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Report

Illegal online gambling - Phase 1: Exploring consumer pathways into using illegal gambling websites

The Gambling Commission's report on the first phase of the Consumer Voice illegal gambling project.

Published
18 September 2025

Last updated
18 September 2025 - Changes

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Contents

Appendix E - LEAP-facilitated focus group discussion guide

Topic areas to cover in the research sessions

Please note this is not a script, rather a guideline of topics to cover. Please do feel free to make your own list of questions or notes for reference during the research session.

Welcome and introductions – 5 minutes

Meet and greet participants

Moderator to introduce the purpose of the session and their role, any house rules, including:

  • Let them know session length (1 hour), Inform them of observers present (if any)
  • Provide reassurance that their identity will be protected and anything they say will remain anonymous (and that there are no right or wrong answers).

Ask each participant to introduce themselves, for example tell me your name and what kind of gambling they do and/or did.

Online gambling and routes in – 10 minutes

What forms of online gambling have they done? What particular providers and/or sites did they use? Why? How do they decide which to use?

How do they find out about different sites? Through offers and/or paid advertising and/or gambling forums and/or word of mouth and/or social media and/or influencers and so on?

Use of GAMSTOP and unlicensed sites – 40 minutes

Have they ever gambled online while registered to GAMSTOP?

What has been their experience of this? How did this work exactly?

What enabled them to still access sites which the software would normally block?

How much do they know about licensing and/or regulation and the difference between a licensed vs unlicensed site?

Have they ever used unlicensed sites to their knowledge? Note indicators can include:

  • changed the currency or language or used a foreign currency to gamble online (including cryptocurrency or virtual assets such as NFTs and so on)
  • used a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to access a gambling site
  • not been required to provide age and/or ID verification to sign up for a gambling site.

What has been their experience of this?

What are the positives of using these sites? What are the negatives?

How did they stumble across/find out about these sites? Through offers and/or paid advertising and/or gambling forums and/or word of mouth and/or social media and/or influencers and so on?

How do they weigh up the risks vs reward of using these sites?

Where are they at with these sites now? How do they feel about them?

Thank and close – 5 minutes

Thank participants, and end the discussion – it’s a good idea to start signalling 5 to 10 minutes prior to the end that you’re coming towards the end of the session, so the end of the session doesn’t feel abrupt.

Previous section
Appendix D – Depth interview discussion guide
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