The King

How to play The King

Further bets flagged by operators involved other politically sensitive individuals, including Metropolitan Police officers and political advisers. The Commission charged 15 people total in April 2025. Four have now pleaded guilty.

The offences relate to special betting markets that let customers wager on the exact date of the general election.

The then-prime minister, Rishi Sunak, announced 4 July 2024 as the election date on 22 May 2024. However, internal planning for that date had already begun at 10 Downing Street and Conservative Campaign Headquarters before the announcement.

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Earlier this year, Turkish Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi called illegal betting a “scourge that corrupts society” and emphasised a move towards tougher enforcement.

According to Çiftçi, the rapid growth of digital payments and cryptocurrencies has transformed illegal betting into a major conduit for money laundering. 

“Casinos, junkets, cryptocurrencies and underground banking are the most critical parts of the money laundering infrastructure that fuels international organised crime,” he said at the time. “The global gambling market will reach $205 billion in 2030.”

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It is very common among the different profiles identified to refer to regulatory bodies, such as the National Advertising Self-Regulation Council and SIGAP (Brazil’s betting management system). They also speak of responsible gaming in a generic way. In many cases, this is associated with illegal operators and potentially irregular advertising practices.

In this context, the regulations developed to protect players begin to function as a means of legitimisation, with illegal operators even using the term “authorised” in their communication and the “.bet” extension in their domain, which is intended only for licensed operators.

According to the governance policies of Meta, the owner of Instagram, gambling platforms can use programmatic advertising services and branded content, provided they receive authorisation from the platform. They cannot target content to individuals under 18 or territories where gambling is not regulated.