UKGC index: 4% of GB online gamblers used illegal sites

Last updated: 7 Nov 2026, 19:56 CET

One in a hundred survey respondents in Great Britain engaged with illegal gambling websites over the previous 12 months, in the year to April 2026, according to the Gambling Commission's new Illegal Gambling Index. Among respondents who gamble online, excluding the National Lottery, the figure was 4%. The Commission published the first results on 5 November, alongside a dashboard showing that its disruption of illegal sites rose sharply between July and September 2026.

What the Index measures

Asking people directly whether they used an illegal site gives an unreliable answer, the Commission says, because many players do not know a site is unlicensed or are unwilling to say so. The Index instead combines seven self-reported behaviours linked to illegal-site use. It was developed with Yonder Consulting over four phases of the Commission's Consumer Voice research and added to the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB).

Acting Chief Executive Sarah Gardner gave the headline figures in her CEO Briefing speech on 5 November (published as drafted the next day): "in the year up to this April, 1% of respondents in Great Britain had engaged with illegal gambling websites over the previous 12 months. Among those respondents who gamble online, excluding the National Lottery, 4% had engaged."

The Commission's dashboard reports a separate timing measure. At population level, it estimates 0.6% of respondents engaged in the last four weeks, with an additional 0.4% engaged in the past 12 months. Among respondents who had gambled online in the past four weeks, it estimates 2.5%, with an additional 1.5% in the past 12 months. Rupam Jagota, the Commission's Research and Impact Manager, wrote that engagement is more common among men and younger adults, particularly those aged 18 to 24.

The Commission calls the figures a baseline. Changes over time will show only as further survey years are added.

Disruption in July to September

The dashboard counts 311 illegal gambling websites hit by disruption action in the second quarter of 2026–27 (July to September). One website can face several actions. The dashboard data tables for the same quarter show:

A referral asks a search engine to remove a link. It is not a court finding, and the website count is not a count of separate operators.

The dashboard also tracks what happened to traffic afterwards. Among disrupted websites with enough traffic data from the first quarter of 2026–27, 77% saw estimated traffic fall in the three months after action, and total estimated traffic across them fell 18%. The Commission says these are observed changes and "should not be interpreted as evidence that all changes were caused solely by the disruption". The traffic figures are modelled Similarweb estimates and run one quarter behind.

Six months of new funding

In the same speech, Gardner linked the increase to government funding of £26 million over three years, saying the first £7 million arrived "just over six months" ago. She compared April to September 2026 with the whole of 2025–26:

Gardner added that the focus of the Commission's interventions "may evolve away from some of these numbers".

The dashboard's own supply measure did not fall in step. It found 586 illegal gambling websites accessible in Great Britain in September 2026: 4% fewer than the previous three-month average, but 4% more than a year earlier. That count covers only sites found through the Commission's monitored searches.

For related coverage, see Play'n GO's cut to aggregator supply for offshore markets and the IAGR's CheckBeforeYouPlay licence checker.

Updates

• 7 Nov 2026: first published.