Report
Illegal online gambling: Consumer engagement and trends
The Gambling Commission’s report into estimated trends in consumer engagement with illegal gambling websites.
Part 2 - Identifying illegal gambling websites
Key point summary
Key points in this section are as follows:
- we identify search terms based on primary research into the factors that lead to consumers intentionally or unintentionally using illegal gambling websites
- we use these search terms to obtain top search engine results for gambling websites and to marketing affiliate websites – from which we extract and analyse links to gambling websites
- we remove all legal (such as GB-licensed) websites from these results – leaving us with a list of illegal gambling websites
- if websites are geo-blocked to consumers in Great Britain these websites are also removed from this list – assumptions are made later in our methodology to account for web traffic hidden by Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).
We have compiled a list of search terms to identify and monitor sites of interest. These are designed around the illegal gambling motivations identified through industry engagement, our Consumer Voice research, advice from our intelligence and enforcement teams, and insight from web intelligence platforms.
Motivations used include circumventing self-exclusion and avoiding ‘know-your-customer’ (KYC) or identity checks. On-going research is being carried out to identify additional motivations to ensure the capture of websites is as targeted as possible. An example of this is using crypto currencies for gambling, where additional search terms were introduced to our methodology in December 2024.
We have previously shared information about our methodology in our publication from October 2024: Unlicensed gambling – using data to identify unlicensed operators and estimate the scale of this market.
Although this approach provides extensive coverage of illegal gambling websites, we recognise there are other aspects of the illegal market that are not captured with this methodology, such as gambling activity directly through messaging platforms and app-based gambling.
Identified affiliate and gambling websites
Our approach to data collection identifies both illegal gambling websites and affiliate webpages including links to these sites. Sites that are already blocked to consumers accessing from Great Britain are then removed from the analysis. Websites that are blocked to these consumers can still be accessed by using a VPN. Adjustments made to account for missed VPN traffic are further discussed later in this report.
The number of affiliate pages and/or articles identified from the results to our search terms has remained relatively stable since collecting data. The number of illegal gambling websites identified through these affiliate pages has increased since May 2024. Some of this increase can be attributed to the introduction of a set of crypto casino search terms in December 2024. There was a notable increase in the number of illegal websites identified in May and June 2025. Whether this is a persistent trend will become apparent as we collect further data.
With some active websites being disrupted and closed own, and with new websites entering the market, over the period monitored, just over 1,000 unique illegal gambling websites were accessed by consumers in Great Britain.
Figure 2: Number of illegal gambling websites and affliate websites identified
| Date | Number of affiliate pages | Number of illegal gambling websites |
|---|---|---|
| May 2024 | 483 | 364 |
| June 2024 | 482 | 324 |
| July 2024 | 477 | 313 |
| August 2024 | 479 | 340 |
| September 2024 | 486 | 354 |
| October 2024 | 485 | 371 |
| November 2024 | 478 | 355 |
| Crypto terms introduced | ||
| December 2024 | 477 | 394 |
| January 2025 | 479 | 388 |
| February 2025 | 471 | 389 |
| March 2025 | 469 | 406 |
| April 2025 | 464 | 378 |
| May 2025 | 484 | 378 |
| June 2025 | 482 | 505 |
| July 2025 | 477 | 535 |
Illegal online gambling: Consumer engagement and trends - Introduction Next section
Illegal online gambling: Consumer engagement and trends - Measuring engagement with the online illegal market
Last updated: 30 September 2025
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