Eight companies within the UK’s gambling industry were exposed to be infringing the data privacy rules. The newspaper’s investigation has made it known that these gambling companies have been following and sharing user data sent by their visitors to Meta, the famous parent company of Facebook, without explicitly asking consumers’ permission. Consequently, the practice in question may be considered as breaching data protection rights, which in turn can lead to quite serious breaches in all aspects, including privacy and ethical treatment of personal data in gambling industries.
In the course of the inquiry, it turned out that 52 out of 150 gambling sites that had been checked were taking out the information of people who visit them until they got explicit consent from the people and then were sharing it with Meta. This information included a list of specific sites visited and buttons utilized. Regarding the existing data protection regulations, personal data can only be used for marketing purposes if the users have been given the right to consent on the websites where tracking tools are implemented, whereas sharing can only be done for marketing purposes after the users have allowed it. The automatic data transfer took place instantly when the users went to the websites of the operators, so the users didn’t have time to permit or deny the marketing communications.
The gambling operators allegedly guilty of breaking data protection laws were some big names such as Bwin, Sporting Index, Lottoland, Hollywoodbets, Bet442, and 10Bet. The discoveries of the investigation have raised the demand for a fast and immediate response from the regulating and legislative authorities. Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the Conservative Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Gambling Reform, affirmed that the use of some tactics by Meta Pixel like this without getting a direct answer seems to be a violation of the law of data protection and should be terminated right away.
The new information has caused even more heated issues about the marketing strategies of the gambling industry as well as the effectiveness of the current regulatory environment. On that note, the Betting and Gaming Council, which is the representation of the UK’s sports betting sector, made it a point to stress that ads must follow very strict regulations and that signs promoting responsible gaming are easily seen and always displayed. Yet, the other side that is skeptical suggests that is not enough considering the latest revelations, and therefore, they are calling for more transparent oversight and stricter data protection enforcement in the gambling sector.
