Over 4,000 Bangla gambling ads on Facebook: Dismislab

Every year, Meta earns at least US $1.5 million to run over 4,000 gambling ads in Bangla on Facebook, aimed at Bangladeshi users.

This was revealed by Dismislab -- a fact-checking organisation -- in a research released yesterday.

The ads have captions in Bangla and entice users to spend money in exchange for returns. They also photoshop images of celebrities or logos of prominent Bangladeshi news organisations to feign legitimacy, the report states.

"Dismislab uncovered around 50 ads on Ad Library that showcased doctored images or videos of celebrities and media logos. Among the most popular targets was cricketer Shakib Al Hasan," the report stated.

"The pages running the ads are shady, with no likes, followers, or posts, indicating they were opened to advertise gambling only," said the report.

"Many of these ads have been active for months to even a year," it added.

These pages are often run from countries like Ukraine, Germany, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, and even the US. Several have Bangladeshi admins.

"Meta's Online Gambling and Gaming Advertising Policy mandates that advertisers seeking to promote such content must obtain written permission using a form provided by Meta itself. Bangladesh isn't among the approved countries for online gambling ads on the platform, and neither does the form offer any options to target users in Bangladesh."

The advertisers are circumventing the rules, and Meta is profiting financially, said Dismislab.

The researchers also stated the numbers may be higher, as they only searched for ads in Bangla.

"Each ad costs a minimum of $ 1 per day. Not all advertisers adhere to the minimum daily spending. The actual daily cost may surpass this threshold due to factors such as impressions, ad strategy, and placement. It means, the number of gambling ads and the advertising expenses could be far higher," the report added.