UK Gambling Commission Blocks Nearly 100,000 Illegal Gambling Websites
The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has intensified its efforts to combat unlicensed operators, blocking nearly 100,000 illegal gambling websites as part of a nationwide campaign against the black market. Speaking at the International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR) conference in Toronto, CEO Andrew Rhodes confirmed that the regulator expects to report up to 200,000 URLs by the end of the financial year.
UKGC Strengthens Enforcement Efforts
The UK Gambling Commission continues to increase its focus on combating illegal online gambling through a dedicated enforcement team established three and a half years ago. During his address, Andrew Rhodes emphasized that the Commission’s mission extends beyond penalizing unlawful operators – it also aims to protect children and vulnerable individuals from exploitation. Rhodes said:
“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.”
As part of its strategy, the UKGC works closely with search engines to disrupt traffic to unlicensed websites. Rhodes revealed that the Commission is currently tracking over 1,000 illegal operators, adding:
“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.”
Potential Tax Increase May Impact Licensed Operators
The UK’s upcoming national budget, set for November 26, could introduce tax changes affecting the gambling industry. One proposal involves aligning all existing gambling tax systems with the Remote Gaming Duty (RGD) rate of 21%, which would heavily impact the retail betting sector, currently taxed at 15%.
Another option under consideration is to raise the RGD itself to 50%, a move that could reduce operator margins and potentially push more players toward unlicensed sites. Rhodes addressed the broader implications, noting:
“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.”