Report
Illegal online gambling - Phase 2: Identifying indicators of consumer engagement with illegal gambling websites
The Gambling Commission's report on the second phase of the Consumer Voice illegal gambling project.
Contents
Overview
One of the Gambling Commission’s central missions is to tackle illegal gambling in Great Britain – that is, gambling with operators that are not licensed to do so by the Commission. This multi-phase, developmental research scheme, in partnership with Yonder, has been designed and carried out to enable the Commission to come to the point at which they can state their understanding of consumer engagement with the online illegal market, using indicators that an individual has gambled with an illegal operator, and understanding their motivations for doing so, for the first time.
This report focuses on Phase 2 of the research, which employed a quantitative survey with 2,046 people who gamble online (excluding National Lottery only players), to validate findings from the first phase of the research which indicatively found 4 distinct qualitative groups of illegal gambling website users: self-excluders, skilled advocates, social explorers, and accidental tourists.
The research was also designed to assess the strength of a batch of indicators of illegal gambling website usage, by testing them with a larger sample. The findings in this section of the report are structured around the 4 groups found in Phase 1; throughout, reference will be made to the strength of indicators in relation to these groups. Often, ‘stronger’ indicators, that is, those that provide the Commission with a greater deal of certainty that someone has engaged with the illegal market – correlate with the more engaged groups – self-excluders, and skilled advocates.
4 degrees of strength have been assigned to the indicators and experiences detailed in this survey: ‘near certain’, ‘strong’, ‘weaker’, and ‘adjacent’. Details on how these strengths have been defined, and how indicators have been categorised within them, will be addressed in subsequent sections.
Throughout this report, motivations, routes, features and experiences are covered. Across a sample of people who gamble online, extensive research has already helped the Commission and other stakeholders to understand the factors that feed into all 4 themes. With a view to providing a new angle on these themes, this report focuses specifically on those that were identified as having used an illegal gambling website, either through their own admission, and/or through the reporting of indicators of illegal website usage in the last 4 weeks, detailed further within this report. This group will be referred to as ‘illegal gambling website users’ in this section.
Next sectionMotivations and routes into the illegal market
Last updated: 18 September 2025
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