UK gambling study challenges illegal market migration claims
New research published by the UK Gambling Commission suggests customers using illegal gambling websites frequently continue betting with licensed operators, challenging claims that unregulated gambling necessarily replaces regulated activity.
The regulator’s October 28 report examined anonymised banking transaction data to identify payments involving suspected illegal gambling businesses, with researchers identifying 3,426 transactions linked to 179 individuals.
MORE: Legal gambling in the UK
Among customers with repeated detected illegal gambling transactions, 91% also used licensed gambling operators.
Gambling Commission data scientist Steven Murphy said the findings provided valuable new evidence about illegal gambling behaviour.
“Illegal gambling activity is usually supplementary to legal gambling,” he said.
“Consumers who use the illegal market may be at a relatively higher risk.”
The Commission found no substantial decline in regulated gambling transactions after customers first engaged with illegal websites, with the finding suggesting illegal gambling frequently supplements existing betting activity rather than directly replacing it.
However, the research also identified significantly higher indicators of gambling-related harm among customers using illegal gambling operators.
Of the 146 individuals with available Problem Gambling Severity Index scores, 45% scored eight or higher, indicating problem gambling.
That compared with 6% of customers with licensed gambling transactions in the dataset.
The UK regulator also identified 138 suspected illegal gambling transactions involving credit cards, representing approximately 4% of the transactions examined.
However, the regulator cautioned that the dataset was not nationally representative and that some transactions involving illegal operators may have gone undetected.
The United Kingdom has one of the most developed gambling industries in the world, with sports betting sites, online casinos and various other forms of real money wagering sanctioned by the commission.
