The United Kingdom’s Gambling Commission has publicly criticised Meta Platforms for what it describes as a failure to adequately police illegal gambling advertisements on its social media platforms, warning that the company is effectively tolerating unlicensed operators that target British consumers.

At a gaming industry conference in Barcelona, the commission’s executive director of research and policy, Tim Miller, said that Meta could easily detect and block adverts from gambling sites that do not hold a UK licence but chooses not to unless regulators notify it of specific content.

Miller told delegates that the regulator’s own searches of Meta’s ad library turned up numerous ads for unlicensed gambling operators, including those promoting websites that explicitly market themselves as not covered by the UK’s self-exclusion scheme, GamStop, which is designed to protect vulnerable players.

Miller characterised the persistence of these illegal adverts as ‘‘effectively a window into criminality’’ and said that if the regulator could find them with simple keyword searches, ‘‘so can Meta.’’ He suggested that the social media company’s continued acceptance of advertising revenue from such operators gives the impression that it is “quite happy to turn a blind eye” to breaches of its own policies and UK law.

Meta’s internal rules require advertisers to be licensed in the jurisdictions they target, but Miller said enforcement of these rules appears insufficient and reactive rather than proactive.

The regulator’s remarks came amid broader enforcement action by the UK Gambling Commission, which has taken down hundreds of thousands of websites linked to unlicensed gambling operators and issued cease-and-desist notices to offshore firms that market to UK players.

Miller emphasised that illegal operators present significant risks to consumers, including higher chances of fraud and exploitation of vulnerable individuals.

He noted that ads for illegal operators often include terms such as ‘‘not on GamStop,’’ signalling that they are deliberately targeting consumers who have opted out of gambling through the self-exclusion programme.

Meta has not immediately responded to the Gambling Commission’s latest criticism, but the company has previously updated its advertising policies to require verification of licences and to restrict access to gambling ad tools.

Digital rights groups and other watchdogs have also raised concerns about how Meta’s platforms handle gambling-related advertising, including the transparency and targeting of such content.

The regulator’s direct rebuke of Meta highlights growing tensions between tech platforms and authorities over the responsibility for policing harmful and illegal content, particularly in areas that can affect public health and safety.