Report
Illegal online gambling: Consumer engagement and trends
The Gambling Commission’s report into estimated trends in consumer engagement with illegal gambling websites.
Part 5 - Conclusions
Key point summary
Key points in this section are as follows:
- combining estimates of numbers of illegal website visits and visit duration, and applying an uplift to account for Virtual Private Network (VPN) use, allows us to generate an ‘engagement metric’
- we can see an increase in engagement between summer and winter of 2024. Following this, engagement dropped
- at the end of this period, engagement was at a similar level to the start – this suggests that there is no evidence of an overall increase in consumer engagement with illegal gambling websites over the period monitored
- caution, however, is still required, given caveats highlighted about margins for error associated with these estimates.
We have combined estimations for number of visits and average visit duration into one metric by multiplying them together. We also adjust to estimate VPN usage as discussed in the previous section. This represents an estimate for the total time spent on illegal websites by consumers in minutes and is referred to as estimated engagement. By combining these metrics into one the relationship between the individual metrics is captured.
Estimated engagement fluctuated across the reporting period. The changes in confidence interval indicate a greater variability within the data around November 2024. This could be due to a number of particular websites experiencing higher levels of estimated engagement due to successful promotions or high-profile sporting events. Towards the end of the period, between June and July 2025, there appears to be less variability within the data and engagement levels are similar to June 2024. These changes in estimated engagement are mostly driven by changes in number of visits since average visit duration has remained stable throughout the period.
Figure 5: Estimated online illegal market engagement with VPN adjustment
| Date | Estimated engagement (upper bound) (Minutes) |
Estimated engagement (point estimate) (Minutes) |
Estimated engagement (lower bound) (Minutes) |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 2024 | 574 million | 293 million | 135 million |
| June 2024 | 324 million | 158 million | 74 million |
| July 2024 | 264 million | 144 million | 77 million |
| August 2024 | 281 million | 155 million | 83 million |
| September 2024 | 347 million | 190 million | 101 million |
| October 2024 | 406 million | 212 million | 107 million |
| November 2024 | 536 million | 254 million | 118 million |
| December 2024 | 483 million | 284 million | 159 million |
| January 2025 | 494 million | 306 million | 193 million |
| February 2025 | 353 million | 215 million | 125 million |
| March 2025 | 323 million | 191 million | 112 million |
| April 2025 | 291 million | 167 million | 91 million |
| May 2025 | 225 million | 139 million | 88 million |
| June 2025 | 181 million | 116 million | 76 million |
| July 2025 | 233 million | 152 million | 97 million |
Illegal gambling: Consumer engagement and trends - Assumptions on use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) Next section
Illegal gambling: Consumer engagement and trends - Next steps
Last updated: 30 September 2025
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