Despite Strict Rules, Ads for Gambling Run Rampant on Google and Facebook
Overseas gambling sites spend millions to recruit customers via Google, Facebook, and Amazon’s Twitch. Many of the ads violate Big Tech rules—and put minors at risk.
7 min
Hellcase is a model of digital marketing strategy. With colorful advertisements on Facebook and Instagram, multimillion-dollar campaigns on Google Search, and paid influencers on YouTube, the company reaches millions of potential customers.
There’s one catch: The ads seemingly violate the terms of service for each platform. Hellcase, a Singapore-based online casino, lacks thorough age verification for users, a key requirement for anyone advertising gambling.
Google has still accepted some $5 million worth of advertising from Hellcase over the past three years, driving an estimated eight million users to Hellcase.com . A similar pattern takes place across the internet. A Barron’s investigation identified 27 overseas gambling sites that use digital advertising to recruit customers. Most of them lack a gambling license.
In total, the companies spent an estimated $28 million on Google Search advertising over the past three years, generating a total of 56 million visits to their sites, according to an analysis produced for Barron’s by Similarweb, a web traffic analytics firm.
Many of the sites also run ads on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitch.
These gambling sites have a common theme: They rely on a popular online game called Counter-Strike . Players use virtual items from the game, known as skins, as currency to gamble. As Barron’s has previously reported , the stakes are real—the skins won as prizes often fetch thousands of dollars or more on third-party marketplaces.
Just as real are the risks—especially for minors, who “are more vulnerable to the effects of both gambling and gambling advertising,” says Mark Griffiths, a professor of behavioral addiction and director of the International Gaming Research Unit at Nottingham Trent University.
When it comes to developing a problem gambling habit, “just the fact of being an adolescent in and of itself is a risk factor,” he says.
Some ads on social media are introducing children to gambling “years ahead of where they otherwise would have found it if it wasn’t advertised to them,” says Rob Minnick, a gambling counselor whose videos about gambling addiction have been watched millions of times on TikTok.
Skin gambling exists in a legal gray area across the globe. But the rules from Big Tech platforms seem clear-cut.
In the U.S., Google says it “doesn’t allow advertising for internet-based games where money or other items of value are paid or wagered to win a greater sum of money or other item of value.”
A spokesperson for Google, a unit of Alphabet , told Barron’s that when “activities involved constitute gambling, including when they involve skins, our gambling policies apply.”
Rules from Meta Platforms , owner of Facebook and Instagram, say, “Ads that promote online gambling and gaming are only allowed with our prior written permission.”
A spokesperson for Twitch, the videogame livestreaming service owned by Amazon.com , told Barron’s that Counter-Strike “gambling—and any promotion or sponsorship of skins gambling—is not allowed on Twitch.”
Nevertheless, the ads for skin gambling proliferate. At Google and Amazon ’s request, Barron’s provided examples found in its reporting. Both companies said they would investigate. Months later, most of the gambling sites remain active advertisers. Meta Platforms disabled multiple ads following Barron’s inquiries. Days later, the ads were listed as active again on Meta’s ad library, a real-time listing of advertisements running on its platforms.
In May 2023, the Australian Communications and Media Authority took action against popular skin gambling site CSGORoll for “contravening Australian gambling laws” by allowing users to deposit Counter-Strike skins “in exchange for in-game coins that could be used to gamble on casino-style games.”
“Skins gambling services are particularly concerning as they tap into a youth market and have the potential to convert gamers into gamblers,” said Nerida O’Loughlin, the regulator’s chair, in a news release detailing the action.
In the year following Australia’s regulatory action, Google continued to serve Australian users ads for CSGORoll, according to the company’s Ads Transparency Center, an online tool that shows active and past ads published through Google.
In June, a Google spokesperson told Barron’s that the ad account for CSGORoll’s parent company “is no longer active with Google following appropriate enforcement action earlier this year.”
But its ads transparency tool continued to show active ads for CSGORoll in Australia.
“We continue to examine this space to determine if any policy adjustments are warranted,” the Google spokesperson said.
By early July, the CSGORoll ads in Australia had disappeared; ads directing users to CSGORoll’s website are still active in the U.S.
In total, the site spent $2.4 million on Google Search ads globally in the first half of 2024, according to Similarweb’s estimates.
Google says that ads for gambling are allowed in Australia—and most other countries—“as long as the advertiser is a licensed operator…and provides a valid license.”
CSGORoll offers no evidence of a gambling license anywhere on its website. In total, just four of the 27 skin gambling sites advertising with Google around the world offer proof of a government-issued gambling license. None of them clearly warns about the dangers of gambling—another requirement to advertise gambling on Google platforms.
Google representatives didn’t respond to multiple requests for clarification about the licensing issue. None of the skin gambling sites responded to requests for comment.
The question of licensing and how to handle new-age gambling sites confounds governments around the world.
In Finland, national law restricts gambling to one state-owned company. “Gambling services offered by other operators are prohibited,” according to the national law enforcement agency.
Many of the skin gambling sites operating in Finland and across the world feature digital roulette, slot machines, and other games of chance found in traditional casinos.
But according to Juhani Ala-Kurikka, a senior adviser to Finland’s National Police Board, skin gambling sites are legal in the country because users on the sites win a “prize of monetary value” instead of money.
“Skins betting is therefore not seen as gambling but as lotteries,” says Ala-Kurikka. “Marketing them is legal according to Finnish law.”
Skin gambling sites have recognized Finland as a fertile market, given that legal framework.
Finland’s most popular Counter-Strike player is sponsored by FarmSkins, a skin gambling site that has spent some $4 million on Google Search Ads over the past three years, according to Similarweb estimates.
FarmSkins and 16 other skin gambling sites regularly buy Google Search ads in Finland, Barron’s found.
In the U.S., federal regulators have failed to take action when it comes to skin gambling, with one exception.
In 2017, the Federal Trade Commission settled charges with two YouTubers who promoted a skin gambling site without disclosing their financial involvement in the site. One video was titled, “HOW TO WIN $13,000 IN 5 MINUTES.”
Today, YouTube is filled with those kinds of promises, with the addition of some new disclosures.
Some YouTube accounts post footage of betting on skin gambling sites, prompting viewers to join them on the site using an affiliate code, which directs commissions back to the YouTuber.
Google’s policies seemingly ban such activity , but the company says that compliance lies with individual creators. “YouTube creators are responsible for ensuring their content complies with local laws, regulations, and YouTube’s Community Guidelines,” said YouTube spokesperson Javier Hernandez in a statement to Barron’s .
On Twitch, Amazon’s livestreaming platform, Counter-Strike –related streams added up to 647 million hours worth of viewing over the past 12 months. Of the 300 most-watched Counter-Strike streams on Twitch, 120 of them are sponsored by at least one skin gambling site, according to Barron’s analysis.
Those sponsorships would seem to violate Twitch’s rules . “Sponsorships of skins gambling, such as for CSGO skins,” are among the list of banned activities, Twitch says, using a common abbreviation for Counter-Strike .
Many of the sponsored streamers are labeled Twitch Partners, a designation the company gives to streamers who “can act as role models to the community.”
The role model concept can be problematic, according to Griffiths, the behavioral psychologist. If role models are “advertising particular products, adolescents are going to be more susceptible to engaging in those products.”
Twitch streamers and YouTubers who spoke to Barron’s described receiving offers of nearly $200,000 a month from skin gambling sites to promote them in their videos.
Twitch knows about some of these apparent violations of its rules. In reporting a prior article about skin gambling, Barron’s sent Twitch a link to a streamer who was broadcasting his skin gambling in real-time on Twitch.
When asked for comment at the time, a Twitch spokesperson said her team was “digging into the examples you raised.”
Six months later, that streamer continues to livestream his betting sessions on skin gambling sites. The Twitch spokesperson said this week that she couldn’t comment on specific accounts for privacy reasons. She noted that gambling-labeled content is blocked by default for minors and users not logged in to the service. A Barron’s reporter, who wasn’t logged in to Twitch, bypassed the content warning by clicking a button marked “Start Watching.”
Social-media algorithms are designed to keep users logged on, and gambling content is some of the most “engaging and exciting,” says Minnick, the gambling addiction counselor and content creator. Minors who stumble across it on their feeds can wind up in an echo chamber of gambling videos and advertising. It creates a “desire to gamble in people that otherwise might not have ever seen it until they were 21.”
Meanwhile, skin gambling sites are readily accessible to minors already familiar with a look and feel that’s drawn from videogames.
“Most parents have no idea the extent of how the gambling industry has infiltrated so much of our normal everyday American life,” says Les Bernal, national director of the nonprofit Stop Predatory Gambling.
Social-media platforms have rules in place to protect minors from gambling ads. “Meta doesn’t allow targeting for online gambling and gaming ads to people under the age of 18,” company policies state.
In January, the Tech Transparency Project, an industry watchdog, put those guardrails to the test. The group used artificial-intelligence tools to generate an image of smiling children crowded around a smartphone, with dollar bills raining down. Then it added text: “This could be you! Swipe up to win big!!”
The group uploaded the image to Meta’s ad platform, choosing the 13-17 age demographic as its key target.
“The ads were approved in less than 60 seconds,” Katie Paul, director of the Tech Transparency Project, told Barron’s .
Hellcase, the Singapore site, has 76 active advertisements on Facebook and Instagram and has run nearly 3,000 ads on the Meta sites since 2018, according to the company’s ad library. In total, Barron’s identified 14 skin gambling sites that have advertised through Meta.
All of those ads, as well as the one from the Tech Transparency Project, would have needed Meta’s prior approval, according to the company’s terms. Meta didn’t respond to Barron’s when asked if that approval was granted.
One video ad from Hellcase currently running on Facebook and Instagram shows a player spending $3.30 on a digital slot machine and reacting with awe when he wins a prize worth $119.47. As the ad ends, he says, “Hellcase: where every play pays off.”
As with the other tech platforms, Barron’s sent Meta a list of skin gambling sites currently advertising on its platforms. Three days later, the company disabled many of the ads, including all of the ones from Hellcase.
“We are disabling the ads and accounts that violate our policies and will continue to monitor for others,” Meta told Barron’s in a statement.
Two days after that statement, most of Hellcase’s ads were once again active. Meta said its review was ongoing.
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On Bastille Day, the scent of toasted bread, melting cheese, crêpes and velouté filled a heritage warehouse in Sydney’s Darlinghurst.
Inside Prim Haus, rooms had been transformed into an elegant interpretation of a contemporary French home. Cookware hung alongside market produce, appliances were placed within carefully composed domestic settings and live kitchens turned out French comfort food throughout the afternoon.
The occasion was La Maison de Tefal, an immersive celebration marking 70 years since a French engineer introduced an invention that would fundamentally change home cooking.
Tefal’s story began in 1956 with the commercial launch of what the company describes as the world’s first non-stick frying pan. Seven decades later, the business operates across cookware, kitchen appliances, garment care and floor care in more than 120 countries.
The scale of the modern brand is considerable, but its origins were remarkably domestic.
The invention that started in a French kitchen
In the early 1950s, French engineer Marc Grégoire began experimenting with polytetrafluoroethylene, better known as PTFE, after discovering its unusually effective non-stick properties.
The material was already known within industrial applications. Grégoire’s important contribution was developing a way to bond it securely to an aluminium disc.
According to the company’s history, a conversation with his wife inspired him to apply the process to cookware. The resulting pan allowed meat and eggs to be cooked using less fat, while making the surface considerably easier to clean.
Grégoire patented his non-stick frying-pan concept in 1954 and began selling the finished product in 1956. The new company’s name combined the French words for the two defining materials: Téflon and aluminium.
The attraction was immediate. This was innovation expressed through a simple, recognisable household problem. Food stuck to pans; the new Tefal pan was designed so it would not.
The idea quickly travelled beyond France. Tefal entered the United States in 1961, the same year the company established the production site at Rumilly, near the French Alps. Rumilly would become the centre of Tefal’s cookware expertise and develop an identity as the “frying pan capital of the world”.
The company says more than 35 million cookware items were manufactured at the Rumilly site in 2022. A local museum holds the 500 millionth pan produced by the factory, which came off the line in March 1994.
A Parisian home in the heart of Sydney
La Maison de Tefal translated that industrial history into a more intimate experience.
Held on 14 July, the anniversary used Bastille Day as both a cultural reference and a reminder that Tefal’s identity remains closely connected to French design and engineering.
Prim Haus was arranged as a sequence of domestic environments rather than a conventional product showroom. Guests moved through spaces devoted to cookware, kitchen appliances, garment care and floor care, with each collection presented within the rhythm of a modern home.
A French-market-inspired cooking area formed the social centre of the event. Live stations served croque-monsieur, crêpes and butternut velouté, demonstrating the products through food rather than static displays.
That distinction matters. Tefal’s most successful products have generally been those whose benefit can be understood almost immediately: a pan that releases food, a removable handle that saves cupboard space, an indicator showing when cookware has reached the correct temperature, or an appliance that automates part of a familiar cooking process.
Interactive demonstrations allowed guests to handle the products and see those functions in context. Heritage installations traced the brand’s development, while previews of newer releases connected its first frying pan with the much broader contemporary range.
The anniversary concluded with a champagne toast — an appropriately French punctuation mark for a company whose products have found their way into kitchens around the world.
Seventy years of practical invention
The non-stick frying pan established the operating principle Tefal continues to follow: find an everyday source of friction and develop a practical way to reduce it.
In 1996, the company introduced Ingenio, a modular cookware system built around removable handles. Pans could be stacked more efficiently and moved from cooktop to oven, table and refrigerator without the fixed handle of conventional cookware.
The concept anticipated the pressures that would reshape urban kitchens. As apartments became more compact and storage more valuable, cookware needed to occupy less room and serve more than one function.
Around the beginning of the following decade, Tefal introduced its heat-indicator technology, now known as Thermo-Signal. The circular marker changes appearance when the pan reaches its recommended cooking temperature, turning a technical question into a visual prompt.
In 2006, Tefal expanded the possibilities of countertop cooking with ActiFry. The appliance circulated hot air around food and used little or no added oil, helping establish a product category that would eventually become one of the most competitive areas of the global appliance market.
Innovation also moved beyond cooking. The Freemove cordless steam iron arrived in 2012, removing the cord from the active ironing movement while retaining a powered base.
The company’s current portfolio now extends across multicookers, grills, air fryers, blenders, ice-cream makers, garment steamers, irons and floor-care products. Although the categories are diverse, the common proposition remains convenience grounded in engineering.
The next generation of non-stick cookware
For its 70th year, Tefal has returned to the product that created the brand.
The new Excellence+ cookware range introduces what the company calls FusionCore technology. Tefal describes it as its most durable non-stick coating to date, designed to withstand intensive use and scratching.
As with any durability claim, consumers should follow the manufacturer’s care instructions and consider the applicable warranty rather than interpreting promotional language as a guarantee against every form of damage. But the focus on longer-lasting coatings reflects an important change in buyer expectations.
Convenience is no longer enough on its own. Modern households are increasingly concerned with how long products remain useful, whether they can be repaired and what happens when they reach the end of their working life.
Tefal has responded in several ways. Its Renew cookware uses recycled aluminium and a ceramic non-stick coating, while Groupe SEB has expanded cookware recycling initiatives in international markets. For many small domestic appliances, the group also promotes a 15-year repairability commitment based on parts availability and access to authorised repairers.
The details and warranty periods vary by product and country, so Australian buyers should check the conditions attached to an individual appliance. Nevertheless, repairability represents a meaningful shift from the assumption that a failed countertop appliance should simply be discarded.
From French manufacturer to global household group
Tefal joined Groupe SEB in 1968, giving the company greater international distribution and the resources to expand beyond cookware.
Founded in 1857 and headquartered in France, Groupe SEB has grown into a global small-appliance and cookware business with more than 30 brands. Its portfolio includes All-Clad, Krups, Moulinex, Rowenta, Lagostina and WMF, with operations extending across more than 150 countries.
Within that group, Tefal remains one of the flagship names — and one of the clearest examples of how a single invention can become the foundation for an international consumer brand.
Its longevity has not come from making everyday objects more complicated. The strongest Tefal products do the opposite. They take a small uncertainty, inconvenience or frustration and design it out of the task.
That was the value of Marc Grégoire’s original frying pan. It did not ask people to change what they cooked. It made the existing process easier, more predictable and less difficult to clean afterwards.
Seventy years later, that deceptively modest principle continues to guide the company.
La Maison de Tefal celebrated the products, the French heritage and the anniversary itself. Yet the larger story was visible at every cooking station and demonstration: innovation becomes lasting only when people can use it without having to think about the technology underneath.
For Tefal, the next 70 years will be shaped by new materials, smarter appliances, changing homes and greater expectations around durability. Its challenge will be to keep evolving without losing sight of the insight that started everything — that the most valuable household inventions often solve the most ordinary problems.
Tefal at a glance
- Founded: France, 1956
- Founder: Engineer Marc Grégoire
- Original innovation: Commercialisation of the first non-stick frying pan
- Manufacturing heritage: Rumilly, France
- Notable innovations: Ingenio, Thermo-Signal, ActiFry and Freemove
- Latest cookware development: Excellence+ with FusionCore technology
- Parent company: Groupe SEB
- International presence: More than 120 countries
- Australian website: Tefal Australia
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