People seeking information about community councils in the Scottish Borders were directed to online gambling portals via the Scottish Borders Council's website. BBC Scotland News discovered that 16 links, out of a directory of 69 community councils, led to offshore casino websites that bypass strict UK gambling laws.
The local authority removed the problematic links after the BBC alerted them to the situation. Dr Daniel Thomas, a cyber security expert from the University of Strathclyde, described the incident as "domain squatting," where organisations acquire expired domain names linked to reputable websites.
Fifteen of the 16 affected community council websites were previously built on a third-sector directory called Online Borders. Sources within community councils indicated that when this platform became unresponsive eight years ago, Scottish Borders Council instructed them to build their own sites. All links related to Online Borders now funnel users to a portal displaying "top noGamstop casinos." The Chirnside Community Council link, not hosted by Online Borders, directed users to an Indonesian site.
Offshore gambling platforms do not participate in the UK's national self-exclusion scheme, Gamstop, and accept credit card payments, a practice banned by the UK Gambling Commission since 2020. Scottish Borders Council has not responded to requests for comment, but it is understood they issued a memo asking community councils to ensure their websites were up to date following the BBC's approach.