17 September 2026

As tech platforms tighten advertising policies for gambling, a surge of promotions for betting and sportsbooks continues to flood social media. A new University of Bristol report found that in the three weeks following July 2023's UK ban on public-place gambling ads, four major brands still posted 1,663 ads on social media alone, with an average frequency of 237 per day. Separate Bristol research tracked 1,698 ads from the same operators across Instagram, TikTok, X and Facebook in a single week of August 2024.

These ads inevitably reach underage audiences. 42% of UK 11-16 year-olds use social media for more than five hours per week, and over 50% follow sports-related social media accounts, according to Ofcom. Globally, sports-betting operator exposure among 16-24 year-olds is accelerating compared to other age groups, a 2023 NORC study found.

Platform Policies and Enforcement Gaps

Platforms have specific policies against marketing targeted towards children and teens with gambling content. Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook's gambling ad guidelines explicitly prohibit ads for sports betting, casinos, lottery, and gambling-related brands where the national average age is below 18, or where gambling is already prohibited by national laws. They also require that obvious risk disclosures accompany any ads they do permit. For its part, Meta removes a portion of gambling content from Instagram and Facebook but its policies and enforcement are inconsistent across regions and relatively limited in scope.

“Our 'Advertising on Meta' policy does not allow ads that promote gambling or gaming in 18 countries, including India, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, but we've found dozens of pages that received thousands of such ads,” Rest of World reported in July 2026. The organization used Meta's ad library and media reports to tally 980 ads running on 35 banned gaming platforms in 6 restricted markets, plus an additional 140 ads in India alone, with some ads seen for years on end.

Beyond Paid Advertising

While these paid ad restrictions are the most explicit, global policy and researcher groups emphasize that social media gambling marketing and promotion is much larger, and more invasive, than just paid ads. In March 2025, a UK Gambling Commission review found that nearly 5% of the approximately 390 gambling-related posts across Instagram and Facebook violating British ad rules were clearly ads and that a further 12% were likely marketing content failing to follow telecommunications regulations for gambling messaging. The UK Gambling Commission study also found that approximately 10% of the promotional content involved influencers and sponsored content that fell in a loophole of the UK's paid advertising rules.

The ASA elaborated in September's annual report: “Content will likely be regarded as an advertisement or promotional communication under the Code all social platform or creator content that is related to gambling or gaming, including affiliate links and posts that are not clearly advertising”; the commission added.

More on this is available via APUESTA IDEAL.

Researchers suggest that compared to older forms of media, gambling ads on social can stay on the platform for very long periods, reach a larger audience, and feel less like they are advertising. “As long as an individual clicks on and likes a post, or shares the content, it can be relaunched on several platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp in further countries without prior approval,” an August 2025 University of Chicago report stated, emphasizing algorithmic promotions that can reach very large audiences beyond the original intended scope.

Targeting Vulnerable Users

Social media, with its targeted-editing, location-tweaking and look-alike-audience features, enables gambling companies to reach consumers who may be in restricted countries, or may otherwise not be eligible for their services, including those who have self-excluded themselves from all legal, regulated gambling activities.

“Illegal gambling sites aren't subject to the robust customer protections that UK regulated businesses must follow. This means they're free to flout age restrictions, unscrupulously target people who have self-excluded from gambling, and bombard people with so many adverts that they eventually break through their defences. Plus, by doing this they're avoiding tax which would otherwise go towards public services and protecting vulnerable people,” said Casino Reviews UK in their caution for 2025.

The December 2025 Rest of World report identified that only on Meta did the Philippines, and China not have ports of entry on Telegram and Facebook for gambling and betting ads, while Myspace in Singapore, and Malaysia's Viddies were openly advertising online gambling and betting tools.

Systems still have to improve to follow the ever increasing ways social media gambling ads find their way into publics' feeds and conversations. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter said they pledged to problem gamblers' fans and pages, but as a Brazilian Ministry of Finance pledge to support these types of collaboration with Big Tech companies coming in the latter half of this year, stakeholders will have to enter into a period of continuous discussions, and fast, effective responses to the gambling promotion in social media as an engineering and economic problem as much as a public health issue.