More than 3 million illegal betting sites removed from search engines in the UK

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) announced that, while increasing pressure on unlicensed operators, it removed 3,038,969 illegal betting addresses from search engines between April and September. For the whole of the previous financial year, this figure was 266,667. The figure reflects indexed addresses, not individual websites. A single site can have thousands of addresses in the index.

During the same six-month period, more than 7.8 million addresses were reported to search engines. In the previous period, this number was below 400,000. Sarah Gardner, the Commission's interim chief executive, said at a briefing on 5 November that the sudden rise was partly related to additional government funding. The government has allocated 26 million pounds (35 million US dollars) to combat illegal gambling over the next three years. The first 7 million pounds reached the Commission a little more than six months ago.

Gardner said these figures reflect only part of the work carried out. She also noted that as measurement methods develop, the Commission's priority areas of intervention may move away from these numbers.

The Commission is also working with social media platforms to restrict illegal betting advertisements. Gardner said some platforms have responded positively to requests, but further improvement is needed.