Black market gambling site visits 'trebled during the World Cup'

24 January 2023 , 22:00

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Fears have been raised that problem gamblers are using black market sites to avoid safety rules (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The number of punters visiting black market gambling sites more than tripled during the World Cup, research has shown.

Around 250,000 people used the unregulated bookmakers in November and December when the tournament was taking place.

This compares to about 80,000 in the same period in the year before.

Rules put in place to protect problem gamblers are not enforced on the sites, which are mostly run from abroad.

All regulated betting operators in the UK are signed up to GamStop, which allows addicts to ban themselves from online gambling platforms.

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In November and December, an estimated 64,500 vulnerable players searched for black market sites offering betting that circumvents GamStop.

Betting and Gaming Council chief Michael Dugher has raised concerns about the increase in black market gambling

The research, commissioned by the Betting and Gaming Council which represents bookmakers, also found peaks in traffic to black market sites in March during Cheltenham and June during Ascot.

According to the BGC, it takes less than 30 seconds to sign up to a black market site before placing a first bet, compared to an average of 12 minutes with a regulated UK operator.

Bookmakers must conduct strict identity and age verification checks to prevent problem gambling and fraud.

Michael Dugher, the chief executive of the industry body, said: “This research exposes the dire threat the growing unsafe, unregulated black market poses to punters.

“While the regulated industry was going to great lengths to protect young people during the World Cup and adhering to strict regulations and promoting safer gambling, black market operators were preying on the vulnerable.

“These unlicensed sites offer none of the safer gambling tools promoted by our members, they pay no tax and employ no one, they do not contribute a penny to sport or services tackling gambling harm, and they do nothing to protect vulnerable players.

“This data shows the World Cup drove a range of worrying gambling trends in the UK - not in the regulated sector as predicted by anti-gambling prohibitionists - but in the unsafe unregulated black market online.

“There has been too much complacency about the threat of the black market. Rather than dismissing the problem, the regulator and the Government need to tread extremely carefully and resist blanket intrusive affordability checks at low levels that push even more punters to these dangerous sites.”

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