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SO3 Keeping crime out of gambling

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).

Casework undertaken - 2022 to 2023.
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

Casework undertaken - 2020 to 2022.
Type April 2020 to March 2021 April 2021 to March 2022
Prioritised casework 99 89

Casework undertaken - 2020 to 2022.
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

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
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