The Gambling Commission has published new research estimating that four per cent of online gamblers in Great Britain have engaged with illegal gambling websites in the past 12 months, alongside a new dashboard tracking illegal market activity and regulatory disruption.
The findings, drawn from the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) between April 2025 and April 2026, show that 2.5 per cent of online gamblers had engaged with illegal websites in the previous four weeks, with a further 1.5 per cent reporting engagement during the preceding 12 months. Across the wider adult population, including non-gamblers, the equivalent figures were 0.6 per cent and 0.4 per cent respectively.
The Commission’s new Illegal Gambling Index uses seven behavioural indicators to identify potential engagement with unlicensed operators, including gambling with cryptocurrency, accessing restricted websites through VPNs, using sites outside Gamstop and gambling without age or identity verification. The approach is intended to identify consumers who may be accessing illegal operators without necessarily recognising that they are doing so.
The research found higher engagement among men and younger adults, particularly those aged 18 to 24. A further 4.6 per cent of all respondents demonstrated limited indications of engagement, although the evidence was insufficient to classify them as illegal gambling website users.
The accompanying Illegal Gambling Data Dashboard provides additional evidence of market activity. In September 2026, the Commission identified 586 illegal gambling websites accessible to British consumers, an increase of four per cent compared with September 2025. Estimated engagement with identified illegal websites increased by 12 per cent against the preceding three-month average, although it remained 11 per cent below the level recorded a year earlier.
The dashboard also identified 97 affiliate webpages linking to illegal gambling websites, while four per cent of gambling-related Google search results directed consumers towards illegal operators.
Regulatory intervention has increased, with 311 illegal gambling websites subject to disruption action during the second quarter of the 2026/27 financial year, representing a 38 per cent increase on the previous quarter. Among sites for which subsequent traffic data was available, 77 per cent experienced a reduction in estimated visits following disruption activity.
Sue Young, Executive Director for Operations at the Gambling Commission, said: “We want to kick crime out of gambling. Illegal gambling poses risks to consumers and tackling it is a priority for the Commission and our partners.
“While engagement with the illegal market from an overall population perspective appears low and stable from these indicators, there is a cohort of online gamblers who use these sites and research suggests those consumers who use illegal operators are more likely to experience harm.
“This new data will help make sure activity to protect consumers is informed by the best available evidence which is why we will continue to work across government, industry, technology and financial services to disrupt crime and protect consumers.”
The Commission said its monitoring indicators do not currently demonstrate sustained or substantial growth in illegal online gambling. However, it acknowledged that individual measures are estimates and cannot provide a definitive assessment of the market’s overall size.
Research accompanying the dashboard also identified searches for gambling sites ‘not on Gamstop’ as a prominent route through which consumers discover illegal operators, alongside growing interest in cryptocurrency-related gambling.
The regulator plans to update the dashboard every six months and expand its monitoring to cover affiliates, advertising, payment providers, hosting services and other businesses supporting illegal gambling operations. Additional survey questions examining different categories of illegal gambling consumers will be introduced in 2027.
The Gambling Commission has published new research estimating that four per cent of online gamblers in Great Britain have engaged with illegal gambling websites in the past 12 months, alongside a new dashboard tracking illegal market activity and regulatory disruption. The findings, drawn from the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) between April 2025 and