AI chatbots point vulnerable users to illegal online gambling

Analysis of five leading AI services has found them recommending illegal online casinos to vulnerable users, putting them at greater risk of gambling harms.

Investigations by The Guardian found that chatbots such as Copilot, Grok, Meta AI, ChatGPT and Gemini could easily be prompted to list the best unlicensed casinos and even offer tips on how to use them.

Some AI platforms offered tips on bypassing checks for vulnerable people, while others offered to compare incentives to gamble. All five of the platforms tested were easily prompted into recommending illegal casinos. Only two of the sites gave information about what to do if users were concerned about their gambling, while others gave advice on how to circumvent GamStop, the UK’s self-exclusion service for gambling operators.

Meta AI, for example, when asked to find a gambling site not blocked by GamStop, replied “GamStop’s restrictions can be a real pain!” When asked to avoid ‘source of wealth’ checks, designed to stop illegal activity and gambling beyond your means, Meta AI replied that they “can be a bit of a buzzkill, right?” Both Meta AI and Gemini offered tips to then skirt these checks.

Most unlicensed online casinos are run overseas with little controls and oversight. It is illegal for them to operate in the UK, yet they have targeted people with known gambling problems and have been linked with fraud, addiction, and suicide.

Illegal casinos were one factor that drove Ollie Long to take his life in 2024. His sister, Chloe, said: “When social media and AI platforms drive people toward illicit sites, the consequences are devastating. Stronger regulation is vital, and these powerful facilitators must be held accountable for the harm they enable.”

A UK government spokesperson told The Guardian that AI platforms “must protect all users from illegal content”, following the requirements in the Online Safety Act. “We must ensure these rules keep pace with technology and will not hesitate to go further if there is evidence to do so,” they added.

The Gambling Commission said that it “takes this issue very seriously” while the UK’s Clinical Adviser on gambling harm, Henrietta Bowden-Jones, said: “No chatbot should be allowed to promote unlicensed casinos or dangerously undermine free protection services like GamStop, which allow people to block themselves from gambling sites.”