UKGC regulated bookmakers work with companies targetting problem gamblers

**connd** · 16 August 2024, 6:37 am

https://www.techopedia .com/gambling/casinos-not-on-gamstop-uk

Promotes "non gamstop casinos" as seen here; https://imgur.com/a/kIuKz8C

Finixio LTD (https://finixio .com/) own Techopedia (https://web3 .career/americas-desk-news-editor-cryptonews-finixio/5564

, plus many multiple results available online proving this (not to mention the same web design as other Finixio properties).

Finixio also operates many sites that promote UKGC bookmakers: bettingsites .co.uk, safebettingsites .com (https://imgur.com/a/ukJhdoS)

Finixo have already been warned by ACMA about their activities: https://www.acma.gov.au/sites/defaul...Redacted_0.pdf

Thought I'd highlight this shocking behaviour, as they made ?2.19m gross profit in 2021 and ?8.23m gross profit in 2022 (https://imgur.com/a/B1JKMpo).

Adam Grunwerg and Samuel Miranda are the two in charge, I'll let you google about their troubled history.

**gm2891** · 16 August 2024, 7:23 am

I find it quite odd that the UKGC isn't requesting a Google takedown for techopedia pages. There are plenty of smaller sites on the takedown list that were ranking way below techopedia, and they got removed. Even some YouTube channels and Twitter profiles were on the list, but not techopedia. It ranks right at the top for all that crap, one must be blind to not see it.

**connd** · 16 August 2024, 8:00 am

Originally Posted by gm2891

I find it quite odd that the UKGC isn't requesting a Google takedown for techopedia pages. There are plenty of smaller sites on the takedown list that were ranking way below techopedia, and they got removed. Even some YouTube channels and Twitter profiles were on the list, but not techopedia. It ranks right at the top for all that crap, one must be blind to not see it.

Techopedia were, until recently, hiding the table of offshore casinos on devices bigger than a phone/tablet. I'd have to presume that UKGC staff were visiting off desktop devices and couldn't see the table. Now I see some weird feature where two UKGC registered bookmakers briefly show before being replaced by the offshore table, haven't looked into it properly yet.

Table that briefly loads seen here: https://imgur.com/a/yxjyj3N

Edit; figured it out, if you don't interact with the page (move cursor for example) the offshore table doesn't show, if you visit the page incognito you'll see the same as me.

**connd** · 16 August 2024, 8:11 am

Further to this, it appears https://www.saferglasgow .com/casinos-not-on-gamstop/ is also a Finixio property (haven't confirmed but same table design), if you reduce the screensize of the webpage you will see this: https://imgur.com/a/2j9sC1D

**gm2891** · 16 August 2024, 9:15 am

Originally Posted by connd

Techopedia were, until recently, hiding the table of offshore casinos on devices bigger than a phone/tablet. I'd have to presume that UKGC staff were visiting off desktop devices and couldn't see the table. Now I see some weird feature where two UKGC registered bookmakers briefly show before being replaced by the offshore table, haven't looked into it properly yet.

Table that briefly loads seen here: https://imgur.com/a/yxjyj3N

Edit; figured it out, if you don't interact with the page (move cursor for example) the offshore table doesn't show, if you visit the page incognito you'll see the same as me.

Yeah, it's a weird thing. For me, on both desktop and mobile, their page is the same, even when accessing it using a VPN. What's the point of doing it? Essentially, anyone can see their non-Gamstop casinos right away. The text also stays the same, filled with currency symbols and phrases aimed at UK players, all while mentioning non-UKGC casinos.

From what i saw, the UKGC requests Google takedowns for both the domain and individual pages. But i haven't seen TP. Maybe it's somewhere now; no idea.

Check it yourself who's on the lists, if you want. Stick a keyword like in the screenshot, then scroll to the bottom, and you'll find links to Lumen.

**Mattbar** · 16 August 2024, 10:56 am

They bought a link on one of my football sites to safebettingsites and tried to include a second link to nongamstopcasinos . ltd in the post, which I refused - shows they are pretty open about it all

**TheFisherman** · 19 August 2024, 5:37 am

I personally don't think what they are doing is ethical. But looking at the bigger picture I can understand them. We invest a lot of time and effort into our sites to rank and what not, but we're constantly getting shafted by the regulated sites, that come up with new terms on the spot that allow them to close our accounts or change deals. The smaller brands do not have the player retention capacity as the bigger brands and so bottom line, we will not make a lot of money overtime in the UK.
So, maybe we are the fools for not going the blackmarket way? Besides the addicts, there are a lot of responsible gamblers on those sites too that just don't want to share their personal details and sources of wealth with a gambling entity. If I had to compare it to something else, I would compare it to the Saudi Pro gold league and PGA. In the end money talks and the smaller/medium affs that are not making enough money will move to the dark side.

**Sherlock** · 19 August 2024, 10:12 pm

What is not ethical my god? Is ethical to follow some idiotic rules of UK gambling monopoly, that is nursing gamblers and killed UK affiliate industry?

If something is moral imperative nr.1 then it is to take care for oneself. If people are against themselves, then they die (or are phased out in capitalism).

What UKGC did and is doing is unethical. Moreover they are brainwashing everyone. I am losing 6 figures monthly because of them on lost profit. If I thought that is is possible to make better money on unlicensed casinos, I would go for it.

If someone has UK traffic, he has to go for it. And he also has to support the competition, because the black market niche has to be born. I am quite disgusted by what I read in this thread. Let's talk how to circumvent the regulation and make the money.

Let's not to doxx people. This is the most unethical thing I have ever seen on this forum.

PS. I see no Google removals for that KW. Probably SERPs are very different from different countries/browsers. The net neutrality is a big joke in 2024. What they will block in 2025? Websites making jokes about stupid blondes? 2026 is beyond my imagination.

**gm2891** · 20 August 2024, 2:22 am

Originally Posted by Sherlock

What is not ethical my god?.

There are two things in the UK:

- Crypto casinos
- Non-Gamstop casinos

Crypto casinos are for anyone who wants to play, and the best ones have everything. Games with better RTPs than UKGC sites, near-instant payouts, and even responsible gambling tools. If RG tools are limited, a Betblocker app can help with taking control.

It's all simple there. Want to play? No problem. Make a crypto deposit and spin. If you win, you get paid quickly - no BS, no questions asked, no KYC, no SOW.

Many UK players are happy.

Then there are non-Gamstop casinos. They target UK players with gambling problems - people who likely live in misery and need help, not more opportunities to play.

This is why some people believe it's unethical to promote these casinos. Plus, many of them are scams. Check Casinomeister threads. People are crying.

---

Those UKGC takedown requests are only visible in the UK's SERPs. I don't think the UKGC can say "hey Google we need to remove that site from the Danish search results, etc"

**Sherlock** · 20 August 2024, 10:36 am

That is an interesting way of thinking.

The overlap between crypto casinos and non_gamstop must be nearly 100% if not 100%.

The non licenced casinos are crypto; and crypto are non_licensed, because no sane person uses crypto to deposit unless it really has to. Does Bet365 offer crypto deposits? I did not check, but I am sure that no. Why no? Because they have all paperwork done, they accept only people who can deposit and those people deposit with fiat. Moreover they even can not legally accept crypto with reasonable costs, even if they decide, because then they must do incredible AML work for each deposit regardless of size. This is something that banks can not do and even less the sportsbook. In case they mix up crypto and fiat, the banks will close their accounts in one day.

So all crypto casinos are absolutely not white even when they indeed must pretend that they are.

So what remains for those grey and black markets? To fight for customers. For all keywords.

-----------------------------------------------------------

We all fight for those problematic gamblers. For the whales. Most of my income came from players who lost 6 figures, some of them 7 figures. Those people far outweighted the mythical casual players who bet their 20 quids in a weekend parlay, they drink their 3 beers, love their wife, 2 kids, and pay their mortgage and taxes. There are a lot of such players, but they are not important for casinos and they are not important even to me.

The important ones are those 6, 7 (and 5 and 4 into some extent) players. They are rare, but most of income in gambling is from those. We care for 2 and 3 figures players only because they are in hive. They may convert in future in bigger players.

The typical whale is not a bored billionaire who can afford to throw away a million and then go to their superyacht. The typical whale is almost always a problematic player, a hardcore gambler, who is ruining their life and at the same time feeding casinos (and us).

This business is unethical per se and thinking anything else is an escapism, therefore something unethical squared. Successful affiliates always target problematic gamblers, because they target big gamblers. It does not matter whether they are aware of it. We can target them directly with kw targeted only at problematic gamblers like non_gamstop (because the holy regulation was so kind and created this magic kw for us), or you can target them indirectly.

But it does not change the fact, that if someone knows how to target only so called non problematic gamblers then he makes no money or much less then competition. You can be such Samaritan (although it is questionable whether your love to the world can not be expressed in a less perverted way), but capitalism and competition are indifferent: whoever makes less money is phased out. Affiliates make more money can pay better employees, better servers, they have better ranks etc.

So in short the only fair argument here is that affiliates targeting those kws are unfair competition (just like the non_gamestop casinos are unfair competition to the licensed ones). The implications of this argument are beyond this debate, but I would like to point out that all this mess was created by regulation and the only way how to suppress the problems further will be more regulation. Which as always will cause need of even more regulation. The result will be as always total overregulation, loss of freedoms and collapse of whole system. What will however prevail and flourish, will be those unregulated casinos that will understand what is going on. Hopefully for affiliates, they will need some affiliates. (I am out of game, both in affiliate business and in this physical world. So take this as words of onlooker.)

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