Politics Home Article | Illegal gambling is a gift to criminals

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Over the past decade, since leaving law enforcement and now chairing the Betting and Gaming Council’s Gambling Anti-Money Laundering Group (GAMLG), one trend has become increasingly clear to me: the illegal gambling market is getting worse, not better. 

I take no position for or against gambling. For many it is simply a lawful leisure activity. My concern is that gambling should not be used for illegal purposes, and the illegal black market crosses that line every day. 

Criminals weigh risk against reward when it comes to selecting the victims they wish to target and the methods they choose, and illegal gambling currently offers one of the most favourable balances they can find. Crucially, as the regulated sector has strengthened its compliance measures, the illegal market has grown more sophisticated. It has no age checks, no safer gambling protections, no anti-money-laundering controls and no tax contribution. It creates opportunities for criminals to move money with minimal challenge, and the nature and scale of associated offending is too often not understood or overlooked. 

Independent EY analysis, following last year’s Budget, shows the future consequences clearly: more than £6bn in stakes diverted to illegal operators and a 140 per cent increase in the size of the black market. This weakens the regulated sector and reduces long-term tax revenues. 

The UK already has a regulatory system designed to protect consumers and uphold integrity, and the licensed market plays its part in meeting those expectations. But no system is effective without robust enforcement and illegal operators are expanding with very little resistance from decision makers and those charged with enforcing the law. We should be asking what is being done to address this, where the money goes, what wider criminality it enables and why an unregulated market is being allowed to operate with so little scrutiny. 

The additional £26m for the Gambling Commission in the Budget is welcome and necessary. The key question now is what difference it will make in practice: how will this funding increase the risks for those who operate illegally and protect the public from them? 

Everyone should comply with the law and with the regulations designed to protect consumers. BGC members are already investing in compliance, strengthening controls and enforcing responsible standards. But their efforts are undermined if illegal operators continue to grow beyond the reach of effective enforcement. 

As long as the black market remains a low-risk and high-reward environment for criminals, it will continue to expand, and that must change. So I ask government and the Gambling Commission directly: what are you going to do to ensure the black market is not a risk-free enterprise? Unless that question is answered and action follows, the public will be exposed to harm while criminal activity continues unchecked.