Over 230 illegal gambling operators are targeting children and players who have self-excluded via GAMSTOP in the UK, according to new data.
The report from technical intelligence platform Yield Sec claims that illegal UK gambling takes up to four per cent of the country’s online gambling revenue potential away from the regulated market.
What’s more, more than 1,000 affiliate sites helped promote the 231 illicit operators, the findings say.
Yield Sec’s report adds that the number of illegal UK operators grew fourfold from 2021 to 2022 and doubled in scale in 2023.
Ismail Vali, founder and CEO of Yield Sec (pictured), said the company’s surveillance highlights the “the disturbing and cynical growth of a certain type of illegal operator present in the UK over the past three years.”
He said illegal operators seeking to “work around and enable vulnerable vulnerable problem gamblers to avoid GAMSTOP self-exclusion" is "distressing" and demands "immediate and meaningful intervention."
Yield Sec says that in January last year, it detected “thousands” of Google results that aided self-exclusion avoidance.
And by January this year, the company says it revealed “millions” of “not on GAMSTOP” and related search results, enabling “admitted problem gamblers to bypass self-exclusion measures that exclude them from activity with legal online gambling operators.”
The company said the “trap-door into illegal and harmful gambling currently faces “no oversight” from GAMSTOP, the UK Gambling Commission and law authorities.
Yield Sec concluded: “Data and analysis from Yield Sec presents a stark warning, signalling the urgent need to combat the rampant growth of illegal gambling and protect vulnerable segments of society.
“As 2024 unfolds, the gambling industry, regulators, and policymakers must unite in prioritizing measures to address these challenges for the collective welfare of consumers, the community and the economy. “
