2.5% of online bettors used illegal sites

According to estimates shared by the Commission, 2.5% of adults who played online betting in Great Britain in the past year used an illegal betting site in the four weeks before the survey. A further 1.5% said they had visited such sites in the past 12 months, but had not used them in the last four weeks.

Taking all adults into account, including those who do not bet, the rates were 0.6% and 0.4%. For 94.4% of participants, there was no sign of illegal site use. For 4.6%, some signs were seen, but the evidence was not sufficient to classify these people as users.

Of those classified as illegal site users, 58% said they used a site they knew was not registered with Gamstop. 56.6% said they had cancelled a withdrawal request before the money reached a bank account or wallet. Licensed operators have been banned from allowing customers to cancel withdrawal requests since 2021.

The survey showed that men were more interested in these sites than women. In the last four weeks, 0.9% of men and 0.4% of women used illegal sites. The Commission warned that the number of participants classified as illegal site users was only 128.