A growing number of reputable bingo and casino sites in the UK are being cloned by fraudsters who exploit high-authority expired domains, redirecting players to unlicensed platforms.
A danger for UK players
When an old and respected domain expires, unscrupulous sellers buy it back to exploit its historical reputation with search engines. Scammers buy up high-ranking expired domains, sometimes formerly used by associations, school clubs or local councils, and turn them into near-perfect copies of trusted bingo sites.
To the average player, the experience may seem authentic: same design, same words, same colours as the familiar brands. But as soon as a visitor clicks on a button or enters personal information, they often find themselves redirected to illegitimate casinos or offshore platforms with no real licence or protection.
A similar situation to Belgium
Gambling Club has already discovered numerous hacked and cloned sites in Belgium. In early 2025, the official website of the KOG school (Katholiek Onderwijs Geraardsbergen), designed to present the institution’s training courses and activities, was compromised: some pages were modified or hijacked to redirect visitors to content promoting unregulated online casinos.
This hijacking is not an isolated incident: several other school websites have suffered similar attacks in recent months, including that of the Sint-Jozef Humaniora in Bruges and the IEPS in Libramont. In these cases, the hacked pages displayed rankings or lists of online casinos, some of which were already on the Gaming Commission’s blacklist.
Consequences for players and brands
For players, the risks are manifold. Some cloned sites capture sensitive personal data, others attempt to obtain deposits or banking information, and still others simply encourage users to register and then disappear without ever allowing any winnings to be withdrawn.
Legitimate brands, on the other hand, suffer a double whammy: they lose organic traffic, see their reputation tarnished and sometimes find themselves unwittingly associated with fraudulent practices. A bingo site operator who has been working cleanly for nearly twenty years testifies: he has never bought backlinks or used aggressive strategies, yet his own search results are now being beaten by clones.
What’s even more worrying is that these clones do not hesitate to imitate the content of the original sites perfectly, even going so far as to copy all the text and images, which makes them difficult to detect even for experienced players.
What allows these clones to thrive
The fraudsters’ main trick is simple but effective: buy expired domains with high authority. These domains, often linked to local institutions or recognised organisations, have historical weight in search engine results. When recovered by crooks, they are used to propel fraudulent sites to the top of the results for popular queries related to bingo or casinos. This technique is not considered illegal per se, but it is widely exploited to fool algorithms and public users.
Despite their efforts to combat spam and fraudulent content, search engines are struggling to curb this phenomenon. Some clones still appear at the top of the results for highly competitive keywords, and even advertising campaigns can link to these illegal platforms.
What should you do if you think you have been targeted or trapped?
For any player wishing to avoid these traps, a few simple reflexes can make all the difference:
- Always check a site’s licence with the relevant authority (the Gaming Commission in Belgium) before depositing money on it. Legitimate sites must display their licence number, which can be checked online.
- Type the site address into your browser yourself rather than clicking on an advertising link or a search result that looks suspicious.
- If an offer seems too good to be true or if personal information is requested for no obvious reason, close the site immediately and do some independent research.
With the rise of cloned bingo and casino sites, the best defence is informed vigilance. Players should learn to recognise the signs of a fraudulent site: no licence, suspicious URL, strange redirects or an overly generous offer.