Expired Government, Charity, and Campaign Domains Are Being Repurposed as Offshore Gambling Sites

A new audit of the expired domain market indicates that offshore gambling operators have invested millions of dollars acquiring web addresses formerly associated with government bodies, charities, and political campaigns – a practice that allows unlicensed betting sites to inherit the search-engine authority and public trust of the domains’ previous owners. The report, published by Backlinking.com , examined 3,692 expired domain auction sales of $3,000 or more conducted between January 2024 and May 2026 across five auction venues, with outcomes observed in August 2026. Buyers paid a combined $22.3 million for the domains in the sample.