UK Gambling Commission Playing Hardball With Illegal Operators

by Roy Brindley, 24 October 2025

UK Gambling Commission says it is employing harm and disruption tactics in its war on the illegal gambling black market.

Illegal betting sites are being blocked, and payment providers are being tipped off. © Getty Images

Key Facts:

• UK Gambling Commission’s CEO says 1,000 illegal operators are being tracked.
• Organisation expects to report 200,000 URLs by the end of the financial year.
• The UKGC’s Director of Enforcement and Intelligence declares a disruptive war on illegal operators.
• Banks, social media and search engines are all called upon to stop illegal activities.

The UK Gambling Commission’s CEO, Andrew Rhodes, took to the stage of the International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR) conference in Toronto this week to reiterate his organisation’s hardline stance on the illegal gambling black market.

Speaking at the event – described as ‘the premier conference for global gaming regulators and industry visionaries’ – Rhodes highlighted the work of a dedicated UKGC enforcement team, tasked with targeting and disrupting black market gambling activity.

“We make sure there are penalties and disincentives for being in the illegal market, but also one of our obligations under the Gambling Act, which created us as an organisation, is we are here to protect children and the vulnerable from being exploited by gambling,” Rhodes told the gathering.

Closing in on 100,000 Blocked Websites

Rhodes, who joined the UK Gambling Commission in June 2021, told 300-plus AGR attendees that he expects his organisation to report 200,000 URLs by the end of this financial year. He said that there have already been “nearly 100,000” blocked websites.

“We’re tracking over 1,000 illegal operators as we try to shut them down. If we can remove things from search results, we make it harder to find, so we slow them down,” said the former Director General, Operations at the Department for Work and Pensions.

No Single Solution to Sophisticated Problem

Meanwhile, while Rhodes was taking his place as one of 60 keynote speakers at IAGR, John Pierce, the Director of Enforcement and Intelligence at the Gambling Commission was penning and publishing a blog for the regulator’s website.

In an article titled ‘Confronting the Threat: How We’re Tackling Illegal Gambling in Great Britain’, Pierce stated: “Dismantling any illegal market is notoriously difficult. It requires joint effort, creative thinking, and an acceptance that no single solution will be sufficient.”

“Given the scale of revenue involved, it’s unlikely we will ever fully dismantle the ecosystem surrounding illegal gambling, which is increasingly sophisticated, digitally driven, and global in scale.”

“Unlicensed operators are actively targeting British consumers by manipulating search engine results, exploiting social media platforms, and integrating with payment systems. Many imitate legitimate businesses and take advantage of regulatory gaps across jurisdictions.”

Disruption Efforts for the Greatest Impact

Pierce then outlined how his organisation is tackling illegal online gambling in the UK. “Our Financial Intelligence Team supports our illegal markets response and acts as a key link with law enforcement,” he explained.

“We are already seeing results in relation to the targeting of financial accounts associated with illegal gambling, though the international nature of the issue presents obvious investigative challenges.”

“We have invested in specialist tools to support our Illegal Markets Team to conduct secure website reviews, anonymised access, and targeted test purchasing. These capabilities allow us to verify jurisdictional targeting, gather evidence, and assess the availability of illegal gambling products to British consumers.”

“While we can’t review every site, this approach helps us focus on those we believe are causing the most harm, or where our disruption efforts will have the greatest impact.”

Banks, Social Media and Search Engines

“On a practical level, test purchasing remains challenging due to identification and payment verification requirements, but it provides critical evidence, especially banking details that can be referred to Visa and Mastercard,” Pierce continued. “Work is also underway with PayPal, Google Pay, and Apple Pay to extend our reach.”

“To reduce visibility of illegal operators, we have developed referral pathways with major search platforms; Google, Bing, and Yahoo, which account for around 97 percent of the Internet Search Engine (ISE) market in Great Britain.”

“These partnerships enable automatic delisting of illegal content, intelligence sharing, and early disruption. While sites often reappear, this remains a valuable tactic. We have also been expanding our efforts to include social media platforms like Meta, TikTok, X, and YouTube to tackle illegal advertising.”

UK Sport Remains a Shop Window

Despite the UKGC’s best efforts, gambling brands that are not officially licensed to operate in the UK remain high-profile sponsors of British sports clubs, especially football teams.

However, eleven Premier League clubs will have to find new principal sponsors next season when a ban on front-of-shirt advertising for betting companies comes into effect.

The ban is limited to the fronts of shirts, meaning displaying the names of gambling brands on shirt sleeves and on the LED perimeter boards surrounding pitches will still be permitted.

Meanwhile, clubs are required to satisfy themselves that their betting partners are not accepting bets in sterling or from UK customers. Their websites must also be geo-blocked in Britain.

AI and Deepfakes on the Horizon

Pierce’s blog makes no mention of football sponsorship. Recognising “the illegal market will continue to evolve, with trends including crypto-based payments, AI-generated branding, copied gaming content, and targeted social media promotions,” he appears to have bigger issues to contend with.

And, according to the UKGC’s Director of Enforcement, the road ahead features “emerging threats like generative AI, deepfakes, and decentralised platforms” requiring further strengthening of “technical knowledge and capabilities in the future.”