Illegal Casinos Used Meta Ads to Reach Dutch Gamblers Banned From Legal Betting
Illegal online casinos were not simply advertising to Dutch gamblers on Meta. They were finding people who had already taken steps to stop gambling and directing ads at them.
An investigation by BNR found hundreds of advertisements on Facebook and Instagram during late 2025 and the first half of 2026 that promoted illegal gambling sites to people registered with CRUKS, the Netherlands’ national self-exclusion system.
CRUKS is designed for people who want to stay away from gambling. Registration blocks access to licensed Dutch gambling operators for at least six months. Around 100,000 people were registered early this year.
The ads offered them a way around that barrier.
Some presented CRUKS as government interference with personal freedom. Others promoted foreign casinos on the basis that they do not check the Dutch exclusion register. Many of the advertisements used AI-generated people and directed users to websites ranking casinos that operate without a Dutch licence.
The targeting was not particularly difficult to find. BNR located advertisements through simple searches such as CRUKS in Meta’s advertising library. Some were posted through accounts with names openly referring to bypassing the system, including Zonder Cruks and Betrouwbare Spelsites.
The business model is significant for another reason: advertising on Meta is paid. Every campaign therefore creates revenue for the platform, even when the advertised gambling operators are illegal in the Dutch market.
Meta removed ads after questions
The investigation prompted changes.
A website linked from the advertisements altered its content after BNR approached those involved. It stopped listing illegal online casinos and instead began featuring digital slot games in which users cannot win or lose real money.
Meta also removed numerous advertisements from its library and banned the Facebook accounts associated with Zonder Cruks and Betrouwbare Spelsites. The company indicated that it takes enforcement seriously and requires advertising to comply with applicable laws and regulations.
The removals do not change what the investigation found in the first place. The advertisements had been running on one of the world’s largest social media networks and were visible through its own advertising tools.
That matters because CRUKS users are not an ordinary gambling audience.
They have voluntarily excluded themselves, or been registered to prevent access to gambling, because continued gambling has become a problem. Reaching them with messages specifically built around avoiding that protection turns the purpose of the register on its head.
Gea-marit Dekker of the Trimbos Institute’s gambling expertise centre described the audience as particularly vulnerable. People enter CRUKS to protect themselves or people around them, and an advertisement offering an immediate route back into gambling can exploit an impulsive moment.
Jellinek addiction specialist Judith Noijen pointed to the same risk from another angle. Stress, loneliness and difficult personal circumstances can weaken self-control. At those moments, a message promising easy access to gambling without CRUKS restrictions can provide exactly the opportunity someone was trying to remove.
The advertisements therefore did more than promote an unlicensed gambling product. They were built around the existence of a safeguard — and the fact that some people wanted to get around it.
https://www.igamingtoday.com/illegal-casinos-used-meta-ads-to-reach-dutch-gamblers-banned-from-legal-betting/