City of London Police Operation Reduces Gambling Ads on Torrent Sites by 87%

The City of London Police revealed that the actions taken by its Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) to prevent licensed gambling operators from advertising their offering on torrent websites have yielded positive results over the past twelve months.

All gambling operators providing their services on the territory of the United Kingdom must hold a license from the UK Gambling Commission in order to be able to do so legally. As UKGC licensees, the companies are obliged to follow the principles under which this type of activities is conducted.

Keeping the gambling industry clean from crime has been among the leading principles coined in the Gambling Act 2005, known to be the UK’s gambling law. To conform to the set requirements, UK-facing operators had previously been requested to stop using torrent sites as advertising mediums.

What is more, in October 2016, the UKGC included responsible gambling advertising as a licensing condition for all gambling companies with operations in the UK. The condition requires operators and affiliates to abstain from placing advertisements on websites of illegal nature, including ones featuring copyrighted content.

As for PIPCU, it took its own actions by compiling the Infringing Website List and providing UK-licensed gambling operators with information about copyright infringing websites and encouraging them to stop placing ads on those websites.

Research was carried out subsequently, the results of which showed that the number of gambling ads to be featured on torrent sites has dropped 87% over the past year. Said research was completed by IT company whiteBULLET Solutions Ltd., which specializes in the identification of intellectual property infringing websites by using a special index. Data for the report was collected from as many as 40 gambling operators with licenses from the UKGC.

The Infringing Website List was created by PIPCU in 2013 as part of Operation Creative, targeting websites with copyright infringing content and urging businesses, advertisers and advertising networks to adhere to legal mediums when placing their ads.

Gambling has grown into a £13.8-billion industry in the UK, according to the latest financial results released by the Gambling Commission. What is more, online gambling was identified as the largest sector for a second consecutive reporting period (between October 2015-September 2016) with gross gambling yield of £4.5 billion.

Online casino was the highest grossing niche during the period in review with GGY of £2.4 billion. Sports betting came next, generating GGY of £1.7 billion within the reported twelve months. Betting exchange with GGY of £170 million, bingo with £149 million, and pool betting with £30.2 million were the other three verticals comprising UK’s online gambling bulk.

In City of London Police Operation Reduces Gambling Ads on Torrent Sites by 87%

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