The Gambling Commission has launched an Illegal Gambling Index, a seven-indicator measure intended to give Great Britain a more reliable view of consumer engagement with unlicensed gambling websites than a direct self-report question alone.
The regulator announced the measure on Nov. 5 after piloting its questions in the Gambling Survey for Great Britain during 2025. The Index combines reported behaviours with when they occurred, distinguishing use in the preceding four weeks, use earlier in the preceding 12 months, limited indications of use and no indications of use.
The first year of results, covering four quarterly survey waves between April 2025 and April 2026, suggests that engagement was limited across the population but more concentrated among people who gamble online. Some 0.6% of all adults, including non-gamblers, were classified as having used an illegal gambling website in the previous four weeks, while a further 0.4% had done so in the prior year but not in the latest four-week period.
Among people who had gambled online in the preceding 12 months, excluding those whose only activity was National Lottery products, 2.5% had used an illegal site in the previous four weeks and another 1.5% had used one earlier in the year. That amounts to 4% of online gamblers over the full 12-month period. The survey involved about 14,300 respondents, including about 3,600 online gamblers.
The Commission classified 94.4% of respondents as showing no indicators of illegal-site use. A further 4.6% showed some signs but could not be confidently classified as users. Only 128 respondents were classified as illegal gambling users, a small sample that limits the precision of detailed findings.
The Index assigns indicators a strength rating based on the confidence that a behaviour signals use of an unlicensed website. Using a site known not to be registered with Gamstop, or opening an account without age or identity verification, are rated Near Certain because licensed online operators in Great Britain must participate in Gamstop and carry out those checks.
Other indicators include cancelling a withdrawal before the money reaches a bank account or digital wallet, using a virtual private network to reach a gambling service unavailable in Great Britain, betting with cryptocurrency, NFTs or virtual assets, and using money directly from a credit card. VPN use and virtual-asset gambling received Strong ratings, while direct credit-card gambling received the weaker rating because respondents may misidentify payment methods or confuse trading with gambling.
The withdrawal measure reflects a rule in force since 2021 under Remote Technical Standards 14B, which prohibited operators from allowing customers to reverse withdrawal requests after evidence linked the practice to increased gambling-related harm. Credit-card deposits have been prohibited since 2020.
Among respondents identified as illegal-site users, 58% had knowingly used a website outside Gamstop, while 56.6% had cancelled a withdrawal before it reached a bank account or wallet. Nearly 47% had joined a gambling website because they knew it would not require age or identity verification. The Commission said illegal-site use was higher among men, tended to be more prevalent among adults aged 18 to 24 over the full year, and was more evident in the latest four weeks among those aged 25 to 34.
The measure was built through surveys, interviews, focus groups, expert input and research involving people with lived experience of gambling. It forms part of the Commission’s Illegal gambling and crime Evidence Roadmap and is designed to be adjusted as the market and available evidence change.
Earlier Phase 3 research found that use of illegal sites was undertaken by a small minority of gamblers and identified four consumer personas: Self-Excluders, Skilled Advocates, Social Explorers and Accidental Tourists. It also found that searching for sites outside Gamstop and requiring minimal personal information were among the strongest predictors of illegal-site use across most of those groups.
The Commission intends to add supplementary questions developed in that research to Gambling Survey for Great Britain 2027 Wave 1. It also plans to expand its Illegal Gambling Data Dashboard to encompass affiliates, social-media platforms, advertisers, payment providers and hosting services that support unlicensed operators.
