UK Gambling Commission Tackles Black Market with Comprehensive Study

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) is intensifying its efforts to combat illegal gambling with a first-of-its-kind comprehensive study aimed at understanding the UK’s online black market. This study, set for release in spring 2025, will enable the UKGC to gain deeper insights into unlicensed gambling and strengthen its regulatory measures to curb illegal activities.

The research will focus on understanding why consumers are drawn to unlicensed sites and how these sites operate. This includes gathering data on web traffic and gambling behavior to provide an estimate of the gross gambling yield (GGY) within the unlicensed sector. The UKGC’s methodology will combine traffic analysis from Google search results and digital intelligence platforms like Similarweb, offering a clearer picture of the scale of illegal gambling activity in Great Britain.

To estimate the GGY of the black market, the UKGC is utilizing web traffic data and information on player spending habits. The data comes from a review of over 139,000 gambling accounts across seven leading UK operators, spanning from July 2018 to June 2019. This analysis has allowed the UKGC to estimate that the average GGY per minute for online slot games is approximately £0.32. However, the current methodology doesn’t account for high-spending users who engage in activities beyond slots, such as sports betting, where the spending trends may vary.

The UKGC has also been monitoring key search terms using tools like Google Trends and Similarweb’s keyword generator to identify the most popular search queries associated with unlicensed gambling. The top five results for each term are reviewed, and any unlicensed sites are flagged. From there, web traffic data is collected and combined with the spending patterns of users on these illegal platforms to give a more accurate estimation of the black market’s financial scale.

The UKGC’s study methodology also takes into account findings from regulators in other European countries, such as the Netherlands and Sweden. Both countries have noted that consumers tend to spend more on unlicensed sites than on licensed platforms, skewing the channelization data. In response, the UKGC is also exploring how consumer behavior differs when using illegal platforms compared to legal options, considering factors such as spending patterns and time spent on the sites.

Andrew Rhodes, CEO of the UKGC, highlighted the importance of tackling the illegal gambling market from both a consumer protection and economic standpoint. “The illegal market is bad from a human point of view – it poses a risk to consumers, especially the vulnerable. It is also unlikely to operate in a way that is fair or safe, and it pays no tax, undercutting legitimate businesses,” Rhodes stated. He emphasized that the ongoing research would be pivotal in shaping future regulations.

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The UKGC’s current methodology focuses on web traffic data but will expand to explore how unlicensed gambling operators are using social media and encrypted messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram to reach consumers. Streaming services such as Twitch and Kick, which have seen a rise in gambling-related content, will also be scrutinized for their role in driving traffic to unlicensed sites.

The Commission has been proactive in removing illegal gambling sites from search engine results, issuing over 750 cease-and-desist orders in the past year alone. This has led to the removal of 50,000 URLs, a significant increase compared to previous years.

The first iteration of the UKGC’s black market study is expected in spring 2025, marking a key step in its ongoing efforts to curb illegal gambling activity.

Source:

“Unlicensed Gambling Using Data to Identify Unlicensed Operators and Estimate“, gamblingcommission.gov.uk, October 21, 2024.