UK Gambling Regulator Removes 3M Illegal Gambling URLs as Crackdown Intensifies

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) says more than three million illegal gambling URLs have been removed from search engines in just six months, as its crackdown on unlicensed operators intensifies.

The UKGC published data showing that 3,038,969 URLs were removed from search engines between April and September 2026. That compares with just 266,667 across the entire previous financial year.

The large number refers directly to individual indexed URLs, not individual gambling websites. One gambling site could have thousands of URLs indexed on search engines.

The regulator also referred more than 7.8 million URLs to search engines during that same six-month period, compared with fewer than 400,000 throughout 2025/26.

Speaking at a briefing on November 5, the UKGC’s Acting Chief Executive Sarah Gardner said the sharp uptick was partly down to additional funding from the government.

That took the form of a £26 million ($35 million) commitment from the UK government over the next three years to better combat illegal gambling.

“We have continued to push forward with our world leading approach to disruption and now, just over six months since the first £7 million of the new funding arrived, we have been able to really start to scale up our capacity,” Gardner said.

“There is more to do. These numbers only paint a picture of some of the activity we’re doing and some of what we need to do,” Gardner said.

UKGC Signals Further Action Against Illegal Operators

Gardner said that despite the success, the UKGC may adjust its enforcement priorities as it develops better ways to measure the illegal market.

“I don’t rule out that the focus of our interventions may evolve away from some of these numbers as we continue to develop our approach,” she said.

The UKGC is also working with social media platforms to restrict illegal gambling advertising.

Gardner said some platforms had responded positively to the regulator’s demands, although further improvements were needed.

Gambling operators will also be encouraged to provide intelligence to help identify unlicensed businesses targeting British consumers.

“We want to continue working with you on gathering intelligence, on building the evidence base and on frustrating unlicensed, illegal firms who are trying to operate at scale in Great Britain,” Gardner said.

New Data Reveals Scale of Illegal Gambling

The UKGC also published new research into the size of Britain’s illegal gambling market.

According to the latest edition of the Gambling Survey for Great Britain, 1% of respondents said they had used an illegal gambling website in the 12 months to April 2026.

Among respondents who gamble online, excluding the National Lottery, that figure rose to 4%.

Gardner described the findings as the most comprehensive picture yet of the illegal market.

“Last year we explained we couldn’t put a number on the scale of the illegal market but that we would continue to explore that – with methodologies that can be replicated and with fully published data,” she said. 

“Today, 12 months on, this work demonstrates a big step towards that goal and gives us the best data we’ve had on use of the illegal market.”