The UK Gambling Commission has imposed a £609,000 fine on QuinnBet after the operator was found to have breached anti-money laundering and social responsibility regulations.
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As first reported by the BBC, the Scottish Borders Council’s website was temporarily hijacked, displaying gambling ads and directing users to unlicensed online casinos.
According to reports, 16 of the 69 community council website listings were affected and led users to offshore online casino websites by bypassing strict UK gambling laws. The actual listings, on the other hand, were supposed to point to council websites, their social media pages, and email contacts.
Cyber security expert Dr. Daniel Thomas from the University of Strathclyde commented:
“When someone is looking for the community council and are met with this gambling portal, they will think something is wrong and, of course, not engage with the site. But when someone is searching for these sites, the now re-directed community council site will be at the top of the list, as it appears a local group is giving out suggestions on the best offshore gambling sites to use.”
A deeper investigation revealed that 15 of the 16 websites were hosted by the Online Borders website directory, which has been unresponsive for the last 8 years and currently doesn’t function, while the gambling-related links remained active until the BBC notified the Council.
Following this, the Scottish Borders Council has published a statement urging community councils to keep their websites maintained and up-to-date to prevent any future incidents.
