Illegal Betting in Britain: Are Enforcement Efforts Working?

Key Points

• The 25.1 million figure from IFHA refers to the aggregate of unique visitors per month in 2025, totalling 2.1 million a month.
• About 1 in 6 visits were made to the illegal sites as against the 1 in 5 mentioned by the BHA in the 2026 sample.
• According to the Gambling Commission bank data, 91% of those who visited illegal betting sites also used legal sites.

The 25 Million Figure in the Headline Refers to a Year’s Total

Headlines about 25 million visits a month to illegal betting sites in Britain paint the picture of a huge jump in the numbers. However, the research which was the basis of those headlines paints a different picture though a worrying rise. According to Table 1 in the full IFHA research report, 25.1 million is the total number of unique visitors per month in 2025. This works out to 2.1 million a month which is fourteen times the 2022 number.

The research is based on 301 betting websites offering horse racing. These include 74 licensed sites and 227 illegal sites. The research measures traffic from UK internet addresses.

Regulator of Racing Reads Warning from Figures

The phrase “monthly unique visits” used in the 6 November release of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) could be easily misinterpreted as a figure for one month. In January-July 2026, illegal sites registered 19.4 visits per 100 visits to the licensed sites. The BHA said that this translates into about 1 in 5 which, according to the figures in the report, is closer to 1 in 6.

This difference is due to the calculation method of the percentage. The ratio of 19.4 illegal visits per 100 licensed visits does not mean that illegal sites have a share of 19.4%. When added up, the figures work out to 11.0 million illegal visits out of 67.9 million visits. That means illegal sites’ share is 16.2% or about 1 in 6. I

BHA chief executive Brant Dunshea has pointed out that racing had been warning of “unintended consequences for our sport”. 

Visitors to Illegal Sites Spend More Time, But This Does Not Mean They Bet More

Those using illegal betting sites also spend more time there. There was a 32% increase in average visits from October 2024 to July 2026. Average session time went up from 5 minutes 38 seconds to 7 minutes 25 seconds, while pageviews per visit also increased by 34%.

The licensed sites are still outperforming on metrics such as visit time, pageviews, and bounce rates. However, the report notes that the difference between licensed and unlicensed sites “is narrowing quickly”. The traffic for licensed gambling sites also fell from 143.8 million visits in 2022 to 94.6 million in 2025.

More time spent does not necessarily equal more betting. Research is unable to quantify what visitors bet, how much money they use, and who actually wagers. This is explained by the author, who clearly distinguishes the traffic ratio from “a traditional market share or channelisation measure”.

Results of Enforcement Actions Depend on What Has to Be Measured

During its operations, the Gambling Commission has issued over 3,100 disruption or cease and desist orders since April 2024. As per the BHA’s 6 November press release, nearly 288,000 URLs have also been removed.

The government provided the Commission with £26m at the 2025 Budget to fight illegal gambling. In addition, in a summer consultation, it proposes to ban the sponsorship and advertising of unlicensed operators, which is approved by the BHA.

However, the increase in illegal traffic “has not yet shown significant impact” from the enforcement efforts, according to IFHA. Moreover, its author warns that the drop in traffic observed in 2026 might be due to “search visibility, domain migration, sporting-event timing or ordinary volatility”.

The Commission’s numbers provide an alternative method to measure the results of actions. On 5 November, it reported actions against 311 illegal sites in Q2 of 2026/27, a growth of 38%. Out of 305 disrupted sites where data is available, 77% showed a reduction in estimated traffic following the intervention. At the same time, the regulator notes that not all drops might be connected with the enforcement efforts.

The Gambling Commission measures disruptions to specific sites, while the IFHA measures the total decline of illegal traffic in the market. These methods may result in different numbers.

In addition, Dunshea criticises the Illegal Gambling Taskforce, calling “progress so far has been limited”. He wants to work with the new Gambling Minister, Vicky Foxcroft, to “inject some urgency into this process”. According to Dunshea, nine months have passed since the taskforce was announced.

The BHA refers to the date of the creation of the task force as January 2026. However, its terms of reference were published by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on 13 May 2026. The IFHA also refers to May as the beginning of the taskforce. These two dates do not contradict each other, since the announcement might have been made earlier.

The Illegal Gambling Taskforce has three goals: reducing payments to illegal gambling operators, reducing their online advertising, and increasing cooperation between agencies. Its terms permit operating for one year before the reviewing of remit and membership of the group.

Banking Data Indicates Many Bettors Engage With Both Markets

Open banking analysis by the Gambling Commission, released on 28 October, reveals 3,426 instances of suspected illegal gambling activities among 179 individuals. The overall dataset consists of 157.2 million transactions, including 4.8 million transactions with licensed non-lottery gambling firms.

The credit card account category included 138 instances of suspected illegal activity by 15 individuals. Available documentation failed to identify how those transactions were made.

Among repeat customers of illegal gambling providers, 91% also used the services of licensed gambling firms. The secondary sources estimate the size of this category at only 122 individuals, restricting the ability to generalise the results to the entire market. According to the Gambling Commission, illegal gambling appears to be an addition to existing gambling habits rather than a replacement for the services of licensed gambling operators.

The data also show a stark contrast between gambling harm scores. Out of 146 individuals making payments to illegal operators, 45% had a  PGSI score of 8 or above. Among 12,543 licensed non-lottery gamblers, only 6% scored that way.

The sampling group is not nationally representative, and the Gambling Commission indicates associations, rather than causality. Survey findings shown in the same dashboard reveal that 2.5% of online gamblers in the last year visited illegal websites.

The engagement with illegal sites in September was estimated 11% below year-on-year but 12% above the previous three-month average. Those findings cover different dimensions of illegal gambling, and none measures the overall sum spent on operators without a license.

Higher Taxes Are Coming, but Proof of Bettors Switching Is Not Found

As of 1 April 2027, the government will introduce a 25% tax on the bookmakers’ profits from all remote bets except UK horseracing.

According to the Finance Act 2026, remote bets placed exclusively in UK horseraces are exempt from the increased taxation rate.

HMRC provides the rationale for the exemption as an acknowledgement of the 10% contribution made by the bookmakers through the Horserace Betting Levy.

The IFHA claims that increased taxation of other sports may still affect horseracing in case people betting in several sports switch to offshore operators. This is a forecast of the future behaviour, rather than proof that bettors already switched due to changed tax policy.

According to Dunshea, the BHA will share the results with the government and ask it to “keep bettors within the regulated market”.

Expert analysis: The Corrected Figure Still Raises Important Questions

We consider it correct to adjust the figure of 25 million, thus making the discussion more meaningful. A fourteen-fold growth in annual figures is alarming enough without even mentioning the monthly figure. Besides, we question the BHA’s assertion that in 2026 it will constitute a fifth of the total number, while the numbers calculated in the report show 16.2%.

The drop in 2026 should receive as much attention as the previous growth. According to our calculations using the figures for the first seven months, the total figure is expected to amount to approximately 18.9 million, i.e. about 25% below 2025.

Illegal operators do not contribute any funds to the Horserace Betting Levy, thus creating a financial incentive for racing. Such an interest does not necessarily imply that the BHA’s interpretation is always unbiased.

We consider both ways of estimating the enforcement equally insufficient. Blocking an illegal website does not prove the gamblers’ transition to licensed operators – combining traffic figures with the figures of payments would show whether it really happened as finances show where the money is spent.

An estimated 91% overlap in the audience of illegal and licensed gambling sites could imply that people use them both. Nevertheless, the sample of 122 people is too small to make any conclusions about the general betting population.

None of the mentioned studies proves the effect of taxation on the bettors’ behaviour by moving them offshore. We would need to find evidence of switching rather than another set of figures for website traffic.

If the full-year figure for 2026 is about 18.9 million, what part of the decline should be attributed to enforcement, search visibility, or traffic fluctuations?