Number of Illegal Gambling Sites Accessible in the UK Rises By 40%

The Gambling Commission has released their latest set of data relating to the black market and illegal operators… and the general consensus is that the regulator is making solid strides in combating the industry scourge.

However, one alarming statistic from their findings reveals that the number of illegal gambling sites that are accessible to UK players has risen by a worrying 39.67% since September 2024.

That number confirms that there’s still plenty of work to do in ridding the sector of illegal sites, which often offer their players little to no protection of their personal information and banking details.

Number of Illegal Sites On the Rise

The new data presents a series of metrics which suggest that the Gambling Commission is at least making some inroads into the black market, and while participation remains relatively low, the number of visible sites in search engines - and those advertising on social media platforms like Facebook - is still an issue.

The number of illegal sites, offering Premier League betting and other options, accessible to UK punters has risen from 386 in September 2024 to 586 in September of this year.

The regulator also examines search terms that users type into Google and other engines, with the number of searches largely remaining consistent since June. However, searches for ‘unlicensed’ or ‘not on GAMSTOP’ casinos saw a considerable spike in September.

And the number of people searching for ‘no identity verification’ gambling sites has also increased this year.

On the whole, web traffic to black market sites has fallen since the start of 2025, with the number of online gamblers that have accessed an illegal site in the past four weeks – as per the Gambling Commission’s survey – down at just 2.5%.

Disruption Success

The regulator has made clear their plans to work much closer with search engines, social media giants, tech companies and even law enforcement in the months and years ahead.

And that connection already appears to be bearing fruit, with the number of sites ‘disrupted’ in the second quarter of 2026 up to 311; a marked increase from the 169 disruptions in the same period of 2025.

The disruption success rate increased from 64.71% to 77.14% during that timeframe, with an 18% reduction in traffic to illegal sites in the past three months alone.

The executive director of the Gambling Commission, Sue Young, reiterated the organisation’s desire to ‘kick crime out of gambling.’

“While engagement with the illegal market from an overall population perspective appears low and stable from these indicators, there is a cohort of online gamblers who use these sites and research suggests those consumers who use illegal operators are more likely to experience harm,” she said.

Four Personas of Illegal Gambling

Back in October, the Gambling Commission had revealed another landmark study looking into the motivators behind accessing illegal betting sites.

And they uncovered four broad types of ‘illegal gambler’:

• Self Excluders
• Skilled Advocates
• Social Explorers
• Accidental Tourists

The Self Excluder is perhaps the most alarming of the groups; these are individuals that have previously signed up to a self-exclusion programme, such as GAMSTOP, over potentially problematic behaviours.

The Skilled Advocate is somebody that actively wants to circumnavigate the verification, KYC and financial assessments that licensed firms are legally bound to ask for, while the Social Explorer is somebody that’s curious to know more about illegal sites.

The Accidental Tourist, meanwhile, is an individual that might have unknowingly stumbled upon an illegal operator when searching for a legitimate site/app to join.

Four different personas… each with their own challenges posed to the Gambling Commission and their industry partners.