Two recent inquests have exposed the most disturbing consequences of Britain’s illegal online gambling market. This year coroners concluded that gambling disorder contributed to the suicides of Ollie Long and Ellen Mulvey, two people who had actively tried to escape gambling but ended up on illegal sites.

Both had first become addicted through legal online casinos and had tried to quit by using the self-exclusion tool GamStop. Nearly 700,000 people struggling with gambling harm have signed up to GamStop, which blocks access to any legal British gambling site. Yet illegal casinos deliberately use “casinos not on GamStop” as a marketing tool, luring people such as Ellen and Ollie back into harm.

A new research report prepared this month by the intelligence platform Gaming Compliance International (GCI) for my Campaign for Fairer Gambling shows that both the regulated and unregulated online gambling sectors grew between 2024 and 2025. The regulated market remains overwhelmingly dominant, accounting for around 91 per cent of online gambling revenue, while the unregulated sector accounts for less than 9 per cent.

This data also suggests that casino-style gaming, rather than betting, is the main driver in the unregulated sector, with 75 per cent of unregulated gambling revenue coming from gaming products. This challenges trade claims that affordability checks on sports and racing bettors are the main drivers of illegal market growth.

The scale of the problem has also been exaggerated. If we consider the whole GB gambling market including land-based and the lottery, the illegal portion equates to only around 4 per cent. Excluding underage and self-excluded gamblers reduces it to less than 2 per cent. That is smaller than the gambling market in Northern Ireland, despite the province having no dedicated regulator and outdated gambling laws.

It is therefore fascinating that an All-Party Parliamentary Group for Action Against Illegal Gambling has just been set up. Vice-chairs Esther McVey MP and Neil CoyleMP, aided by secretariat Jordan Lea of Deal Me Out, have an opportunity to prove to be reliable independent voices by avoiding parroting the trade lines. 

Despite the attention illegal casinos receive, the reality is that Britain still has one of the smallest unregulated online gambling sectors of any major jurisdiction globally. Trade voices are forecasting that by 2028 unregulated turnover will reach £33bn and present this as an existential threat to the regulated sector.

But turnover is not revenue. My campaign to reduce the stakes of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) resulted in a turnover decrease of £25bn in the first year (2019-20) but a much smaller revenue decrease of £750m. Those opposing that harm reduction move forecast that betting shop numbers would decline to 4,500. There are still over 5,600 betting shops, despite the pandemic and bookies pushing conversion from land-based to online.

The Treasury has awarded the Gambling Commission £26m to tackle illegal gambling. No longer led by Andrew Rhodes, who has left to become a gambling sector adviser, the Commission is using the funds to establish an illegal gambling task force under DCMS whose membership remains secret.

Mr Rhodes and other executives at the Commission have a history of attending and speaking at trade events where many of the participants are unlicenced operators and suppliers, or representatives of jurisdictions hosting those unlicenced sites.

So many people, including parliamentarians, worked so hard to get the Conservatives’ Gambling White Paper done, but DCMS delegated some projects to the Commission. If the Commission had been less friendly to the gambling sector in the resulting consultations, would Mr Rhodes have been as welcome in his new role?

Despite their expertise, GCI is not on the task force, and neither is Gamban, the premier self-exclusion tool. Gamban can block both legal and illegal sites from all devices when activated, but was recently refused funding under DHSC from the £120m per year statutory levy, raising questions about DHSC oversight in that process.

The task force should start by asking why many illegal sites are still accessible from Britain despite being known to DCMS. It should also look into whether companies licensed by the Commission are in business relationships with illegal sites.

It is the same addictive content on illegal sites as on legal ones. Illegal electronic roulette is still electronic roulette. Changing a name from Super Silly Slots to Silly Super Slots does not change the games.* Gamblers have no guarantee that the games are fair, winnings will be paid or deposits will be protected.

The deaths of Ollie Long and Ellen Mulvey should change the conversation. We need to move on from abstract discussions about “safer” or “protected” gambling. The same marketing techniques and algorithms operate across both sectors. The totality of harm is greater in the regulated sector, which remains the primary gateway to illegal gambling. Any serious strategy to reduce harm must acknowledge that reality.

* Game names invented for illustrative purposes

David TC Davies was Secretary of State for Wales from 2022 to 2024. He was the Member of Parliament for Monmouth from 2005 to 2024 and previously sat in the Welsh Assembly.

Communities across Wales and the United Kingdom are marking Armed Forces Day.

We rightly pay tribute to the men and women of His Majesty’s Armed Forces, who stand ready to defend our country, often at great personal sacrifice.

But there is another group of people who are crucial to the defence of our nation, who rarely receive the recognition they deserve. I refer to the thousands of workers who design and build the weapons and equipment that keep our service personnel and all of us safe.

As a Welsh politician, I am very conscious of their contribution because the defence sector is vital to the Welsh economy. Global companies such as BAE Systems, General Dynamics, Airbus, Raytheon and Babcock all have a significant presence in Wales. But there are also dozens of smaller firms further down the supply chain, employing a highly skilled workforce.

I recently visited Sierra Nevada Corporation Mission Systems in South Wales, one of a number of companies based in Wales and developing advanced defence technology. Not far away is IrvinGQ, which manufactures parachutes used by the British Armed Forces and allied nations around the world. Remarkably, much of the highly skilled work involved in manufacturing these life-saving products is still carried out by hand.

These are highly skilled jobs that support families and communities across Wales, yet too often the people who work in the defence sector are treated as though there is something morally questionable about what they do.

Last year, I discovered that the Welsh Government-owned Development Bank of Wales was explicitly stating on its website that it would not provide funding to defence companies. Following my intervention, that wording was removed, but I never received a satisfactory explanation as to why it had appeared there in the first place. The message seemed to be that building the equipment used by those defending our democracy is somehow less worthy than other forms of manufacturing.

That attitude still exists in some political circles. We now have a Plaid Cymru Government in Wales. One of their Ministers, Heledd Fychan, previously criticised Welsh Government attendance at a major international defence exhibition, describing it as a “contemptible event”. Another Plaid Senedd Member publicly called for the arms industry to be “moved out of Wales”.

Others are demanding that pension funds withdraw investment from the very companies that equip our Armed Forces.

Plaid Cymru politicians are entitled to hold those views. But they should also understand the consequences. Our Armed Forces cannot defend Britain, with slogans, and protest banners.

But if we expect our servicemen and women to defend our country, we must also be willing to support the industries that equip them. We cannot send them into war zones armed with pea shooters and bows and arrows.

They need advanced aircraft, precision-guided weapons, armoured vehicles and the countless other technologies that modern warfare demands.

Some politicians want to be seen celebrating Armed Forces Day while remaining hostile towards the people who make the equipment our Armed Forces rely upon every day. This could most kindly be described as inconsistent.

I am proud of Wales’s defence industry and the thousands of Welsh workers whose skills help keep Britain safe. I will continue visiting defence companies across Wales and championing the contribution they make to our economy and national security.

At a time when international instability is increasing, we should be cheering on our defence companies, not undermining them. And if the UK Government finally wakes up to the scale of the geopolitical challenges we face and increases defence spending, Wales must receive its fair share of that investment.

It is pointless to champion the men and women of His Majesty’s Armed Forces if we are not also willing to champion those who provide them with the equipment they need to fight and win.

A strong Britain requires strong armed forces and strong armed forces require a strong defence industry.

Wales has every reason to be proud of the role it plays in both.

Tomorrow, the King of the North will grace southerners with his exulted present and travel to London to claim the throne that he considers his by right. It’s as if he has hypnotised his party to lay down their collective shawls in order that the chosen one can walk on water. It’s as if the Messiah is coming to rescue those who have proven incapable of running the country. It’s almost as if he, like Barack Obama appeared to be in 2008, considers himself the only human being in the country who can come to its rescue. He’s even using Obamaesque language, promising hope and change. Obama soon found out that governing was more difficult than that. Andy Burnham is about to discover the awful truth, that changing things in government and changing things in Whitehall are much more difficult. Having been a cabinet minister for three years under Blair and Brown, you’d think he might know that already.

I like Andy Burnham, but I’m afraid we are about to find out that our new emperor has no clothes.

One of the main complaints about Keir Starmer is that he has no grounding political ideological groundings. This means that he is very proficient at swaying in the political wind, and flip-flopping on a policy in the hope that no one will notice.

Burnham has a longer history than Starmer in the Labour Party. Indeed, he’s been a Labour activist from a young age. But can anyone identify what Burnhamism actually is or means. People point to ‘Manchesterism’ but as Sam Coates’s excellent 20 minute film points out, the ground for what Burnham has allegedly achieved in Manchester was laid by Sir Richard Leese. Burnham has been very adept in claiming the glory for himself. Running a city region the size of Manchester is very different to running a country.

Since it became clear that Burnham intended to topple the prime minister, the media has had a collective failure in scrutinising what Andy Burnham really believes in. We’ve seen plenty of examples of issues which he has u-turned on in a way that would make even Keir Starmer blush, but there is scant little evidence of anything which he believes in except himself.

In 2007, when Gordon Brown succeeded Tony Blair, everyone thought he would come in with an agenda for government. That he knew exactly what he wanted to do and achieve. After all, he had had ten years to think about it. But when he walked through the Number 10 door, it turned out the policy cupboard was bare. It led to three years of listless government, with a prime minister incapable of making decisions or to reflect the priorities of the people he was there to serve.

I genuinely hope I am wrong and that Burnham has some visionary policies up his sleep which he can deploy to the benefit of the nation. I am, however, sceptical, because I see no evidence of it. However, assuming he has two months to prepare to take over, perhaps there is still time to put some meat on the bone.

Theresa May became prime minister two months earlier than she might have expected, when Andrea Leadsom pulled out of the 2026 Tory leadership contest in early July 2016. I do hope history does not repeat itself. There should be a context, but if there isn’t, Keit Starmer would do his successor a favour by staying on until the beginning of September. May had no time to prepare for government, and we all know what happened to her.

There is a huge responsibility on Burnham’s shoulders. If he becomes another prime minister who overpromises and underdelivers, the electorate’s faith in politics will diminish to an even more dangerous level than it already has.

Welcome to political realism, Andy. You’ve campaigned in poetry. Now is the time to realise that, as Mario Cuoma memorably said, you have to govern in prose.

Get writing.

How I tested the best sunscreens

Best sunscreens to shop now

Best all-round

If you’re looking for a sunscreen that won’t leave a white cast, isn’t greasy, and is sensitive-skin friendly (who isn’t?) this one from La Roche Posay covers all bases. It’s not only formulated with sensitive, rash-prone skin in mind, but uses a combination of long and short-range UVA and UVB technology to keep you ultra protected.

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Best value for money

As a sensitive skin girly, I’m more than used to struggling to find sunscreen that’s affordable and won’t leave me covered in an awful rash. Thankfully, Boots has the solution in the form of this face and body sunscreen combo. It genuinely won’t break you out, isn’t too greasy, and most importantly is a steal.

Amazon

Best for kids

If there’s one thing that’s going to convince your kids to wear sunscreen, it’s if it smells like tangerine and vanilla. This SPF 30 zinc formula might leave a little greasy layer on your skin, but it’s water resistant for over an hour, and it’s made from 98% natural ingredients.

Best for the beach

If there was ever a scent that encapsulated summer, it would be Hawaiian Tropic. I don’t know how they’ve done it, but the brand has bottled what it feels like to be on a beach, and the sunscreen is great for that, too. It does leave stains on white clothing, so beware, but the formula comes with hints of shimmer that leave you looking and feeling like you’ve been coated in a ray of sunshine. With factor 50 protection and added hydration, it’s ideal for loading up when you’re by a body of water, and it’s water-resistant.

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Best SPF moisturiser for ageing

Okay, hear me out: £92 is a lot to ask you to spend on a moisturiser. But if you’re really serious about a two in one SPF moisturiser that feels good, and keeps you protected, this is it. Not only is the packaging truly luxurious, but it also smells delightful, and most importantly uses real science to back up its age-defence properties. Using Nobel Prize-inspired technology, it has been clinically proven to protect against collagen degradation and inflammation. Plus, it won’t pill under makeup and doesn’t leave a white cast, so what more could you want?

Best organic sunscreen

Of course you want a sunscreen that looks after you, but it should look after the planet, too. At least, that’s what Green People thinks, as its formulas are made from entirely natural and organic ingredients, meaning it’s friendly on sensitive skin. This one is scentless, invisible, and has a boost of B5 to leave your skin feeling hydrated – all without any oiliness.

Best Korean face sunscreen

I’ve recently discovered there’s a reason Korean skincare has taken off in the last few years: it’s really fucking good. This SPF 50 from Laneige is completely invisible and lightweight, and absorbs faster than you can say ‘protection’, making it ideal for wearing under makeup.