The UK Betting and Gaming Council has moved to tackle the expanding black market with a targeted five-point intervention plan. Their concern is real: unlicensed operators could capture one in five pounds staked online within three years.

H2 Gambling Capital estimates suggest the illegal sector could balloon from GBP 17 billion in 2025 to over GBP 33 billion by 2028. That trajectory represents a serious problem for the regulated industry, which accounts for roughly 90% of the market and bears the weight of compliance costs, tax contributions, and player protections that illegal operators sidestep entirely.

Where the Threat Originates

The BGC’s concern is straightforward: every customer lured to an unlicensed operator is gambling without safeguards, without regulatory oversight, and without the consumer protections embedded in Britain’s licensed market. Illegal operators contribute nothing to the public purse, invest nothing in harm prevention measures, and operate with minimal accountability.

What makes this worse is how efficiently they’ve infiltrated the marketplace. Unlicensed companies currently account for nearly half of all UK gambling advertising spend, with social media serving as their primary distribution channel. They’re processing payments through legitimate financial systems and exploiting enforcement gaps with practised ease.

The Five-Point Response

The BGC’s proposed measures tackle the ecosystem supporting illegal operations rather than attempting the impossible task of shutting down individual sites. The council proposes:

  • Persuading social media platforms to cease promoting illegal gambling products, reducing their visibility and reach
  • Granting the UK Gambling Commission stronger powers to block illegal gambling websites swiftly and effectively
  • Enlisting payment providers to identify and restrict transactions linked to unlicensed operators
  • Holding third parties accountable, including advertisers and payment facilitators who knowingly service the black market
  • Implementing tougher criminal sanctions that genuinely deter actors from offering illegal products in Britain

The logic here is sound. Illegal operators depend on a broader ecosystem of marketers, payment processors, and hosting services. Disrupt that ecosystem, and you disrupt their viability.

A Warning From Leadership

BGC Chief Executive Grainne Hurst framed the issue beyond simple market competition. This is a consumer protection problem, a public health concern, and a criminal justice matter requiring coordinated action from government, regulators, tech companies, and financial services.

Her point carries weight. The black market’s projected trajectory suggests its size could double within years if left unchecked. The BGC has acknowledged the government’s recent creation of a Black Market Taskforce as a positive first step, but argues that these five measures represent the practical, targeted actions needed to deliver real disruption.

Whether policymakers, tech platforms, and payment processors move with sufficient urgency remains to be seen. The industry has laid out a clear roadmap. Execution is what counts now.

What the team thinks

Carl Mitchell says:

Look, Baz has rightly flagged the black market threat, and those H2 projections are sobering enough to make any operator sit up straight, but the BGC’s five-point plan feels like treating symptoms rather than the disease, because the real issue is that punters are voting with their wallets toward unregulated sites due to affordability, faster payouts, and frankly, looser bet limits that the licensed operators have been forced to tighten. The regulated sector needs to do more than just play defense with compliance initiatives, we need to see the big players actually innovate on player value and customer experience, or we’ll hand that market share to the black market on a silver plate regardless of how many enforcement letters the BGC sends out.