The UK Gambling Commission’s (UKGC) full attention remains on fighting the black market, the regulator’s CEO, Andrew Rhodes, has reaffirmed.

In a speech at the International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR) in Toronto, Rhodes made sure to highlight the UKGC’s continuous efforts to hit back at black market operators through a dedicated team created three-and-a-half years ago.

“We make sure there are penalties and disincentives for being in the illegal market, but also one of our obligations under the Gambling Act, which created us as an organisation is we are here to protect children and the vulnerable from being exploited by gambling,” Rhodes said.

Part of the Commission’s targeted campaign against unlicensed operators includes the disruption of online traffic through a close collaboration with search engines. 

Rhodes added that he expects the UKGC to report a total of 200,000 URLs by the end of this financial year. As a result, there’s already been “nearly 100,000” blocked websites.

“We’re tracking over 1000 illegal operators as we try to shut them down… if we can remove things from search results, we make it harder to find, so we slow them down.”

Black market still in the spotlight

Despite the UKGC’s efforts, there is an interesting phenomenon going on in the UK where gambling brands that are typically unlicensed to operate are striking high profile sponsorship deals with sports clubs, particularly in the Premier League.

This led to a huge outcry earlier this year when TGP Europe was forced to leave the UK market and cease its white-label operations managing Asia-facing brands like DEBET and bj88 – partners of Wolverhampton Wanderers FC and AFC Bournemouth respectively.

Just last week, Leicester City announced that BC.GAME, another unlicensed operator, will continue to be the club’s principal partner through the 2025/26 season. All these instances are widely viewed as counter-intuitive to what the UKGC is aiming to achieve.

Potential tax hike could complicate things

On top of that, the next budget coming in on 26 November could potentially raise the tax rates for the gambling sector – with the UK Treasury looking at several options on the table.

One of which would be to align all three existing tax systems with the current Remote Gaming Duty (RGD) at 21%, which would impact the retail betting sector the hardest given that the levy there is currently at 15%.

However, another option being discussed is to raise the RGD rate from 21% to 50%, which would undoubtedly cast a huge shadow on the revenues of licensed online gambling operators. This might inadvertently impact the end user cost, leading to more black market migration.

Rhodes addressed taxation during his speech in Toronto, saying: “Now these are going to be really big debates and they’re taking place in many countries at the moment, and it is quite hard sometimes when different factors change to work out exactly what impact each individual component had. 

“That’s why in GB, we’ve got an evaluation programme, which is to evaluate the impact, as best we possibly can of the different changes that the Gambling Act Review White Paper has delivered within our country.”