Unlicensed gambling
Unlicensed gambling
The aim of our regulatory activity is to make it difficult to provide illegal gambling at scale to customers in Great Britain (GB).
We receive reports and intelligence on potential illegal gambling activity. We may find, after initial assessment of a report, that unlicensed activity is not actually taking place or is not accessible by British customers. We prioritise action against those we consider pose the biggest risk.
While we develop improved metrics in this area, we are demonstrating our impact by reporting on the activity we have taken to disrupt those priority cases.
For 2022 to 2023 we have made some improvements to the way we report our data, so not all data from previous years can be compared directly.
Casework undertaken - 2022 to 2023
Within this period there were a total of 194 prioritised casework (excluding illegal lotteries).
Activity undertaken (may include multiple actions against the same entity) | April 2022 to March 2023 |
---|---|
Logged for intel purposes | 53 |
No further action required following investigation | 5 |
Ongoing action as at 31 March 2023 | 16 |
Great Britain (GB) access disrupted | 54 |
Engagement with third parties to disrupt GB payments | 42 |
Referral to other body and/or regulator | 5 |
In addition to this activity the Gambling Commission has investigated and made 161 referrals to social media platforms to close down illegal lotteries.
Casework undertaken - 2020 to 2022
Type | April 2020 to March 2021 | April 2021 to March 2022 |
---|---|---|
Prioritised casework | 99 | 89 |
Activity undertaken | April 2020 to March 2021 | April 2021 to March 2022 |
---|---|---|
Stage 1 - Cease and desist | 83 | 68 |
Stage 2 - Cease and desist | 46 | 9 |
Notifications to hosting companies | 54 | 19 |
Outcomes from disruption activity and enforcement engagement
Action | April 2020 to March 2021 | April 2021 to March 2022 |
---|---|---|
Great Britain (GB) registration removed | 14 | 0 |
Geolocation Internet Protocol (IP) blocked | 13 | 23 |
Removed by host | 10 | 0 |
Removed by owner | 7 | 0 |
Website suspended | 3 | 2 |