The UK Government Unveils Its New Illegal Gambling Taskforce

First mooted back in January, the government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sports (DCMS) has revealed more details of its Illegal Gambling Taskforce.

The new organisation will bring together a number of different industry stakeholders, including ministers, regulators, law enforcement and pro-gambling bodies, to help combat the growing threat of black market betting.

The taskforce is set to run for 12 months, although critics are already suggesting that the schedule of twice-yearly meetings isn’t enough to tackle one of the fastest growing threats to the licensed sector.

Making An Impact

The group has been created with the objective of ‘identifying solutions to, and providing recommendations on, reducing the negative impacts of specific challenges relating to illegal gambling.’

Different departments within the taskforce will be set up to find solutions to specific issues, such as reducing the number of payments being made to black market operators, disrupting their online advertising campaigns and enhancing the link between gambling industry stakeholders and law enforcement officials.

Headed by the Minister for Museums, Heritage and Gambling, Baroness Thatcher, other individuals invited to participate will include representatives from tech platforms, payment providers, trade bodies, the Gambling Commission and bookmakers, although their identities will not be revealed publicly.

Slated to initially run for 12 months, the scope of the taskforce could be extended if the feeling is that there’s more value to be added.

Quoted by the DCMS’ X account, Baroness Twycross commented:

“By uniting key players across the industry – from tech companies and advertisers to social media and payment platforms – and sharing expertise, we can make a real impact.

“Our taskforce will work together over the next year to ensure that people who wish to gamble can do so safely, with the right protections in place.”

Government Funding

The taskforce has been created as part of the government’s £26 million budget for tackling black market gambling.

That fund will also go towards paying the salary of the newly-created position of Head of Illegal Markets at the Gambling Commission.

Speaking at the AGM of the Bingo Association, the Commission’s acting chief executive Sarah Gardner revealed a raft of measures that the regulator is introducing in a bid to tackle illegal land-based gambling in the UK.

As part of their Gaming Machines consultation, the Gambling Commission will expressly make it a rule that, as of July 29 this year, all gambling machines must be immediately removed from premises where the ‘manufacture, supply, installation, adaption, maintenance or repair of the machine was not carried out in reliance on a gaming machine technical operating licence.’

The machines, found in UK casinos, bingo halls and adult gaming centres, must also be removed if they do not comply with Gaming Machine Technical Standards (GMTS).

As a result of the consultation, which ran from January-July 2025, section 86 of the Gambling Act has been amended so that the regulator can ‘more effectively address’ scenarios in which gaming machines are ‘illegally manufactured, supplied, installed, adapted, maintained or repaired, or does not comply with the GMTS.’

Addressing that and many other topics at the Bingo Association meeting, Gardner commented:

“We welcome the £26 million in new funding from government for our work in this space. That money covers the next three years and one area it will allow us to invest in, arguably for the first time in a serious way, is addressing land-based illegal gambling.

“Going forwards we think this new funding gives us the chance to do more in this space.”