Gambling advertising faces a new crackdown on the UK arm of the world’s biggest social networking site.

Facebook UK said yesterday it would be taking steps to remove all forms of gambling advertising including online casino, bingo, sportsbook and poker ads. Industry insiders fear it could eventually lead to a host of facebook pages belonging to online gambling websites being removed too.

Blacklist

Gambling is just one of 20 categories being wiped as part of a “clean-up” by facebook. Others include firearms, tobacco, spy cameras, politically religious agendas and pyramid schemes.

Bizarrely, Facebook members will still be able to play the sites own “gambling” games and bosses insist that existing group pages, fan pages personal pages will be allowed to continue for the moment.

Britain’s only real live Blackjack TV channel has announced changes after a series of player consultations.

Smart Live Blackjack — part of the Smart Live Casino franchise — is extending its hours and betting limits.

Smart Live’s Rob O’Connor said: “We’ve been listening to our customers and have made some big improvements.

Upped

“We’re now running every day between 7pm and 2am — previously it was week nights only!

“And we’ve upped the bet limits to £500, which means we have the biggest bet limits for any online Live casino, anywhere in a the WORLD.”

Smart Live rival Net Play currently offer a maximum £100 bet on their live tables.

The leader of an illegal online gambling cartel has been jailed for six years and fined more than HALF-A-MILLION POUNDS.

Nineteen other men were handed prison terms ranging from one to five years and fines of between £2,000 and  £100,000.

Overseas

“This is possibly the country’s biggest online gambling case,” the spokesman for Shanghai Putuo District People’s Court, Zhang Minxian, told reporters.

A report by the Xinhua News Agency says the gang set up shop to coincide with the 2006 World Cup, which was hosted by Germany.

The court heard Qian and two others opened accounts on overseas gambling websites and began to develop a network of agents and gamblers across China, earning £162,000 from wagers.