Gambling Commission estimates 1% engaged with illegal sites in first GSGB year

The Gambling Commission published its Phase 4 report on 5 November 2026, giving the first Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) estimates of engagement with illegal gambling websites. The data covers April 2025 to April 2026. Among the whole adult survey population, 0.6% had engaged with an illegal gambling website within the previous four weeks and a further 0.4% during the previous 12 months, producing an estimated 1% with engagement in the past year.

For compliance teams, the report establishes a monitoring baseline. The Commission intends to track changes through future GSGB waves, compare the results with web-traffic estimates and other intelligence, and assess the effect of disruption work. In Atlas's view, the practical significance is that the regulator now has a repeatable market-level measure against which enforcement and consumer-protection interventions can be assessed.

What the index measures

The Illegal Gambling Index combines seven self-reported behavioural indicators developed through four phases of research by the Commission and Yonder Consulting. The questions were asked of respondents who had gambled online in the previous 12 months, excluding people who had only used online National Lottery products. The results were then rebased to the full survey population, including non-gamblers.

Among the whole population, 94.4% showed no indication of illegal-site use. A further 4.6% showed limited indications, but not enough evidence for the Commission to categorise them confidently as users in the previous four weeks or 12 months.

Among people who had gambled online, 2.5% had engaged with an illegal gambling website in the previous four weeks and a further 1.5% in the previous 12 months. Those categories are mutually exclusive, so the past-year estimate for this group is 4%.

Engagement was higher among males and generally more prevalent among younger adults, particularly those aged 18 to 24. Among 25 to 34-year-olds, engagement was more evident in the previous four weeks. The most commonly reported indicators were using a website known not to be registered with Gamstop, reported by 58.0% of illegal-site users, and cancelling a withdrawal before it reached a bank or wallet, reported by 56.5%.

The Commission's recent Phase 3 research examined the drivers and entry routes behind illegal-site use. The new index is intended to measure the resulting engagement consistently over time, rather than rely on consumers' ability to identify or admit that a site is illegal.

Next data and enforcement

The Commission has also published an Illegal Gambling Data Dashboard to track engagement and the impact of consumer-protection disruption. That measurement work accompanies recent operational action, including support for Manchester raids that produced four arrests and more than £20,000 in cash recovery on 23 September.

The Commission says future GSGB waves will support more detailed analysis once sample sizes increase. Supplementary questions covering four previously identified user personas, Self-Excluders, Skilled Advocates, Social Explorers and Accidental Tourists, are due to be added to the GSGB in 2027.