How Google turned public institution, hospital and charity domains into online casino gateways?
Across Europe and North America, legitimate domains once belonging to hospitals, charities, schools and even children-themed websites are being hijacked and repurposed as casino affiliate platforms. The problem is no longer marginal, and Google’s algorithms appear to be rewarding the very abuse they were designed to stop.
Trusted public domains recycled into casino fronts
Websites that once served the public interest have become unrecognizable. Dozens of previously trusted domains now redirect to unregulated gambling pages or casino affiliate farms. Among the most striking examples are:
- elitechrysler.com – a former automotive brand website, now promoting Canadian casinos
- safecanada.ca – once a Canadian government site for national emergencies, now advertising unlicensed casinos
- wavecomp.ai – previously a computing and AI company website, now pushing casino bonus offers
- peopletree.eu – an environmental support organization site turned into a casino portal targeting UK players
- languagecoursesuk.co.uk – an educational site hijacked to promote illegal UK casinos
- arabellareeve.co.uk – formerly a catering business, now hosting casino content
- cliftonpark.org.uk – a museum for children, currently promoting gambling
- elaris.eu – a German electric car manufacturer’s website repurposed for casino marketing in Germany
- wizardexploratorium.io – a children’s wizard-themed attraction site, now filled with UK casino links
- redkangaroo.co.uk – a trampoline park for kids turned into a gambling site
- vso.org.uk – once a volunteer charity organization, now an illegal UK gambling page
- yeovilhospital.co.uk – a hospital domain now promoting online casinos
- nsbcpa.org – the National Society of Black Certified Public Accountants’ website, now pushing Italian casinos
It’s a disturbing cross-section of the internet’s decay. Domains once symbolizing public service or education are now functioning as channels for gambling promotion, often targeting jurisdictions with strict regulations.
SEO expert: “You don’t even need a parasite anymore”
Behind these takeovers lies a lucrative trade in expired domains. Spammers purchase forgotten or abandoned sites that still hold valuable backlinks from credible institutions and redirect them to casino affiliate networks.
As British digital marketing consultant Charles Floate, a British digital marketing consultant known for his expertise in black-hat SEO, explained on LinkedIn:
This approach doesn’t rely on hacking or sophisticated code. It relies on exploiting reputation. A single redirect can convert a dormant charity domain with a decade of clean backlinks into a high-ranking gambling site overnight.
Floate described it as “lazy, old-school SEO tactics with great timing,” noting that Google’s focus on AI-driven automation has created an opening for mass abuse.
How Google’s filters are failing?
Floate’s criticism reflects growing frustration among SEO professionals.
According to him, many of these pages would once have been flagged for spam or blacklisted entirely. Now they not only remain online but also dominate competitive search results. Some domains with high authority scores, including former hospital or charity websites, rank prominently for terms like crypto roulette and casino bonuses.
A lucrative business built on borrowed credibility
For those running black-hat operations, the model is straightforward and immensely profitable. Expired domains with trusted backlink profiles are bought for small sums and transformed into high-traffic casino sites.
Floate notes that some operators are earning as much as £200,000 per month from traffic generated by these recycled domains. “Some of the biggest players aren’t even building links right now,” he said. “They’re just buying forgotten brands and laundering traffic through expired trust and equity signals.”
The economics are simple: Google’s algorithm still rewards authority, even if that authority was built years ago for legitimate public purposes. What was once a hospital’s public resource or a children’s museum’s homepage can now generate steady income for offshore casino affiliates.
Google is losing control to its own AI?
The moral and reputational fallout is significant. Organizations that no longer control their domains are unknowingly contributing to unlicensed gambling promotion. The damage extends beyond SEO – it undermines user trust in digital legitimacy itself. When a government or charity website suddenly displays casino content, the entire idea of online credibility takes a hit.
The issue also exposes a vulnerability in Google’s ecosystem. If authority signals like backlinks and domain age can be recycled indefinitely, it calls into question how search engines evaluate authenticity.
Floate’s observations capture a deeper problem. As Google invests more resources into artificial intelligence and automated moderation, the company’s traditional anti-spam infrastructure appears to be stagnating.
Unless Google renews its manual oversight mechanisms and updates its algorithms to distinguish legitimate authority from repurposed trust, the hijacking of expired domains will continue to expand.
Google’s House of Cards
The wave of hijacked charity, hospital and children-themed domains reflects the same weaknesses we reported on in March 2025. Back then, our investigation showed how an expired UK school website had climbed to the top of Google search results for “best casino sites,” directing users to offshore gambling platforms beyond the Gamstop network. That case exposed how Google’s algorithm continued to reward abandoned but authoritative domains repurposed for gambling promotion.
The current pattern follows a similar route. Google’s systems still treat legacy backlinks and expired authority as valid ranking signals, even when the content has been completely replaced. This blind spot allows hijacked domains — once trusted by the public — to become conduits for illegal casinos.
SEO consultant Martin McGarry warned about this in early 2025, noting that Google “got distracted with AI chat tools and seems to have forgotten to monitor spam.” His assessment appears increasingly accurate. The same loopholes that enabled parasite SEO to flourish in search results are now being used on a broader scale, affecting not only media or educational sites but also institutions once seen as untouchable.
As long as Google fails to address this, the boundary between real authority and manufactured credibility will continue to blur. What used to define the trustworthiness of the web is now being traded as a commodity with Google’s own systems helping it spread.