38 million Dutch Meta users shown illegal gambling adverts

For the second time this year, tech company Meta has come under fire for ignoring illegal gambling advertisements.

A new study has revealed that 38 million Dutch users of Meta were shown illegal gambling adverts in March of this year. 

The report conducted by XY Legal Solutions BV and Industry Group VNLOK looked at publicly available advertising data for Facebook and Instagram. 

The research suggested that millions in advertising revenue would be generated in a calendar year if similar activity persisted.

The study focused on targeted keywords like "slot machine", "free spins", "welcome bonus", and "Holland Casino". Naturally, this would just be the tip of the iceberg where search terms were concerned. From these terms alone, 15,114 adverts were identified from unlicensed operators. 

76 million impressions

76 million impressions were estimated, meaning that the 38 million Dutch users exposed to the adverts will have each seen an advert twice on average. 

This is not the first time that Meta has come under fire for allowing illegal gambling adverts. At the start of 2026, Tim Miller of the UKGC spoke at the ICE 2026 conference in Barcelona and said that Meta were ignoring illegal gambling advertisements in the UK. 

Also earlier this year, another major tech platform, Google, updated its advertising policy to treat prediction markets as financial products rather than gambling products.