EU study links online gambling scams to digital advertising and fake apps

A study carried out for the European Commission and published in 2026 examines online gambling fraud and the part played by large digital platforms, according to the study. The report, titled Support Contract on Financial Scams Study, was commissioned by the Commission's Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology and looks at how financial scams are spread through digital services.

The study cites an analysis by Debunk.org which found that advertising was involved in 99% of the gambling-scam cases that organisation examined. The figure refers to the cases covered by that analysis. The report says advertisements can use images and video generated with artificial intelligence, imitations of public figures, false news reports and references to known brands to lend credibility to offers, directing users to platforms that promise guaranteed winnings, privileged access or betting systems presented as reliable.

The report also links advertising systems to licensing rules. It says the advertising systems of digital platforms can allow operators without a licence to promote their services to users resident in countries where they are not authorised to operate, and that without adequate checks on authorisations, advertisements risk favouring access to unregulated gambling offers. The study contains no specific assessment of the effectiveness of advertising controls in Italy, but identifies the territorial dimension of licences as central to understanding the risks of cross-border promotion of online gambling.

On fraudulent platforms, the study describes a pattern in which victims are encouraged to make a first, limited deposit to reduce suspicion. Game results can then be manipulated to make losses inevitable, while winnings shown on accounts may be fictitious, and withdrawal attempts are blocked or made subject to artificial conditions. The report says more structured operations, including false gambling sites and fraudulent lotteries, can be run by organised criminal groups, and that the cross-border nature of the activity, the use of tools to hide perpetrators' identities and cryptocurrency payments make it harder to identify those responsible and for investigating authorities to act.

The study also addresses fraudulent applications in official stores. It cites research that identified hundreds of false applications distributed through Apple App Store and Google Play, initially presented with apparently harmless descriptions and later turned into gambling interfaces. The method used to get around checks is to submit an application that formally complies with the rules and to activate hidden functions only after approval; the report calls this mechanism a switch and says it can be carried out through remote-controlled changes.

On those most exposed, the report says gambling scams mainly target people who already engage with online gambling and betting content, as well as young people, citing the 16 to 24 age group as more vulnerable to risks associated with digital environments that reproduce typical gambling mechanisms. Consultations for the research also raised the issue of gaming applications presented as free that become difficult to use without making payments, with practices cited including virtual currencies, artificial scarcity of digital items and fictitious accounts simulating interactions with other players. The report presents these as observations from stakeholder discussions, not as a general classification of such applications as scams.

A separate chapter covers false lotteries and non-existent prize competitions, in which victims receive messages announcing unexpected wins or prizes and are then asked to provide personal or financial information or to pay sums in advance for prizes that do not exist. The report says these frauds also use social networks, private messaging and the apparent credibility of digital communications.

The report places the phenomena within the Digital Services Act (DSA), the EU regulation governing the obligations of digital platforms, citing Articles 34 and 35 on the assessment and mitigation of systemic risks by very large online platforms and search engines. Measures examined as possible responses include more effective checks on access to services and on advertiser identity, tools to detect and promptly remove fraudulent content, user protection systems and greater cooperation between platforms, public authorities and other parties involved.

The study does not quantify the economic losses attributable to gambling and betting fraud, nor does it assess individual platforms' compliance with DSA obligations. Its conclusions point to a problem beyond the presence of false gambling sites: the possibility that the same digital tools used to promote legitimate services are exploited to spread fraudulent offers or offers lacking the authorisations required in destination markets. For the regulated gambling sector, the report says, the issue concerns not only consumer protection from fraud but also the ability of advertising systems and digital distribution channels to distinguish authorised operators from those acting outside the rules.