The Asian Racing Federation (ARF) is increasingly concerned about the trend of gaming websites to use “white-labeling,” which makes it harder to tell a legal site from an illegal site.
White labeling happens when the manufacturer or creator of a product uses branding requested by the purchaser, rather than its own brand.
The practice is increasing common in Asia, according to an analysis done by ARF: “The State of Illegal Betting Report.” The report looked at 534 betting sites in 61 jurisdictions and found that less than 40 percent were licensed and regulated. These included 262 sites that had more than one million visits over a two year period.
The analysis quotes the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) that reported in 2020 that there were over 700 white-label partners in the industry and the trend was “increasingly popular.” It added, “there is a concern that unlicensed operators who would potentially not pass the Commission’s initial licensing suitability checks are looking to use the white-label model to provide gambling services in Great Britain.”
White-labeling is increasingly used by operators aiming at the Asian market through association with major sports.
White-label operators also find it costs them considerably less to start a business.
ARF council member Dr. Sally Gainsbury added, “Research shows that use of offshore gambling is associated with greater experience of harms and gambling problems than domestically regulated websites. This is a clear statement of the problem caused by illegal online gambling operators, which must be considered breaking the law by not being Licensed and Regulated onshore.”
She argues for gaming regulators to explicitly prohibit “white-label” website domains, especially because the average customer can’t differentiate the difference between legal and illegal betting sites.
