UK gambling websites accused of cookie-related GDPR violations
Published: 07/09/2026
| The Guardian
New analysis by Swansea University's Gambling Research, Education and Treatment Centre (GREAT Centre) reveals that nearly nine out of 10 licensed British gambling websites appear to be breaching the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) through unlawful cookie banners and customer data surveillance.
An investigation of 624 gambling websites revealed that 86% committed at least one apparent GDPR breach, compared to 54% across the wider internet. Two-thirds of operators, including Ladbrokes and William Hill, began harvesting user records prior to consent being granted, transmitting information to third-party analytics platforms for marketing purposes. Furthermore, 24% of examined platforms, such as Hollywood Bets and Admiral Casino, offered no option to disable tracking, while 2% provided no consent choice whatsoever, including Dafabet.
The study also found widespread use of deceptive interface designs (dark patterns) to nudge users toward data sharing. These techniques included visually prioritising the least privacy-friendly options on 60% of sites, burying rejection controls behind a secondary layer on 47%, and pre-selecting invasive settings on 29%.
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