BHA urges government to act over black market after report claims up to £4.3 billion is staked with illegal firms in Britain

The BHA has called on the government to "carefully consider" the threat of the black market after a new report published on Thursday claimed more than £4 billion is being staked with illegal operators in Britain each year.

The study by consultants Frontier Economics was commissioned by the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), whose chief executive Grainne Hurst warned proposals such as low-level blanket affordability checks put forward by campaigners risked driving more customers to illegal operators.

A previous report by PwC commissioned by the BGC in 2021 claimed there had been a doubling in the money staked with unregulated operators in 2020 to £2.8bn compared to a similar study in 2019. Since then the last government published proposals for gambling reform in a white paper, which included extra powers for the Gambling Commission to enable it to tackle black market operators.

The Frontier Economics report used evidence from a survey of more than 6,000 people, as well as from a number of operators, to estimate that £2.7bn is staked on unregulated gambling black market sites online every year in Britain, while up to £1.6bn is staked in what were described as underground gambling venues.

Grainne Hurst: "Millions of customers are being driven into the arms of pernicious black market operators"Credit: Neil Sampson

Hurst said: “This shocking report exposes the unnerving true scale of the growing, unsafe, unregulated gambling black market. From online gaming, to betting on sports like horseracing, millions of customers are being driven into the arms of pernicious black market operators. These people don’t care about player safety, don’t want to pay their fair share to support sport and don’t pay a penny in tax.

“By failing to adhere to the stringent standards set by the Gambling Commission, unregulated operators in the unsafe black market can make bigger offers, grant customers total anonymity, and promise the freedom to gamble without any controls or safety measures, unlike BGC members. Worst of all, these sites are making a mockery of the rules set up to protect the most vulnerable by aggressively advertising their services to those who have self-excluded."

The BHA welcomed the report which it said "underlined the importance of bettors using the legal market which directly supports the horseracing industry and the UK economy".

A statement from the governing body added: "Crucially, the legal betting market provides a high standard of player protections and is best placed to identify those most at risk of gambling-related harm. 

“Today’s report supports our view that it is important that any changes to gambling regulations strike the correct balance between consumer freedom and protection. This is why we continue to make the case that any roll-out of financial risk checks must be fully frictionless as part of our collective efforts to prevent the growth of the black market. 

"The BHA urges the government to carefully consider the threat of the black market as it follows through on the proposals set out in the white paper, and to ensure resources are focused on shutting down illegal operators to both protect those at risk of harm and the integrity of our sport."

The report claimed black market gambling online has “high awareness, is easy to find, and is already commonly used”, and that one in five 18-24 year olds who bet have gambled on the black market. It referenced reports by the Racing Post on illegal operators operating both online offshore and via WhatsApp domestically.

The BGC warned black market gambling could deprive the Treasury of up to £335 million in taxation over the course of a five-year parliament.

Hurst added: "The government and the regulator risk sleepwalking into this issue. Simply giving the GC more powers and more resources to tackle the black market won’t, in itself, work. Enforcement is only part of the solution.

“The fact is that onerous and ill-judged regulations drive customers from the regulated sector to the unsafe, unregulated gambling black market. Proposals by anti-gambling prohibitionists like advertising bans or intrusive, blanket, low level affordability checks will not protect customers, in fact they will give another leg up to unscrupulous black market operators, the last thing anyone wants.

“Every comparable market in the world tells us the same thing. The best defence against this growing illegal, gambling black market is getting the balance of regulations right."

Responding to the report, the Gambling Commission said it was committed to tackling unlicensed gambling in Britain and that the regulator had an "extremely active" specialist black markets team.

A spokesperson added: "Since April, the team has issued over 750 cease-and-desist, and disruption notices – this includes 259 cease-and-desists issued to operators and 189 to advertisers.

"Over that same period the commission has referred over 78,000 URLs to Google with 50,000 of these removed by the search engine, and 221 websites taken down. This is a tenfold increase in URL takedowns in comparison to the whole of 2023-2024."

Read these next:

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Tackling gambling's black market likened to 'whack-a-mole' by senior DCMS civil servant 

Worried punters body says black market betting 'will grow once there's a need for it' 

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