TikTok’s Policies Questioned as Safer Gambling Talk Leads to Bans

Jim Curry promotes ethical gambling through his podcast, Better Gaming Show, which frequently results in his social media accounts being shut down. In the latest incident, TikTok banned him for discussing lottery compliance.

“I get blacklisted all the time,” Curry told CasinoBeats over a video call last week. “For whatever reason, the algorithms or the moderation policies or the systems see either gambling or lottery and presume that I’m doing something against the rules.”

Usually, when Curry appeals against the bans, his account is reinstated.

“I appealed it. It said, ‘Your appeal has been rejected. This is a permanent ban. If you want to download all your data…’ And that’s where I was like, ‘Oh, I’ve lost it all.’ It’s not a massive account; it was never about whether it’s a massive account or not. It’s the principle of the thing,” said Curry.

LinkedIn Post Lifts Ban

It was not until he took to LinkedIn to protest against TikTok’s flawed moderation policy that his Better Gaming Show account was reactivated.

“Last night I copped a permanent ban (even following an appeal) for discussing how to make gambling more robust, safer and compliant,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “Meanwhile, I see a waterfall of accounts and posts in my timeline featuring tipsters promising guaranteed wins, crypto casino ads with no age filter checks, and grifters/influencers selling systems to teenagers.”

“If TikTok’s moderation policy can’t tell the difference between reform and harm, it’s clearly just protecting attention, engagement, and commercial gain.”

Not long after the post, his account was active again, much to the relief of his 43 followers.

“To be honest, it’s a really dull watch,” he admitted. ” Two old people discussing how to make gambling safe. I could understand it if they banned it for being too boring.”

But Curry received a message stating that the ban was due to the gambling content.

Through LinkedIn, he could see who had viewed the post.

“I saw that quite a few people from TikTok had been on there. Then I just presumed that my little hissy fit probably got somebody internally to just switch it back on.”

TikTok did not notify Curry of why his account was reactivated.

“I find it absolutely baffling how people who legitimately try to improve the industry and talk about stuff constantly get banned,” says Curry with exasperation. This was not his first ban, and it likely will not be his last.

Gambling Promotions Rife on TikTok

Curry claims there is a “waterfall of accounts” promoting gambling on TikTok. Anyone frequently using the platform will likely have seen content sponsored by crypto casinos such as Stake or Rainbet.

TikTok’s gambling policy states that it does not allow “Gambling ads that promote unlicensed or illegal gambling services.”

Rainbet is blocked in the UK and the US, but that does not appear to stop its content from frequently appearing in TikTok videos in these countries. A quick search will reveal many videos of people playing on the app. Some videos explicitly say they are gambling, which leaves questions about how this kind of content slips through.

“It gets engagement, it gets people’s attention, and it probably gets people staying on their apps for longer,” says Curry. “Anything that increases dwell time, view time, number of videos watched, all of that sort of stuff, is going to be a win for them.”

Meta & Google’s Policies Also Questioned

It’s not just TikTok, Curry points out. “I have to jump through hoops to advertise on Meta and Google, but they’re all getting advertising money and revenue from gambling companies.”

A report last year suggested that Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook, generates $16 billion in annual revenue from scams and the advertising of illegal services, including gambling. That amounts to around 10% of the company’s overall revenue.

Meta insists it is trying to tackle the problem, but internal documents suggest the company has limits to how far it is willing to go.

One document said that action tackling the promotion of scams, illegal gambling, and other banned products should not cost Meta more than 0.15% of total revenue. That amounts to about $135 million, out of the $90 billion Meta generated in the first half of 2025.

“Let’s be cautious,” wrote a manager overseeing the effort, “We have specific revenue guardrails.”

Earlier this year, the UK Gambling Commission accused Meta of turning a blind eye to illegal businesses on its platforms.

Regulators Face Challenges to Restrict Illegal Services

Curry, who is also based in the UK, did not go so far as to accuse TikTok or Meta of deliberately allowing certain prohibited content to slip through their algorithms.

“That’s a big accusation to make, because that would be quite fatalistic for them,” he says. He acknowledges that monitoring social media content is difficult and admits he does not have a solution.

“I think there are a lot of black market operators who will keep coming,” said Curry. “You cut off the head, and more emerge. The Gambling Commission announced the number of URLs that were blocked for gambling sites in the UK. I think it was in the tens of thousands. But that was just the tip of the iceberg; that was the ones that they reported.”

Since 2024, the Commission’s Illegal Markets team has reported 447,778 URLs to search engines. Of these, 287,961 have been removed.

Additionally, content creators devise methods to bypass the automated blocks on social media platforms. “You can’t mention certain words, because the videos will be taken straight down, so people end up finding ways around it. They use words like grape or corn.”

There are sites dedicated to mastering the “dark art of TikTok gambling ads.” Tips include steering clear of direct gambling-related words, focusing on demographics known for their engagement with gambling, and including covert messages that “subtly suggest the excitement of winning,” according to one guide to beating the algorithm.

Meta Calls on TikTok to Protect Users

With creators using a host of methods to circumvent the algorithms, the moderation problem is huge for social media companies. They claim they are doing their best.

“Scammers are persistent criminals whose efforts, often driven by ruthless cross-border criminal networks that operate on a global scale, continue to grow in sophistication and complexity,” a Meta spokesperson told CasinoBeats.

Last week, it called on TikTok and Google to join the company in introducing more stringent measures to protect against unwanted content on their platforms. This is part of an $18 billion settlement the company has agreed to pay to end lawsuits across 48 states.

Its new measures will include daily limits, turning off its apps at night, and additional parental controls, all aimed at limiting the time teens spend on social media.

“We want to ensure teens benefit from this new industry standard, but we cannot do it alone. These protections will only be truly effective if we work with our peers — TikTok and YouTube — to put the same measures in place,” the company stated.

We reached out to TikTok for comment on its gambling policies, but did not receive a response. Now back live on the platform, Curry says the Better Gaming Show would love to hear from anyone who shares his mission of promoting safer gambling. You can get in touch through his website, and you could even star in the next TikTok video, until it gets taken down.