Gambling Commission’s Illegal Gambling Index: 2.5% of Online Gamblers Used Unlicensed Sites

The Gambling Commission published Phase 4 of its Illegal Gambling Index on 5 November 2026, finding that 2.5% of people who gambled online in the past year had used an illegal site in the previous four weeks, and a further 1.5% had done so earlier in the year. The Commission also reported that between July and September 2026 it referred 7,677,211 URLs to search engines and that 3,019,291 of those URLs were removed.

How the index measures use

The index is a behavioural measure the Gambling Commission developed with Yonder Consulting and published alongside a technical report and an updated illegal gambling dashboard. It does not ask respondents a direct question about intentional use of illegal sites. Instead the index scores seven self‑reported behaviours: using a site known not to be on GamStop; signing up because no age or identity check was needed; cancelling a withdrawal; using a VPN to reach a site unavailable in Great Britain; gambling with cryptocurrency or NFTs; and depositing by credit card. The first three behaviours are rated "near certain" because licensed operators in Great Britain must join GamStop, verify customers and, since 2021, may not let customers cancel withdrawals.

Recency is weighted: older behaviour counts for less, and to be classed as a recent user a respondent needs one near‑certain indicator or two strong indicators in the past four weeks. The technical report explains that a direct question about intentionality was removed from the scoring process after respondents named some licensed sites as illegal.

Prevalence, samples and breakdowns

The prevalence estimate is based on four waves of the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) covering April 2025 to April 2026 and includes online respondents only. Of 3,569 online gamblers (excluding those who played only National Lottery products), 2.5% met the four‑week threshold and 1.5% met the 12‑month threshold. A further 14.0% of that sample showed limited indications of illegal‑site engagement and 82.0% showed none.

When the denominator is all 14,257 online respondents, the figures are 0.6% (four weeks), 0.4% (12 months), 4.6% limited indications and 94.4% none. The index produced 128 respondents classed as illegal site users, a sample too small for reliable demographic breakdowns. Of those 128 users, 58.0% reported using a site known not to be on GamStop and 56.6% had cancelled a withdrawal.

Sue Young, the Commission's Executive Director for Operations, said engagement "appears low and stable from these indicators," and the Commission’s materials describe the Phase 4 result as a baseline from which future trends can be measured.

Enforcement activity and takedown figures

The Commission’s enforcement data for July–September 2026 showed 7,677,211 URLs referred to search engines, up from 147,721 the quarter before. Over that quarter 3,019,291 URLs and 1,339 websites were removed from search results. Registrars or hosts removed or suspended seven websites, and operators applied 25 geo‑blocks. Cease and desist letters issued to illegal operators rose to 546 from 217, and four criminal investigations began.

Acting chief executive Sarah Gardner told the Commission's CEO Briefing on 5 November that 7,824,932 URLs were reported to search engines between April and September 2026, compared with 397,527 in all of 2025/26. Gardner linked the scale‑up to the £26 million the UK government committed over three years to the programme, a figure she had set out to regulators in October.

The Commission emphasised that the rise in referred URLs reflects finer, page‑level referrals rather than necessarily more operators: referred URLs rose about 52‑fold, while referred websites rose five‑fold. The Commission referred about 4,200 URLs per website in Q2 of the year against about 400 in Q1, and removals equalled 39% of referrals in the quarter, against 67% across 2025/26.

No payment provision was reported as disrupted in the quarter.

Market context and external estimates

Gambling Compliance International (GCI) warned that the share of people using illegal sites is not the same as the share of revenue those sites generate. GCI president Ismail Vali told iGB that "a relatively small audience, particularly one concentrated around vulnerable, repeat or high‑value gambling behaviours, can generate substantial criminal revenue." GCI research for the Campaign for Fairer Gambling estimated illegal online gross gambling revenue in Great Britain at about £780 million in 2025, nearly 9% of the online market, according to iGB.

The Commission's dashboard counted 586 accessible illegal sites in September 2026, up from 439 in May 2024. Estimated traffic to those sites, modelled from Similarweb with an uplift for VPN use, fell by about a third between those months. The Commission noted that more supply and less use is plausible but that the traffic measure is modelled.

What the Commission and others say next

The Commission described the index as a repeatable measure and a baseline rather than a definitive trend. It plans to add persona questions to the GSGB in 2027 to clarify how concentrated the cohort of illegal‑site users is and to inform whether small user shares can account for larger shares of revenue. IAGR's first Illegal Gambling Awareness Week runs from 9 to 13 November 2026, taking place days after the Phase 4 release.

"Engagement appears low and stable from these indicators," Sue Young said in the Commission's 5 November release.

"A relatively small audience...can generate substantial criminal revenue," Ismail Vali told iGB, citing GCI's revenue estimate.