The Gambling Commission’s new survey put recent use of illegal gambling websites at 2.5% among adults in Great Britain who had gambled online in the preceding year, and 0.6% across the adult population. The regulator said engagement appeared low and stable overall, while warning that online gamblers who use illegal operators are more likely to experience gambling-related harm.
The estimates, published Nov. 5 with an updated Illegal Gambling Data Dashboard, covered four quarterly survey waves between April 2025 and April 2026. Of 14,257 respondents, 3,569 had gambled online during the preceding 12 months. A further 1.5% of online gamblers said they had used an illegal site during the prior year, but not in the previous four weeks.
The Commission identified 128 respondents as illegal-site users through an index of seven indicators, according to iGaming Business. Those signals included knowingly using a site not registered with GAMSTOP, opening an account where age or identity checks were absent, cancelling a withdrawal and using a VPN to reach a site unavailable in Great Britain.
Among the group classified as illegal-site users, 58% said they had used a site they knew was not on GAMSTOP, 56.6% had cancelled a withdrawal before funds reached a bank account or wallet, and nearly 47% had signed up because verification would not be required. The Commission classified 94.4% of all respondents as showing no indication of illegal-site use, while 4.6% displayed some indicators but did not meet the threshold for classification.
The regulator’s underlying Consumer Voice research rated indicators by confidence, from “near certain” and “strong” to “weaker” and “adjacent”. It found illegal-site engagement more common among men, people aged 18 to 34 and more frequent gamblers, groups that are also more typical of online gambling. Recent use was estimated at 0.9% for men and 0.4% for women across all adults; the estimate for people aged 25 to 34 was 1.1%.
Gambling Compliance International disputed the implication that low prevalence means a small black market. It estimated illegal online gambling generated about £780 million in gross gaming revenue in Great Britain in 2025, nearly 9% of the total online market, up from about £580 million in 2024.
Its president, Ismail Vali, argued that the proportion of people reporting illegal gambling is not equivalent to the share of revenue captured by criminal operators. A comparatively small group of vulnerable, repeat or high-value customers could account for substantial revenue, he said.
GCI also said conventional adult consumer surveys may miss children and self-excluded gamblers, particularly people drawn to “Not on GAMSTOP” sites. The Commission survey did not include under-18s, and the regulator acknowledged that its findings did not rule out more concentrated use among particular groups.
As we reported in October, the UK government has committed additional funding to the Commission’s work disrupting illegal gambling, including website disruption, payment blocking and international cooperation.
The Commission plans to add survey questions in 2027 to examine and track particular groups of illegal-gambling users.
