casinos advertising on its sites, indicating it was happy to continue taking money from criminals.
The independent regulator's executive director Tim Miller said that anyone who has spent even a little time on Meta's platforms would more than likely have seen ads in their feed for illegal online casinos.
Most notably, many of the ads were for sites that did not participate in Britain's "GamStop" self-exclusion scheme for online gambling, he said.
Meta's assertion that it did not know about such ads until it was notified was "simply false", he said in a speech at the ICE Barcelona trade show, according to the text on the Gambling Commission's website.
He said Meta's searchable ad library showed which advertisers said their sites were "Not on GamStop".
"It's effectively a window into criminality," he said. "If we can find them then so can Meta. They simply choose not to look."
The Gambling Commission had made "very limited progress" on the problem with Meta, he said, adding that he would be very surprised if the tech company couldn't use its own keyword facility to prevent the ads.
"It could leave you with the impression they are quite happy to turn a blind eye and continue taking money from criminals and scammers until someone shouts about it," he said.
Meta has been contacted for comment.
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
((paul.sandle@thomsonreuters.com; +44 20 7542 6843; Reuters Messaging: paul.sandle.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net/))
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