Illegal casino and betting sites explode with Euro 24
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21 Jun 2024 •
Reading time: 3 minutes The European Championship is a time of the year eagerly awaited by football fans. Follow your favorite team every day, make bets with friends on the winning teams. Little by little you can feel confident and turn to betting sites to add a little bonus to your vacation budget. But the risks are increasingly high of coming across an illegal gambling website!
Illegal advertising with news personalities
You may have seen one of these videos on social media featuring your favorite RTBF news presenter extolling the merits of a particular betting website or online casino. It’s tempting to trust them, after all they are well-known public figures. But beware ! These videos are deepfake. Fake videos made using artificial intelligence to lure players to illegal gambling sites. A new form of advertising very popular with these illegal platforms.
This type of content is circulating more and more on social networks all over Europe. In order to protect its presenters as well as the players, RTBF has already filed complaints against these videos on several occasions. Investigations are underway but so far none have been successful. Last October Kevin De Bruyne was also a victim of deepfake.
Unfair competition
Since July 2013, advertising for gambling has been banned in Belgium. This does not seem to discourage illegal platforms which continue to distribute them and even go so far as to use names similar to legal casinos.
“As a legal operator, we do not have the right to advertise at all” explains Jean-Christophe Choffray. “We do not have the right to use the image of personalities or non-personalities, we do not have the right to promise illusory gains as is the case in fake videos. All of this is obviously prohibited for legal operators. At some point, when we disappear from the media world, this kind of advertising will attract all the people who are looking to go to a casino.”
Hundreds of illegal sites already identified
The Gaming commission (KSC) actively works to protect players, including blocking illegal gaming sites. To date, more than 500 illegal gambling platforms have already been blocked, yet new sites and new false advertisements appear every day.
Jean-Christophe Choffray, deputy director of Gaming1, has agreed to give you some advice to avoid falling into the trap.
“We’re going to see 450 free euros, 250 Free Spins… That’s prohibited for legal operators. We see characters who are winning. That’s also prohibited for legal operators. Visa, Mastercard , Bitcoin… these are all means of payment prohibited for legal operators.”
Jean-Christophe Choffray
The KSC does not remain insensitive to the situation, it has already put in place stricter controls throughout the sporting summer.
“We asked the Government to take different measures. What we recommended, among other things, was that there be measures imposed to prohibit banks from working with this type of site because if the payment “It’s not possible, there is no game.”
Magalie Clavie, president of the gaming commission
This measure was unfortunately not implemented during the last legislature.