UK Gambling Commission Says 4% of Online Gamblers Used Illegal Sites

The UK Gambling Commission estimated on Nov. 5 that 4% of people in Great Britain who gamble online used an illegal gambling website in the past year.

The figure is the regulator's first benchmark built from its main national survey. It lands in a fight over how big the black market really is.

The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), which represents licensed operators, says £16.6 billion (~$22.3 billion) was staked with illegal operators in 2025 and blames tax rises and tighter rules for pushing players there.

Survey Catches Players Who May Not Know

The new findings cover April 2025 to April 2026. Instead of asking people whether they used an illegal site, the survey scores seven behaviors, such as using a site not on Gamstop, the U.K. self-exclusion scheme, or betting with crypto.

Among online gamblers, 2.5% showed signs of using an illegal site in the previous four weeks and a further 1.5% earlier in the year. Across all adults, the figures were 0.6% and 0.4%. Use was higher among men and among 18- to 24-year-olds.

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.

Sue Young, who runs operations at the Commission, made the remarks in the regulator's announcement.

Disruption Rises as Site Count Holds

The Commission's illegal gambling dashboard found 586 illegal sites reachable from Britain in September 2026, 4% more than a year earlier. It took action against 311 sites in the July-to-September quarter, up 38% on the quarter before. Traffic fell at 77% of disrupted sites with usable data.

The survey follows a Commission study of bank data that found problem gambling in 45% of illegal-site users. New survey questions sorting illegal-site users into types of player are due in the first 2027 wave of the survey.

Treat gambling as entertainment you pay for. 18+, and if it stops feeling like entertainment, help exists at BeGambleAware and GamCare.