Scottish Borders Council removed 16 outdated links on August 27, 2026, after expired community-council domains redirected visitors to offshore casino portals. The links were listed in the council’s directory of 69 community councils.

The incident did not involve a hack of the council’s own website. The affected domains had changed hands but remained linked from official pages, according to reports by Casino.com and SBC News.

The case shows how an expired web address can turn an official public link into an indirect route to gambling sites outside Great Britain’s regulatory system.

Nearly one in four links was affected

  • 16 of 69 community-council links redirected users to gambling websites.
  • 15 links were traced to the defunct Online Borders service.
  • One separate link, associated with Chirnside Community Council, redirected to an Indonesian-language gambling site.

The affected links represented about 23% of the directory. Scottish Borders Council asked community groups to check and update their web details after the issue was reported.

Why expired domains create a public trust risk

Expired-domain squatting involves acquiring a web address after its previous owner stops using it. The new owner can then benefit from the address’s existing reputation, search ranking or incoming links.

In this case, official council listings gave the old addresses a level of public credibility that independent gambling advertising would not normally receive.

The Scottish Borders Council directory helps residents find community groups and local contacts. The council’s community-council page identifies it as an official public resource and says community councils represent local areas and consult residents.

What Great Britain’s gambling rules cover

Great Britain’s regulated gambling market covers England, Scotland and Wales. The Gambling Commission maintains a public register of licensed gambling businesses and publishes regulatory actions. Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man operate under separate arrangements.

Licensed online operators in Great Britain must support GAMSTOP. The service allows customers to self-exclude from participating online operators through a single request. The Gambling Commission also requires gambling businesses to maintain self-exclusion arrangements.

Great Britain’s credit-card gambling ban took effect on April 14, 2020. It covers remote gambling and non-remote betting, with limited exceptions for non-remote lotteries. Websites operating outside the British licensing system are not bound by the Gambling Commission’s licence conditions.

What changes for councils and users

The immediate lesson for councils is that link management is also a public-safety issue. Official directories need regular link checks, ownership reviews and removal dates for services that close.

The episode also shows that a council does not need to advertise or endorse gambling for its website to provide an indirect route to gambling platforms. For consumers, an official listing is not proof that a gambling website holds a Gambling Commission licence.

The Gambling Commission’s public register remains the relevant source for checking whether a gambling business is licensed in Great Britain.