The Observer revealed on Saturday that gambling companies are secretly tracking users on their websites and sharing their data with Facebook's parent company, Meta, without consent, in apparent violation of data protection laws.

The data, including details of visited pages and clicked buttons, is being used by Meta to target users with ads for gambling sites.

The investigation found that a hidden tracking tool embedded in dozens of UK gambling sites is extracting this information. Despite laws requiring explicit user consent for such data sharing, tests on 150 gambling websites, including casinos, sports betting, and bingo platforms, uncovered widespread breaches of these rules.

This weekend, Iain Duncan Smith, the Conservative chair of the all-party parliamentary group on gambling reform, called for an "immediate intervention" following revelations of gambling companies secretly sharing user data with Facebook’s parent company, Meta.

He said, "The use of tools such as Meta Pixel without explicit consent seems wholly in breach of the law and should be immediately stopped. The gambling industry’s marketing practices are now out of control, and our regulatory structure and codes of practice are repeatedly shown to be inadequate. This cannot go on."

Meta slammed over unlawful data

Data privacy expert Wolfie Christl, renowned for his investigations into the ad tech industry, criticized Meta’s data practices, stating, "While sharing data with Meta is already problematic, doing so without explicit informed consent is a clear violation of the law. Meta is complicit and must be held accountable. It benefits from facilitating problematic and unlawful data practices for its clients and systematically looks the other way, using its terms and conditions as a shield rather than seriously enforcing them."

An analysis conducted by The Observer revealed that 52 of 150 gambling websites tested automatically shared user data with Facebook via the Meta Pixel tracking tool without explicit consent. Among the sites found to have transmitted data unlawfully were Hollywoodbets, Sporting Index, Bwin, Lottoland, 10Bet, and Bet442.

According to the investigation, the data transfer occurred as soon as the web pages loaded before users could accept or decline marketing permissions. During the testing, the reporter did not consent to the use of their data for marketing purposes. Yet, in the following days, they were inundated with Facebook ads for gambling websites, suggesting that Meta had unlawfully profiled them as someone interested in gambling.

In a single browsing session, the reporter encountered gambling ads from 49 brands, including companies unaware their data was shared unlawfully. These brands, whose own use of Meta Pixel adhered to the rules, included Ladbrokes, Sky Bet, BetVictor, Tombola, and Bet365, as well as numerous smaller operators. The ads featured offers such as free bets, a 200% "new players" bonus, and a chance to "win up to 5,000 times your bet."

The Observer revealed that the revelations have sparked calls for a broader investigation into the targeting and profiling of gamblers through unlawful data-sharing practices.