Labour Chair Urges Tether.bet Investigation
Labour Chair Bridget Phillipson has written to the UK Gambling Commission asking it to investigate the now-closed offshore betting site Tether.bet, along with a UK-registered payments firm accused of helping customers move money to the platform.
The letter, published on August 19, 2026, asks the regulator to determine whether unlicensed gambling facilities were offered or advertised to UK consumers.
Tether.bet, which was not licensed to operate as a UK betting site, shut down its domain last week and now redirects users to another platform, NNVIP88. The closure followed reporting by The Sunday Times on the site's links to George Cottrell, a financial backer of Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.
Phillipson, the Labour MP for Houghton and Sunderland South, asked the Commission to examine two specific questions - whether Tether.bet and its operators provided or advertised remote gambling facilities to UK consumers without the required licence, and whether Fispay Ltd, or any other UK company, supported gambling services for UK consumers without a licence.
The Letter's Two Questions
"I am writing to request the Commission investigate reports by The Sunday Times concerning alleged unlicensed UK gambling activity of Tether.bet, an offshore cryptocurrency betting site, and Fispay Ltd, a financial intermediary company registered in the UK," Phillipson's letter states, as published by as published by SBC News.
She added that she is "releasing this letter to the media" given the public interest in the matter.
Fispay, owned by Reform UK data protection officer Mowbray Jackson, is alleged to have provided UK bank account details that let some Tether.bet customers deposit money for bets and receive winnings, with some customers instructed to transfer tens of thousands of pounds to the firm.
Jackson told The Sunday Times that Fispay "exclusively" brokers private jet travel and has never provided gambling facilities. The reporting also named IFX, a cross-border payments company owned by crypto entrepreneur Christopher Harborne, as a route used to move funds connected to the platform.
Harborne, whose £5 million gift to Farage is subject to a parliamentary investigation, also holds a significant stake in the Tether stablecoin, though Tether the stablecoin and Tether.bet the betting platform are separate and unrelated entities.
Cottrell's Response
George Cottrell has been the subject of a 2025 High Court claim alleging he acted as an intermediary connecting high-roller UK bettors with offshore bookmakers that face less financial scrutiny than licensed UK operators.
Cottrell told The Sunday Times he has "never solicited clients for any betting company," and his lawyers said his relationship with the firm was "limited to that of a customer," while adding that he knows and is friends with its owner.
The request for an investigation lands at a difficult moment for the Gambling Commission, which currently has no permanent Executive Director, Chief Executive Officer or Chair, and is already facing public criticism over planned measures such as Financial Risk Assessments.
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Whether the regulator opens a formal probe, and what action it can take against an offshore platform that has already ceased operating, remains an open question.
Per the Gambling Commission's own guidance, any gambling business operating without a Commission licence is acting illegally, and its payment facilities can be withdrawn by major payment systems such as Mastercard, PayPal and Visa.
Customers of unlicensed sites also sit outside the UK's self-exclusion scheme and dispute-resolution process, leaving them with no formal recourse if a platform disappears, as Tether.bet has now done.
