Black Market Gambling Remains a Problem in the UK Today
An organisation dedicated to gambling harm education and prevention has warned that many British people are still visiting unlicensed sites.
UK gambling black market still in existence. © Mary_R_Smith, Pixabay
Key Facts:
- Deal Me Out (DMO) released a report looking into black market gambling in the UK
- It found that the rate of black market gambling is higher than previously thought
- Over-regulation has been cited as a reason for black market gambling
Deal Me Out (DMO) is an organisation that focuses on educating people about gambling harms and preventing people from experiencing them. It recently published a report looking at the black market gambling rate in the UK and has announced its findings.
What it found is that black market gambling in the UK is a lot more prevalent than previously thought. Despite the country having a regulated market with players afforded a lot of protection, there is still a significant number of people who turn to black market gambling sites.
The Survey and Its Findings
A total of 1,250 children, 300 adults and 10 gambling content creators were involved in Deal Me Out’s survey. Its main findings are summarised below:
- 67% of those who had self-excluded through GAMSTOP ended up visiting black market sites to bypass their self-exclusion.
- As many as 420,000 school-aged children could be gambling at unregulated sites regularly.
- 84% of gambling content creators who were reviewed externally regularly promoted black market sites.
- Those surveyed had deposited in excess of £10 million at gambling sites.
- There were many reports of incidents such as winnings being withheld, scams taking place and people coming across fake games.
- Many people, whether they gamble or not, struggle to tell the difference between a regulated gambling site and an unregulated one.
Of the £10 million+ spent by those involved in the survey, £1.9 million was wagered by general consumers, £3.6 million by people with gambling addiction and £5.1 million from content creators who were paid to promote black market sites.
Worryingly, about three-fifths (61%) of people reported having their winnings stolen when trying to withdraw them. This is something that is likely to happen at unregulated and unlicensed sites that haven’t had to pass strict checks set by the UK Gambling Commission.
As for the 67% who have used black market sites despite being registered with GAMSTOP, some of them could be classed as financially vulnerable. There are also some on Universal Credit; in fact, one person claiming Universal Credit said they deposited £129,000 in just two weeks.
Black Market Advertising
In recent years, there’s been a clampdown on various types of gambling advertising. This has led to limits and restrictions on sports sponsorship, direct communications from gambling companies, and public advertisements.
Black market sites haven’t been affected by the rules and have been able to continue to advertise as they see fit. Regulated gambling sites allow consumers to to opt out of marketing communications when they sign up; black market sites don’t do this.
More than 70% of the survey’s respondents said they received marketing communications from black market gambling sites every day. There was nothing they could do to prevent these messages from reaching them since black market sites don’t allow people to opt out.
One of the gambling content creators who promoted black market sites gained over a million views in a month from their promotional content. Nearly all of the influencers involved in the survey (nine out of 10) promoted BC Game at some point.
This site, which is one of several sponsors of Leicester City FC, is facing several major issues. These include its parent company being declared bankrupt, having its UK white label deal terminated and losing its licence with the Government of Curacao.
The Appeal of Black Market Gambling Sites
Many people have been turning to black market sites because they don’t want the rules, restrictions and red tape that regulated sites have in place. Some respondents said they used these sites specifically so they could bypass some of the limits.
By doing this, they were able to place large bets and make large deposits. They were also able to buy bonus features and turn on features to make slot reels spin fast. These features are either limited or not available at all at regulated sites.
Some people don’t want to give regulated sites their personal details because they would fail financial checks and not be allowed to gamble. They use black market sites to get around this; some use these sites for the simple reason of not wanting to be controlled by the ‘nanny state’.
The CEO of Deal Me Out has said this about the current state of affairs:
We need to ensure regulators, policy makers, industry and all other stakeholders work collaboratively to prevent any further growth of illegal gambling.– Jordan Lea, Deal Me Out CEO Comments on Survey SBC News
He also said that regulation needs to be developed carefully otherwise, it risks encouraging vulnerable people to use black market sites. The UKGC needs to discourage people from accessing the black market while at the same time continuing to make regulated sites safe.
