The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has signed a joint declaration against black market gaming while also committing to continue one of its flagship research projects into the British betting industry, the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB).

These announcements came shortly after the publication of official industry stats covering the financial year from April 2025-March 2026 showing the full extent of the British betting sector, while also coming before the announcement of the UK budget later today.

Set to be announced at 12:30pm by Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer, the budget is widely expected to include some hikes on gambling tax in some form, with slot machines and online gaming expected to bear the brunt of taxation.

Throughout the months-long debate on gambling tax, the threat of the black market has been routinely raised by operators. The Gambling Commission has also conducted extensive research into the presence of illegal gambling in the UK, taking its remit international this week.

The regulator has issued a joint institutional statement alongside the regulators of Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain, stating a joint commitment to consumer protection, market integrity, and compliance with national and international regulations.

The regulatory septet aims to share information on illegal operators alongside knowledge and best practice to identify, investigate and sanction illegal platforms. The group are also calling on digital platforms and social media networks to combat illegal gambling advertising.

“The fight against illegal online gambling is one of the paramount tasks facing regulated jurisdictions,” the Commission’s statement read. “Its borderless nature and the speed of technological innovation make it easier for illegal operators to evade regulatory oversight.

“This creates significant risks for consumer and public health protection, endangers public order and harms the activity of legitimate operators. In short, illegal online gambling undermines the entire regulatory framework designed to protect the public interest.

“In this context, we express our common concern regarding the increasing proliferation of advertising targeting our jurisdictions by unauthorised operators, particularly through digital channels such as social media, video platforms, and affiliate networks.

“These activities not only violate our national laws but also expose citizens — including minors and vulnerable individuals — to significant risks associated with illegal gambling.”

Estimates put the extent of the gambling black market to be around 10% of British betting. Other organisations like Gamstop have also revealed that around one-tenth of its national self-excluded users have admitted to using illegal platforms.

The past six months have seen a heated debate around tax in the UK, with the industry repeatedly arguing that heavier taxes will lead to operators taking measures that will drive customers to the black market.

This has increasingly fallen on deaf ears, probably not helped by the fact the industry made similar arguments against the implementation of the £2 stake limit in betting shop FOBT games and throughout the two-and-a-half-year review of the 2005 Gambling Act.

Reeves’ budget – which SBC News will cover later today – aims to fill a multi-billion pound black hole in British finances, and when one looks at the scale of the British gambling industry, it becomes easy to see why the government may see it as a cash cow – however misguided this may be according to the industry itself.

Just how big is British betting?

Every quarter, the UKGC publishes figures showing the total gross gambling yield (GGY) of the British betting sector – GGY being the amount retained by betting companies after customer winnings have been paid out, but prior to other operating costs.

The Commission has now revealed how big GGY was for the 2024/25 financial year, with the overall figure coming in at £16.8bn, 7.3% more than in April 2023-March 2024. When the £7.9bn in National Lottery ticket sales and £1.1bn in large society lottery ticket sales are excluded, this figure falls to £12.6bn, 9.3% more than the year prior.

As expected, ‘Remote Gambling’, the UKGC’s term for online gaming, saw the highest turnover of all non-lottery betting and gaming verticals. GGY for online betting, casinos and bingo reached £7.8bn, 13.1% more than last year.

This was divided across online casinos at £5bn, of which £4.2bn came from slot games; online sports betting at £2.6bn, of which football accounted for £1.3bn and horse racing £766.7m; and finally online bingo at £165.6m.

Throughout much of this year, UKGC figures have suggested a decline in participation in the retail side of British betting – both GGY figures in Q2 and Q3 and the results of the latest GSGB survey showed a drop in figures around betting shops.

The full-year GGY figures come across as a bit more promising, with total GGY for land-based sectors up 3.6% to £4.8bn. However, retail betting was only up by 0.7% to £2.5bn, and gaming machines in betting shops were very significant to this, accounting for 48.2% of revenue.

The significance of machine gaming figures to the UK”s 5,825 betting shops, both ones that are part of giant PLCs like Entain and Evoke or independent chains like Corbett or David Pluck, does not bode well.

One of the outcomes expected later today is an increase in machine games duty (MGD) paid on slot games in casinos and retail betting shops from 20% to 50%. It is also expected that remote gaming duty (RGD) on online gaming could increase to 40%.

This former option would deal a hefty blow to the retail betting sector, with William Hill owner Evoke, Ladbrokes Coral parent Entain, and high street giant Betfred all warning of extensive shop closures. Others like Flutter Entertainment, which owns Paddy Power, have already been making adjustments to UK high street presence.

Commission commits to further research

Regardless of the outcomes of taxation on the industry – whether it will be decimated as many fear or if it can ride the storm out as it has done in the past – the Commission is committed to understanding more about it.

With a huge public spotlight on the industry and its societal impacts, and various politicians now calling for another review of British gambling legislation despite the last one having only concluded in April 2023 and its recommendations still being adopted, more research will always come in handy for the industry.

The Commission announced this week that it has awarded a four-year contract to the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), alongside the University of Glasgow, to operate the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) for the next four years.

The GSGB is a vitally important piece of research for the industry. As it essentially serves as the main basis for determining gambling related harm via the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI), it underpins a lot of the arguments for and against the industry – particularly those around player protection, regulation and taxation.

“We are honoured to have been trusted by the Gambling Commission to lead on the delivery of the GSGB,” said Mari Toomse-Smith, Director of Health and Biomedical Surveys at the National Centre for Social Research.

“We worked closely with the Commission to design a state-of-the-art survey and are pleased to be able to continue the GSGB journey with the Gambling Commission and the University of Glasgow.

“GSGB plays a pivotal role at the UK gambling data infrastructure, and its potential will only grow with each new survey year.”

Some questions may be raised about the University of Glasgow’s involvement. Professor Heather Wardle, the university’s Professor of Gambling Research and Policy, has been particularly vocal in calling for gambling reform, occasionally drawing criticism from different stakeholders including treatment organisations.

“We are delighted to extend our contract with the Gambling Commission and our work on the GSGB,” Professor Wardle remarked. “We’re excited to work with the Commission to explore how we can further enhance the GSGB, looking at how survey data can be merged with information about gambling from other sources, and looking at how we can better understand how behaviours change over time.”

Nonetheless, the Commission is confident that GSGB will continue to inform policy and research around gambling. The regulator stated that NatCen and Glasgow University will ‘refine and enhance the survey’ as the Commission looks to make greater use of data.

The regulator intends to move its evidence collecting and research roadmap into the next phase, using the GSGB for longitudinal research and data linkage to better understand the evolution of gambling behaviour.

Tim Miller, Executive Director of Research and Policy at the UKGC, said: “The Gambling Survey for Great Britain has already transformed our understanding of how people gamble, providing richer, more reliable insight than ever before.

“We are pleased to award this new contract to NatCen and the University of Glasgow, whose expertise has been central to the GSGB’s success so far.

“Over the next four years we’ll continue to strengthen the survey and expand what it can tell us—whether that’s through deeper analysis or exploring opportunities for longitudinal research. This work is fundamental to ensuring our regulation is rooted in the best possible evidence.”