Gambling Ads: Trust Sports to Be Fair and Honest Competitions? Yeah, Sure
February 26, 2026
Gambling is a problem that many countries don’t want to handle. Gambling brings addiction, crime, and other unpleasant situations. Online casinos are a way around strict laws in anti-gambling countries, but they’re fighting back by banning online gambling ads. Yet Meta isn’t obeying the letter of laws and continues to display gambling ads. Rest of the World details how Meta is skirting the lawn in: “Countries Are Outlawing Online Gambling Ads. Meta Is Selling Them Anyway.”
In efforts to curb illegal gambling operations, the Indian government met with Meta and Google in summer 2025 to discuss online gambling advertisements. That meeting was followed up by the Indian government banning online gambling and advertising. India is one of many countries in South and Southeast Asia and the Middle East that ban gambling.
This didn’t prevent Meta from gambling ads in India and twelve other countries where gambling is illegal. In official documentation and verbal agreements, Meta follows the law:
“Last summer, Meta outlined its policies for online gambling and gaming-related ads on its platforms, including the prohibition of such ads in 18 countries it called “unsupported markets” across Asia and the Middle East. Months later, these ads continued to run in at least 13 of the 18 countries where Meta restricts them.”
The ads prove otherwise. The ads follow a pattern where they use a fake address, then run for a short period of six to eight hours. Many of the gambling businesses claim to be based in the United States, but are really in Southeast Asia. Meta claims:
“In its policy outlining the 18 countries where running these ads is prohibited, Meta asks that advertisers ensure they adhere to local laws, and that the platform is "not responsible for how authorized ad accounts comply with local gambling laws and regulations.’”
Reuters investigated the gambling ads and discovered that Meta earned $16 billion or 10% off its revenue from illegal ads that promote gambling, scams, and illegal items.
Now we know why Meta turns a blind eye. Hey, how about those last minute football wins? Hey, penalties? Definitely warranted. And those multi-team draws? Absolutely fair and honest. Figure skating scores? Pristine, folks, pristine. Do bad actors gamble? Just with the games they own, rig, and allow others to use.
Whitney Grace, February x, 2026
μ-Note: Telegram Faces Escalating Pressure in Russia
February 12, 2026
Another item about Telegram, the billion user messaging service, platform, and Swiss Army knife for smart contracts.
Reuters published a brief news item in its feed. The title tells little about the iceberg below: Russian Court Fines Telegram Messaging App 11 Million Rubles, RIA says." Click here for the source document Note: RIA is an acronym for RIA Novosti, owned by Rossiya Segodnya. RIA is a news agency.
As fines go, the amount is modest. The 11 million rubles is about US$140,000. As a signal, the action is similar to a ship’s fog horn. Future hearings are allegedly going to be held about Telegram, its services, and its direct actions.
This horn sounds when Telegram is limiting certain Messenger-based services, and Russia’s active promotion of the state-developed MAX Telegram alternative. Roskomnadzor appears to enforce its laws against foreign platforms. Telegram is a cross jurisdictional organization operating from Dubai and coffee shops in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Russia wants to demonstrate that it has regulatory leverage over Pavel Durov’s firm.
The fines for Telegram’s perceived failure to cooperate with Russian authorities.
Bottomline: Russia is escalating its actions toward Telegram. Based on its founder’s past philosophical statements, compromise may be difficult in public. Behind closed doors, Mr. Durov’s operation might be more flexible. This Russian legal action comes as Mr. Durov awaits trial in France for a number of alleged serious crimes.
Stephen E Arnold, February 12, 2026
Mr. Musk, Ms. Yaccarino, Meet JUNALCO. Have a Nice Chat
February 4, 2026
![green-dino_thumb_thumb[3]](https://www.arnoldit.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/green-dino_thumb_thumb3.gif "green-dino_thumb_thumb[3]")
Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.
Elon Musk and his former CEO Linda Yaccarino may have to make a trip to Paris in the spring. The reason? The duo have a date with JUNALCO. So what’s a “JUNALCO.” In French it is Juridiction nationale de lutte contre la criminalité organisée. The translation is in my rusty French something like France’s national prosecutors for organized crime, cybercrime, and complex transnational cases. If I think in terms of the US judicial and law enforcement set up, JUNALCO is a mix of special police (for instance, cyber investigators), the FBI, and a couple of offices of the State Department.
Getting caught in the French government’s legal processes is a problem for non-citizens. France is wired into other law enforcement organizations and the transnational folks as well. Non-citizens can “ignore” French legal requests and let their lawyers rack up big bills while catching some decent meals as the French legal processes move forward.
Two figures waiting in the rain for the French authorities to let them into the government building. Ah, Paris in the spring. Thanks, Venice.ai. Your French is worse than mine. It is “judiciaire,” not jiujicade. Sigh.
But if the person or persons ignore the French request, the French government is quite good at paperwork. A quick change at one of France’s airport en route to another destination could become an opportunity to spend some time with Border Police (PAF) and Customs (Douanes). At airports or any border crossing, these officials have wide discretionary powers. Computers make it easy to ID and chat with those on a watch list. In France, detention does not require an arrest warrant.
Who cares about this JUNALCO stuff? Answer: Elon Musk and Linda Yaccarino do.
“Paris Prosecutors Raid France Offices of Elon Musk’s X” reports:
Police specializing in combating cyber-crime, assisted by Europol, have raided the offices of Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, in France. The Paris prosecutor said it related to an investigation into the content recommended by X’s algorithm, which had subsequently been widened to include its controversial AI chatbot, Grok. The prosecutor’s office added both Musk and former X chief executive officer Linda Yaccarino had been summoned to appear at hearings in April as part of its probe.
France to most people means good food, nice architecture, and wonderful shopping. To those snagged in its bureaucratic processes France means home of the EU’s most overcrowded prison, Byzantine legal processes, and time… lots of time. Attorneys understand time and how to use it.
The question becomes, “Why target X.com, Elon, and the former CEO Linda, the ad sales expert?”
The answer is, “France has a case.”
JUNALCO does not take action with Europol along for the ride unless it has, in JUNALCO’s view, a very solid case against what France perceives as a very bad actor. The head of the Paris prosecutor’s office, in my experience, is not going to be moved by the wealth, power, rocket ships, and robots. Nope. X.com is on the JUNALCO spring agenda.
I would suggest that:
- This is serious: The raid, the summons, and the direct involvement of Europol
- Two executives means separate “interviews” and a real life prisoner’s dilemma for Mr. Musk. This is pressure geometry
- Refusal to appear means future risks and probably issues in other countries. Change planes at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and the possibility exists that Mr. Musk or Ms. Yaccarino could be picked up and whisked to Paris
- France is the pointed end of the stick for certain major cyber crime actions in Western Europe.
What happens if Mr. Musk or Ms. Yaccarino is held for interrogation? Mr. Musk and/or Ms Yaccarino’s French attorneys will work with the duo’s American attorneys to contact the US embassy. Will that online form for assistance requests be acted upon promptly? One hopes.
This is a now, tomorrow, and future problem. As Simon and Garfunkel wrote:
April, come she will
When streams are ripe and swelled with pain
Ooops. Sorry. I meant “rain,” not “pain.” My bad.
Stephen E Arnold, February 4, 2026
A Red Shark with the Vibe of Tony Robbins Spotted
February 3, 2026
This is another Telegram-related post. The complete essay appears on the Telegram Notes’ service. The content is published on BearBlogs. The link to the complete article appears in the summary below. Each document is an human extract from the “notes” my team and I gathered in our research for my new monograph for law enforcement, “The Telegram Labyrinth.” If you want a copy, please, write kentmaxwell at proton dot me. The Telegram Notes’ essays provide some insight into the type of information that is in my September 2025 monograph. Thank you. Stephen E Arnold. PS. The goat represents the founder of Telegram, who has been associated with the acronym GOAT as the greatest of all time Russia’s tech innovators. The chewing goat icon is from Giphy.com. When you see the GOAT, I will have another “Telegram Notes” available.
I have posted a new essay in our Telegram Notes’ service. Its title is “Yuri Mitin: A Red Shark in Troubled Waters.” Yuri Mitin, known as Russia’s “Tony Robbins of Startups,” became visible in late 2025 as one of the people AlphaTON Capital. This is a NASDAQ-listed company tied to Telegram’s TONcoin and Telegram’s artificial intelligence service Cocoon. Originally a Moscow media personality and founder of RSV Ventures (rebranded from “Red Shark” to avoid U.S. regulatory red flags), Mitin moved to Manhattan to succeed in American capital markets. His timing aligned Pavel Durov’s 2024 arrest in France. Mitin and partners included ex-NASDAQ exec Enzo Villani and social media specialist Brittany Kaiser. The team acquired distressed biotech firm Portage Biotech, rebranded it AlphaTON Capital (ticker: ATON — a provocative nod to a notorious Russian brokerage), and launched it on NASDAQ. This was done quickly. I call these types of shell flips “Swanson TV dinner” companies. The plan is to monetize Telegram’s AI ambitions by leasing computing power to its new Cocoon project. Some problems have surfaced. The SEC hit AlphaTON with a nastygram for violating “Baby Shelf” rules, citing a suspicious $420.69M float. The essay explains the insider jokes of “420” and “69” in meme numerology. Worse, AlphaTON falsely claimed a $30M deal with defense firm Anduril Industries. CEO Palmer Luckey publicly exposed the lie and AlphaTON ended up with egg on its face. At the end of December 2025, AlphaTON paid $15M to sever ties with crypto market maker Andrei Grachev. This individual had some links to the state-linked “trade association” known as RACIB. Mitin’s high-speed, high-risk play has blended social media hype, shaky partnerships, and managerial missteps into an interesting concoction. Whether the red shark is acting alone or under direction remains unclear. But one thing is certain: a red shark is swimming in US financial pools. You can read the complete essay at this location.
Stephen E Arnold, February 3, 2026
Myanmar Unwittingly Takes Action Against Industrialized Online Crime
January 29, 2026
Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.
The UN wrote about the link among human trafficking, online and neon-lit casinos, and money laundering. Posts appeared on some of the law enforcement message boards. I included a couple of slides about these integrated systems in my November 2025 law enforcement lectures.
But China has taken action.
If the information in “China Executes 11 Members of Myanmar Scam Mafia,” the Middle Kingdom is sending a message to these unauthorized entities. The write up reports:
Their scam empire came crashing down in 2023, when they were detained and handed over to China by ethnic militias that had taken control of Laukkaing during an escalation in their conflict with Myanmar’s army.
What’s interesting is that the alleged bad actors ended up in the hands of “ethnic militias.” In Myanmar, a group of like minded individuals can team up and claim to be an ethnic militia. Some support a political party or movement; some are opportunists; some linked to the Myanmar border guard force; and others may be supportive of or be supported by another country. The last estimate about the number of ethnic militias in Myanmar was “maybe 20, maybe more.” My source was a donut shop operator in rural Kentucky. You may want to verify this estimate, but let’s assume it is close enough for horse shoes.
Once the scam center prisoners are released, will the people forced to phish go to their home country or will they end up in another phishing factory? Thanks, Midjourney. Good enough.
The unnamed “ethnic militias” snatched the alleged bad actors and somehow moved these individuals to Chinese officials. China, a mysterious country in many ways, found the people guilty. The individuals were killed.
The write up adds:
With these executions Beijing is sending a message of deterrence to would-be scammers. But the business has now moved to Myanmar’s border with Thailand, and to Cambodia and Laos, where China has much less influence.
China is not pleased with unauthorized activites related to certain types of crimes. Killing the bad actors is a reasonably clear message: Try to restart the Crouching Tiger Villa operation, and we will take the offense seriously.
Several observations:
- The illegal online activities are unlikely to be impeded by this series of executions. The question arises, “Why not?”
- The Golden Triangle, Myanmar, and a few other nations or quasi countries have numerous criminal compounds. The question arises, “Why aren’t other enforcement agencies taking steps to curtail these crime factories?”
- Online makes it easy to set up a scam center and operate internationally, why haven’t important “nodes” to the Internet taken action and shut down certain types of online traffic?”
Here’s a final question, “What online service handles about 20 to 25 percent of money laundering?”
Net net: Beijing is sending a message. I am not sure those engaged in these lucrative oiperations will listen or care. Let me amend my statement. Yes, the bad actors will care when the mobile death van rolls out the guerney, the executioner pulls the trigger, or the hangman pushes a button to drop the condemned through a slot on the floor so the termination occurs on the floor below. Until then, international and national enforcement seem ineffective. Online services don’t care. The only people who care are those harmed by the bad actors. Their voices are lost in the noise.
Stephen E Arnold, January 29, 2026
The Final Word on Tricky Online Shopping Tactics
January 26, 2026
Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.
I read a round up of what I call “tricky online shopping tactics.” The data flow from an academic project called WebTAP. The researchers are smart; each hails from either Princeton University or the University of Chicago. Selected data are presented in “Dark Patterns at Scale: Findings from a Crawl of 11K Shopping Websites.” The authors (hopefully just one of them) will do a talk at a conference about tricky retail methods using the jazzier jargon “dark patterns.” The term (whether my dinobaby version or the hip new buzzword) mean the same thing: You are bamboozled into buying stuff you may not want, need, or price check before clicking.
I don’t want to be critical of these earnest researchers. There is a list of the sites that the researchers determined do some fancy dancing. Here it is:
If you want to read the list, you will find it on page 24 of the study team’s 32 page report. I want to point out that sites I know use tricky online shopping tactics are not on the list. Here’s one example of a site I expected to find on the radar of the estimable study team from Princeton and the University of Chicago: Amazon.
But what do the researchers say about dicey online shopping sites I never encounter? The paper states:
We found at least one instance of dark pattern on approximately 11.1% of the examined websites. Notably, 183 of the websites displayed deceptive messages. Furthermore, we observed that dark patterns are more likely to appear on popular websites. Finally, we discovered that dark patterns are often enabled by third-party entities, of which we identify 22; two of these advertise practices that enable deceptive patterns. Based on these findings, we suggest that future work focuses on empirically evaluating the effects of dark patterns on user behavior, developing countermeasures against dark patterns so that users have a fair and transparent experience, and extending our work to discover dark patterns in other domains.
Net net: No Amazon, no Microsoft, no big name online retailers like WalMart, and no product pitch blogs like Venture Beat-type publications. No suggestions for regulatory action to protect consumers. No data about the increase or decrease in the number of sites using dark patterns. Yep, there is indeed work to be done. Why not focus on deception as a business strategy and skip the jazzy jargon?
Stephen E Arnold, January 26, 2026
Are NoKos Scam Phisher Champs?
January 26, 2026
When you think about scams, do you immediately think about Nigeria or Russian females who really want to meet an amerikos ? hat African nation is one of the scam capitals of the world. Russia is pretty capable in this department. But does North Korea hold the title of Scam King? Probably not. But some experts want people to believe that North Korean bad actors are the top phishers of men. Tech Radar explains the authoritarian country’s latest scam: “North Korean Hackers Using Malicious QR Codes In Spear Phishing, FBI Warns.”
North Korean bad actors are preying own academia, think tanks, and US government institutions with sophisticated QR codes called “quishing” attacks. Their goal is to obtain credentials for VPNs, Okta, or Microsoft 365. The FBI issued a warning about quishing attacks. The attacks are sent from “Kimusky,” who sends out convincing emails with complicated QR codes that bypass protections.
The FBI says that QR codes are easily scanned with mobile devices. Here’s how the scam works:
“When the victim scans the code, they are sent through multiple redirectors that collect different information and identity attributes, such as user-agent, operating system, IP address, locale, and screen size. This data is then used to land the victim on a custom-built credential-harvesting page, impersonating Microsoft 365, Okta, or VPN portals.
If the victim does not spot the trick and tries to log in, the credentials would end up with the attackers. What’s more – these attacks often end with session token theft and replay, allowing the threat actors to bypass multi-factor authentication (MFA) and hijack cloud accounts without triggering the usual “MFA failed” alert.”
Mobile devices aren’t managed as readily as desktop and laptop computers. They’re extremely vulnerable to this QR code scam! The smart thing to do is: Don’t scan strange QR codes. Some outfits hire coders, use their scam software, and just provide more phish to be trawled. Hey, restaurant owner, am I talking about you?
Whitney Grace, January 26 , 2026
AI Business Trickery: Not a Good Sign for the Industry
January 19, 2026
In feat reminiscent of the Great and Powerful Oz, the curtain was pulled back on an UK AI company that turned out to be a great big real fake. The ACS Information Age reported that, “The Company Whose ‘AI’ Was Actually 700 Humans In India.” For eight years, Engineer.ai allegedly fooled the tech industry. It was allegedly founded by Sachin Dev Duggal, who served as the CEO of Builder.ai. Plus, he raised money. He pitched AI, and the check books came out. He acquired funding from Microsoft, Qatar, and SoftBank.
Duggal promised that his AI chatbot, Natasha, would be a no-code tool that could build apps six times faster than typical required work and would be seventy percent cheaper. Duggal embraced Silicon Valley baloney job titles. He dubbed himself the “chief wizard” borrowing from the 1939 motion picture “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Yep, the film had a robot too.
However, Engineer.ai declared bankruptcy after a Bloomberg investigation reported that Engineer.ai had been working with the Indian social media startup VerSe. Both were employing criminal financial actions. When these practices were revealed, Viola Credit, a major backer, wanted immediate repayment of its $50 million loan.
More information popped out in December 2025. The smart software Natasha was about 700 Indian app developers. These professional humans wrote customers’ software and adopted the behavior of bots. Not good. The cited source reports:
“Although the developers used a range of software tools in their work, coding was performed manually, meaning that while Builder.ai did eventually deliver apps to its customers, it was simply another player in an Indian offshoring industry attracting $27 billion ($US17.7 billion) annually. That puts the company in a completely different market segment than the one that propelled AI-hungry investors through four funding rounds before and after the debut of OpenAI’s ChatGPT turned the global tech industry on its head.”
What other AI charades are operating using hyperbolic marketing and motion picture tropes? My hunch. Lots.
Whitney Grace, January 19, 2026
Telegram Notes: Mama Durova and Her Inner Circle
January 14, 2026
Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.
We filtered our notes for my new book “The Telegram Labyrinth.” Information about Pavel Durov’s mom was sparse. What we had, however, was interesting. The inner circle boils down to her ex-husbands and her three sons. In Part One of a two-part write up, you can get a snapshot of the individuals who facilitated the technical and business plumbing for VKontakte until its sale to Kremlin-approved buyers and then for the Telegram messaging service. You can find part one of this interesting group on my Telegram Notes online service.
Stephen E Arnold, January 14, 2026
Gambling Is An Addiction & The Internet Starts ‘Em Young
January 8, 2026
Robert Custer was a psychiatrist who promoted the theory that gambling addition was a mental disorder. His pioneering research is the basis for modern treatments of gambling disorder. Since Custer’s prime in the 1970s and 1980s, gambling has exploded, not just with brick and mortar casinos, but also online gambling and expansion of mobile sports betting. Science News discusses the rising tide of online gambling in the article, “As Gambling Addiction Spreads, One Scientist’s Work Reveals Timely Insights.”
Custer’s research is more relevant now than ever especially as the behavior is nurtured in kids from the moment they can hold a mobile device. Custer fought to include the disorder in the DSM and he succeeded:
“Custer argued that pathological gambling was not just a matter of an individual’s building and releasing tension. Rather, pathological gambling followed a progressive course from slightly unhealthy gambling behaviors to increasingly problematic wagering with tangible financial and social consequences. As a result, the committee incorporated the common consequences Custer saw in his clinical experience — such as defaulting on debts, borrowing money and struggling with family relationships — as diagnostic criteria to better identify those suffering. So, while pathological gambling remained alongside impulse control disorders in the DSM-III, its description and diagnostic criteria more closely mirrored the way the manual approached substance use disorders.”
Kids become addicted to online games that mimic the same dopamine release that gamblers experience. Social media giants are huge enablers of this behavior but so is Telegram. Telegram wants to hook the kids young so they’ll be addicted until the day they fall into a hole. It’s despicable and makes you want to toss a kid outside with a ball and stick. Go outside!
Whitney Grace, January 8, 2025
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