New data from Britain's Gambling Commission estimates that 2.5% of people who gambled online during the previous year engaged with an illegal gambling website in the four weeks before they were surveyed. A further 1.5% were classified as users during the previous 12 months but not during the most recent four weeks.
The regulator published the findings on November 5 as the fourth phase of its research into the illegal online market. Its official analysis covers the first year of relevant questions in the Gambling Survey for Great Britain, spanning April 2025 to April 2026. Across all adults, including people who did not gamble, the estimated shares were 0.6% for the previous four weeks and another 0.4% for the preceding year.
The Commission did not ask respondents simply to identify an illegal operator. It created an index from seven reported behaviours that can indicate use of an unlicensed website. These include knowingly using a site outside Gamstop, joining a site to avoid age or identity checks, using a VPN to reach a gambling website unavailable in Britain and gambling with a credit card or cryptocurrency. The combined score and timing determine whether a respondent is classified as a likely user.
iGaming Business reported that the analysis covered 14,257 survey participants, including 3,569 people who had gambled online during the previous year. Only 128 respondents were classified as illegal-site users, so the Commission said the sample was too small for detailed analysis of some groups. Men recorded higher estimated engagement than women, while recent use was more evident among adults aged 25 to 34.
The regulator's November dashboard adds market context. It identified 586 illegal gambling websites accessible to consumers in Great Britain in September and said 311 websites were subject to disruption action in the second quarter of the 2026 to 2027 financial year. The Commission presents the survey estimate as a developing indicator rather than a complete measure of a hidden market, and it plans to expand its questions in 2027 as the evidence base grows.
