Finding gambling links on your site

Three ways a link is flagged

Why keywords alone aren’t enough

An encyclopaedia article about casinos contains the same words as a casino. Keyword matching can’t tell them apart, which is why a keyword-only match is Needs review and not Not safe.

The blocklist also has gaps. In our own testing a well-known gambling operator was not on it, and was caught only by the keyword check, so it was reported as Needs review rather than confirmed.

Where the blocklist comes from

The gambling list is published by the StevenBlack hosts project under the MIT licence. Blocklist sources gives sizes, coverage and the limits of a domain-level list.

What a confirmed finding looks like

A link to a listed domain is reported as Not safe with the reason “Domain is on the gambling blocklist”. The match works on the link’s host, so a subdomain of a listed domain matches as well. It does not depend on the destination answering: a listed domain is flagged even if the page would not load.

When the page carrying the link is not about gambling, the reason changes to the out-of-context wording shown earlier, and the finding moves into Out of context in the action plan.

Why gambling links appear on sites that never sold anything

• Injection: code added through a compromised plugin, theme or login, often hidden from the owner. See hidden links and cloaked links.
• Paid guest posts: an article placed for a fee with a casino link in the body.
• Expired domains: a link to a former partner whose domain was taken over. See expired domain links.
• Old affiliate arrangements nobody removed.

Why it matters

Gambling is regulated and age-restricted, and many organisations filter it out. A school, library or workplace network that blocks gambling can block a site that links to it. In search, links to gambling sold or placed without disclosure are treated as link spam. And for readers, an unexpected betting link on an unrelated page damages trust quickly.

Gambling pages that are meant to be there

If your site genuinely reviews or reports on gambling, links to operators are part of the content and will still be reported as Not safe, as the blocklist cannot know your intent. Mark paid links sponsored and others nofollow as appropriate (see which rel should a link have), then use ignore a finding for links you have decided to keep.

What to do when you find one

1. Open the pageUse Found on, and search the page for the anchor text in the finding.
2. Decide whether it is yoursIf you or a colleague placed it, decide whether to keep it, mark it, or remove it. If not, treat it as injected.
3. Remove it at the sourceCheck the post content, widgets, footer and plugins. For injected links, update software and change passwords, as covered in after a WordPress hack.
4. Check for moreThe same operator is often linked from several pages. Search the report for its domain.

Common mistakes

• Assuming keyword-only findings are false alarms. They are Needs review for a reason, and one may be the first sign of a larger problem.
• Assuming a clean report means no gambling links, when the blocklist and keyword list do not cover every operator.
• Removing the link on the live page but not in the cached copy that visitors still receive.

How to confirm it is fixed

Run a re-check from the report’s Overview tab after the fix. It reads only the pages your flagged links are on, so it takes a minute or two. Marking a finding as reviewed does not close it: the next scan reads the page again and calls the finding resolved only when the link is gone or no longer flagged. On a monitored site, later checks keep watching for it to come back.

In your report

Gambling links are counted on the Gambling card on the Overview tab, under the heading “What the risky links are about”, after the priority cards. It carries an amber Medium risk chip. These cards break the same findings down by subject, so a gambling link is counted here and in its priority card, and the category cards are not added to the action plan paragraph.

The advice reads “Remove the 3 links to gambling sites, or mark them sponsored or nofollow if they are paid”. Review these links opens the Findings tab on a Gambling view, which shows its own tab with the count. The small button beside it, labelled “What gambling links are”, opens this page in a new tab, so the report stays where it is.

In the list, a gambling chip appears in the Signals column. A confirmed row also shows a red Not safe chip, and its detail panel says “On the gambling domain blocklist” with a Confirmed tag. A keyword-only row says “Matched:” followed by the words. If the page is not about gambling the row also gets an amber Out of context chip and moves into the Out of context priority.

What to do next

1. Open the row and the Found on page. If you did not add the link, treat it as an injection.
2. If the link is paid, add rel="sponsored". The What to do note in the panel suggests the right marker. The Passing credit tab lists flagged links that are still followed.
3. If the site really covers gambling, mark the rows reviewed or ignore them in monitoring, since the blocklist cannot know your intent.

How this counts in your LinkSignal

When the page carrying a gambling link is not about gambling, the link is out of context and is counted in the out of context links row of your site’s external LinkSignal, or in the hidden, cloaked and script-injected links row if it is also concealed. On a page where it fits, it falls under links that need review if it is flagged as risky or unsafe. The LinkSignal overview lists every row. LinkSignal is Link Signals’ own metric, worked out only from what this tool finds, and it is not connected to any search engine or third-party score.