Gambling Commission Targets Illegal Operators' Funds
The Gambling Commission is widening its fight against illegal gambling from taking down websites to targeting the money, assets and business models that keep illegal operators running.
The regulator set out the change on November 9, 2026, the first day of the inaugural Illegal Gambling Awareness Week, which runs to November 13.
Sue Young, the Commission's Executive Director of Operations, said anyone running an illegal gambling operation should expect action against their business and their money.
She added that the regulator has shown it can disrupt individual websites and is now going further. Licensed brands remain the only legal option for players in Great Britain, and our guide to UK online casinos lists them.
What The Commission Is Changing
According to the Commission's announcement, the new approach means interfering with illegal operators' whole business models. That covers disrupting their payments, hindering their advertising and stopping them from obtaining the games and sportsbooks they rely on.
Young said that since January the Commission has referred more than £40 million of suspected criminal funds to partner agencies for potential asset freezing. It is also continuing to work with law enforcement agencies to seize cash at illegal land-based gambling operations. The stated aim is to hit illegal operators on all sides rather than one website at a time.
The Numbers So Far
The Commission says its disruption work builds on activity already under way with partners. Progress to date includes more than 1,000 cease and desist notices issued to illegal operators in 2026/27 so far, 7.8 million URLs referred to search engines and 3 million URLs removed from search results. A further 2,200 websites have been referred for disruption action.
The pace has picked up sharply. URL referrals rose from 147,721 in the first quarter to 7.7 million in the second quarter, an increase of more than 5,000%.
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Illegal Gambling Awareness Week
The awareness week is a new international campaign led by the International Association of Gaming Regulators. It aims to raise awareness of the risks of illegal gambling and to strengthen collaboration between regulators, industry and law enforcement around the world. The Commission says it supports the week as a chance to highlight both those risks and the action it is taking against illegal operators targeting people in Great Britain.
Ahead of the announcement the Commission briefed UK industry leaders at last week's CEO Briefing and international partners at the IAGR conference last month.
What The Latest Survey Data Shows
The week opens just after the Commission published new findings from the Gambling Survey for Great Britain, covering April 2025 to April 2026. Using a new Illegal Gambling Index built on seven self-reported behaviours, the research found that 0.6% of respondents had engaged with illegal gambling websites in the past four weeks and a further 0.4% in the past 12 months.
Among people who gambled online in the past 12 months, 2.5% had engaged with illegal sites in the past four weeks and 1.5% in the past 12 months. Engagement was higher among men than women and tended to be more common among younger adults, particularly those aged 18 to 24. The Commission has also updated its illegal gambling dashboard to track progress.
What To Watch
The regulator says it will keep working with law enforcement, the gambling industry, technology companies and the financial sector. Wider efforts include more intelligence sharing, early reporting, data and evidence support, strategic engagement and consumer protection.
For licensed operators, the practical question is how quickly payment providers and other partners act on referrals as the focus moves beyond website blocking.
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