What drives consumer engagement with illegal gambling websites?
Our Research and Impact Manager Rupam Jagota introduces Phase 3 of our Consumer Voice research series, published today, which aims to understand the key push factors that drive consumer engagement with illegal gambling websites.
Posted 20 October 2026 by Rupam Jagota
Working with Yonder Consulting, we have built and refined robust evidence on who uses illegal gambling websites, how they find them, and what influences their decisions to do so. This latest phase of research strengthens that evidence base considerably, showcasing that consumer engagement with the illegal market is more complex and nuanced than some narratives might suggest. In particular, the findings show that consumer engagement in illegal gambling websites cannot be explained through isolated factors such as specific policy changes or market conditions alone. Instead, consumers encounter and engage with the illegal market for a wide range of reasons, both consciously and unconsciously, shaped by their existing attitudes, experiences, and circumstances.
Phase 3 consists of a mixed-method approach: combining an innovative digital intelligence methodology, a large-scale quantitative survey and in-depth qualitative interviews to provide a comprehensive picture of who uses illegal gambling sites; both in terms of their demographics, but also crucially their wider motivations and attitudes, and how they apply these views to gambling.
This three-pronged approach allowed us to observe how consumers are discussing illegal gambling sites in real-world online environments and then use that insight to consumer-friendly language and concepts in the later stages of research.
What did we find?
Firstly, it is important to place these findings in context. We know that engagement with illegal gambling websites remains a relatively niche behaviour among the wider population of people who gamble. It is not a mainstream activity, and the vast majority of people who gamble are not choosing to move all of their activity into the illegal market. However, there are a minority of people who are using illegal gambling websites, whether intentionally or otherwise.
Our earlier research identified four personas with distinct headline attitudes and motivations for using illegal gambling websites: Self-Excluders, Skilled Advocates, Social Explorers, and Accidental Tourists. Building on insights from previous phases around these four personas, this research integrated deeper attitudinal measures into a robust quantitative survey to examine broader social and gambling-related mindsets. We now know that each persona has differing motivations for use, attitudes to regulation, and levels of awareness regarding their participation in illegal gambling sites.
For example, if we consider underlying attitudes towards trust, authority and regulation we see that some consumers (particularly Skilled Advocates) express lower levels of trust in gambling companies, government and the Commission. For these individuals, measures such as identity verification checks or payment delays can validate their existing attitudes and reinforce their choice to use illegal sites. In contrast, there are other consumers (Social Explorers and Accidental Tourists) who are more likely to view these same issues as inconveniences rather than matters of principle, and they are therefore not as strong a driver for them using the illegal market. There is not a single, universal motivation for consumers using illegal gambling websites – what we have uncovered further here is a nuanced and complex area of consumer behaviour. Indeed, any efforts to try and inform and educate consumers about the risks associated with the illegal market will need to take a more rounded and complete approach in order to be most effective. The same message will not work for all.
We also need to consider the complex online ecosystem that people who gamble online are part of. The digital listening approach has shone a light on the growing influence of social media and online communities in shaping consumer awareness and perceptions of illegal gambling. Consumers use online spaces to discuss gambling opportunities, share recommendations, signal trustworthiness of particular sites and discover new gambling products. In some cases, the consumer journey to illegal sites takes place across multiple platforms, with social media serving as an entry point before consumers move to the illegal sites themselves. They are also exposed to marketing and advertising online, from both regulated and unregulated companies, further amplifying the noise that can influence and direct consumer choices. This demonstrates the importance of the action we are taking in this space through the Government Taskforce and directly with the social media and internet giants.
The language and terminology that is used online is also changing. Historically, the phrase ‘not on Gamstop’ was associated with consumers seeking to bypass their self-exclusion from licensed gambling websites. However, the research suggests that this term has developed into something much broader. In online discussions and search behaviour, "not on Gamstop" increasingly acts as a shorthand for a wider set of characteristics associated with illegal sites, including the perception of fewer checks, less friction, faster withdrawals and alternative payment methods. While some consumers are still searching for ‘not on Gamstop’ sites to circumvent Gamstop, our research suggests that others are using the same terminology when searching for a broader experience that they perceive to involve fewer barriers. This has created a normalised and established pathway into illegal online gambling for some consumers, further evidenced by consistently high estimated search volumes of terms relating to ‘not on Gamstop’, with many search results directing consumers to affiliate pages promoting illegal operators using ‘not on Gamstop’ branding.
How does this research fit into the bigger picture?
This research represents an important milestone in the Commission’s Illegal gambling and crime Evidence Roadmap, building the evidence base on participation in online illegal gambling in Great Britain. We now have stronger evidence on the wide range of motivations for consumers’ use of illegal gambling websites – and it is clear that it is more complex than a simple trade-off between levels of regulation and growth of the illegal market.
The Commission is also now well equipped to use the insights gained from this research to track consumer engagement over time. The final phase in this Consumer Voice research series will be published soon and will present headline data from new questions that have been developed and added to the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) on consumer engagement with illegal gambling websites. The final stage of this work will see us blend the GSGB data and these research findings to enable us to understand who is engaging with the illegal market, which persona they align with, and as a result the relative sizes of those persona groups. Importantly, this will allow us to monitor how regulatory interventions and gambling company practices may impact on this composition going forward so that we can identify any changes in consumer behaviour and opportunities for disruption.
In the meantime, keep an eye out for our next illegal gambling release, which will present new evidence on spending behaviours and the vulnerability of some people who gamble with illegal operators through the lens of financial transaction data.