$5.9 Trillion Illegal Online Gambling Market is ‘World’s Third-Largest Economy,’ Says CGI
Posted on: May 19, 2026, 08:49h.
Last updated on: May 19, 2026, 08:49h.
- GCI says unregulated gambling generated $5.9tn in global wagering handle
- Handle measures betting turnover, not actual gambling operator revenue retained
- GCI warns “unacknowledged gambling” is reshaping global online betting markets
Market intelligence firm Gaming Compliance International (GCI) says unregulated online gambling reached $5.9 trillion in global wagering value during 2025, with offshore and unlicensed operators now accounting for the majority of online gambling activity worldwide.
This means the unlicensed market has reached the level of a “multi-trillion-dollar global economy,” that “ranks as the world’s third largest economy, behind only the United States and China.”
A Handle on the Numbers
The figure, which represents a 4% increase on 2024, is published in the company’s new report, GCI Online Gaming 2025: Global, and while it’s certainly eye-popping, it should be noted it relates to the black market’s estimated “global wagering value” or “handle” and not gross gaming revenue (GGR).
A $5.9 trillion handle does not mean illegal operators earned $5.9 trillion. Handle measures total wagers placed, and the same money can be recycled repeatedly through bets. Sportsbooks often retain 5–10% of wagers, while online casinos can hold more.
That means a $5.9tn handle might translate into hundreds of billions in gross gaming revenue — still enormous, but closer economically to a mid-sized country such as Sweden than to the US or China.
According to GCI, unregulated gambling now represents 78% of the global online gaming market by gross gaming revenue, compared with 22% for regulated operators, showing that consumer spending is continuing to migrate outside licensed and taxed environments.
“Regulators are not facing a marginal challenge, but a dominant one — the majority of activity is occurring beyond the regulated perimeter,” said GCI CEO Matt Holt.
Holt believes the marketplace is shifting into a three-sector space that includes the regulated and unregulated industries, along with a third category, which GCI describes as “unacknowledged gambling.”
White Noise
This refers to platforms such as prediction markets or online sweepstakes sites, which “replicate gambling mechanics but fall outside traditional classification.”
This creates a “White Noise Marketplace” in which “licensed operators, offshore gambling sites, and gambling-adjacent products appear side by side with little visible distinction for users,” according to GCI.
“[I]t is this third layer that is accelerating consumer confusion, unregulated growth, and regulatory complexity at scale,” Ismail Vali, President of GCI, said.
“The audience does not distinguish between these sectors. They experience one marketplace, where everything is accessible and everything competes equally,” Vali added. “In a world where you can bet on anything, consumers are increasingly betting on everything — this is the gamification of everything.”
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