Revealed: how black market betting sites are preying on gambling addicts

Dozens of websites are advertising black market bookmakers directly to customers who have signed up for the industry's flagship self-exclusion scheme, GamStop.

An investigation by the Racing Post into the betting black market has found disturbing evidence of how online portals target people who have excluded themselves from legal operators using player protection tools, and the staggering ease at which they can be found, signed up to and bet through.

GamStop lets users self-exclude themselves from betting online for a period of between six months and five years. All major UK bookmakers, such as bet365, Ladbrokes, Coral, Betfair, Paddy Power, Tote and William Hill feature among the 149 firms listed on GamStop's website as being participants in the scheme, which is a condition of licence for Gambling Commission-regulated firms.