Statistics and research release
Illegal gambling - Findings from an open banking data analysis
An analysis of directly observed illegal gambling transactions in anonymised banking transaction data linked to individuals’ survey responses.
Summary
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This report contains findings from an analysis of the Gambling Commission’s anonymised dataset of British residents’ banking transactions. It considers a subset of these financial transactions that we believe to be between consumers and illegal gambling operators, identified using multiple independent data sources. These transactions are considered in the context of transaction behaviour with licensed operators by the same individuals, the account types used, and the distribution of Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) scores recorded in linked survey data.
This research strengthens the evidence base on Illegal gambling and crime, which is a key theme within the Commission’s Evidence Gaps and Priorities.
Key facts
Transactions with illegal operators often occur alongside transactions with licensed operators
We consider individuals’ mix of licensed and unlicensed gambling transactions in the months before and after the first detected transaction with an unlicensed operator. We do not observe a substantial shift away from the licensed market in the months following initial engagement with the illegal market.
We observe higher rates of elevated PGSI among those with detected transactions with illegal operators
As the dataset is linked to survey results, including PGSI scores, we can conduct a within-sample comparison of the distribution of PGSI categories. Within the group that has a detected transaction with an illegal operator, we find that 45% of individuals have a PGSI score of 8 or higher, compared to 6% for all licenced gambling consumers in the dataset (excluding lotteries-only consumers).
Detected transactions with illegal operators were rarely made with credit card accounts
Our dataset contains information about the account types that individuals use to make their transactions. We observe that 4% of detected transactions with unlicensed operators are made with credit card accounts. Of individuals with detected engagement with illegal operators, 8% have at least one credit card transaction.
Details
The report notes several limitations, including that the methodology does not permit causal analysis between engagement with illegal operators and harm. Furthermore, we do not believe we have sufficient illegal market coverage to make an estimate of the size of the illegal market, either in absolute terms or relative to licensed gambling.
Full publication
View the Illegal gambling - Findings from an open banking data analysis report.
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