An illegal casino clearly targeting British consumers has used major UK supermarket chain Tesco’s branding to promote its services on social media.
Reports surfaced that ‘Tesco Slots’ has flooded Meta’s Facebook platform with adverts, using the famous red-and-blue branding to apparently try and deceive customers that the supermarket has launched its own casino.
Still accessible from the UK, the website falsely claims that users can use the Tesco-exclusive payments infrastructure to gamble, such as the Tesco debit card, Tesco Bank, and Tesco Mobile.
“Tesco Slots brings the UK’s most trusted supermarket brand to online casino. Earn rewards on every spin, the same way you earn Clubcard points on your weekly shop,” the casino claims.
Still, it is reassuring to know that Tesco Slots has chosen to abide by UK regulations, explicitly noting that: “In line with UK rules, Tesco Slots takes debit cards only — credit cards have been banned at UK casinos since April 2020, so no Tesco credit card or Clubcard credit card can be used.”
Sarcasm aside, the illegal casino promises new accounts a £1,500 welcome bonus plus 250 free spins, which is unheard of in the licensed gambling sector.
Tesco Slots claims to have been licensed by the Curaçao Gambling Authority (CGA), but a quick look on the regulatory’s list shows no such entity being registered.
Instead, a text at the bottom of the operator’s webpage in what is likely the smallest font possible before it becomes invisible, put right under “The Official Tesco Casino” claim, says that “the operating company holds all legal responsibility for his site”. What this operating company is remains unknown.
Clicking on the Terms and Conditions page to try and understand more greets us with a blank white screen, with a single ominous sentence in the top left corner saying “Silence is golden”.
In fact, this is what hides behind every single link on the Tesco Slots website. All links redirect to a “win.101nightwin” URL. The full URL text includes a section “id=7557” in it.
SBC News spoke to an SEO expert, who said that this most likely means that the URL is an affiliate link.
This is all the information that we can deduct about Tesco Slots at the moment.
What is Night Win?
One interesting detail is the 101nightwin domain. Our research showed that there is an actual NightWin casino operating on a Curaçao licence, with the legal entity behind the licence being Flybergom B.V.
And while we cannot prove a direct connection between 101nightwin and NightWin casino, another detail came up that caught our attention.
At the time of writing, NightWin claimed that it is licensed by the CGA. Flybergom did in fact receive a licence in September 2025, but since 26 March 2026 the licence has been put under assessment, essentially making it inactive.
We have contacted the CGA for a comment on all of the above so far.
Illegal operators becoming more brazen
It is not the first time that we’ve seen a major legitimate brand in the UK being targeted by illegal gambling operators.
Earlier this month, the NHS fell victim to a cyber security weak point in one of its subsidiary websites called ‘My Therappy’. The website was essentially abandoned in 2020, with no updates being made ever since.
It still kept all the NHS messaging, however, which made it easily seen on search engines, making it a prime real estate for cyber attacks and takeovers such as the latest case.
In August, the Scottish Border Council experienced a similar attack due to outdated systems. This followed a June incident where the Old Catton Parish Council displayed ads for an illegal Indonesian casino.
Even the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) was at one point a victim of such attacks.
Given the scope of the issue, the UK government formed the Illegal Gambling Taskforce at the start of 2026 to try and contain it by working with various watchdog organisations such as the Advertisement Standards Authority (ASA).
For SBC News, the ASA added: “The Illegal Gambling Taskforce has been established by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport with the goal of reducing the negative impacts of specific challenges relating to illegal gambling in the UK. The taskforce doesn’t have powers of its own but instead aims to bring together relevant organisations to identify potential solutions to these challenges.
“In relation to advertising, the goal of the taskforce is to bring together regulators, the gambling industry and major online platforms (including Meta), to collectively identify ways to tackle online advertising of illegal gambling.
“The Gambling Commission is the primary regulator of illegal gambling advertising, but the ASA supports the Gambling Commission where possible in this task, including through involvement in the taskforce. This is part of our commitment to “collective ad regulation” that recognises that in the online world, solutions to complex problems often require collaboration from multiple regulators.”
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