It comes as the Betting and Gaming Council warns of “the dangers of complacency” about the menace from unlicensed and unlawful playing operators.
The report commissioned by the Betting and Gaming Council from PwC revealed in full at this time – ‘Review of unlicensed online gambling in the UK’ – is a model new 66-page doc primarily based on knowledge collected throughout November and December 2020.
It highlights a sequence of worrying developments, together with a doubling of the cash staked with unlicensed operators – a soar from £1.4bn to £2.8bn – in comparison with an identical examine in 2019.
The new knowledge additionally exhibits the quantity of clients using an unlicensed betting web site has grown from 210,000 two years in the past to 460,000.
The report additionally highlights worrying world developments that present the dimensions of the black market in different international locations.
The findings got here as the Government conducts a Gambling Review, which has formally and particularly requested for data about the black market as half of its ‘Call for Evidence’, following widespread considerations raised by a quantity of parliamentarians (see notes to editors).
Fears have additionally been expressed, together with from senior horseracing figures, that the continued Gambling Commission session on affordability dangers forcing strange punters in direction of the black market if checks on their revenue are too intrusive and onerous.
The BGC, the trade’s requirements physique, continues to help additional adjustments to the regulated trade, however is urging ministers to ensure any introduced ahead as a end result of the Gambling Review are fastidiously thought out.
Michael Dugher, the BGC’s chief govt, stated: “This new report by PwC is a formidable and complete piece of work which demonstrates how the unsafe, unregulated black market is a rising menace to British punters.
“These illicit sites have none of the regulated sector’s consumer protections in place, such as strict ID and age verification checks, safer gambling messages and the ability to set deposit limits.”
Mr Dugher stated that as head of the requirements physique representing the regulated betting and gaming trade he welcomes wholeheartedly the Government’s Gambling Review.
And he added: “It is important to stress that the big increase in the black market is not an argument against more changes to the regulated industry, but an argument that we need to get them right.”
On the quantity of British punters using black market websites, the report by PwC report says: “Based on our survey, the proportion of UK online gamblers using an unlicensed operator has increased from 2.2 per cent to 4.5 per cent in the last 1-2 years. This equates to an increase from c210,000 players in 2018-19 to c460,000 in 2020.”
It goes on: “A large and rising share of stakes is positioned with unlicensed websites, rising during the last 1-2 years broadly in step with utilization (ie doubling). Those that gamble with unlicensed operators nonetheless virtually at all times gamble with licensed operators as nicely.
“Our survey found that share of online stakes with unlicensed operators had grown from 1.2 per cent in 2018/19 to 2.3 per cent. This corresponds to a doubling of stakes with unlicensed online operators from £1.4bn to £2.8bn.”
The new report additionally suggests that the dimensions of the web black market is bigger in international locations the place the regulated betting and gaming sector is much less aggressive.
It factors to international locations together with France, Norway, Italy and Spain – which have harder restrictions on licensed operators – as examples of nations the place the black market share is larger than within the UK.
The report says: “This evaluation suggests that the UK has a more ‘open’ on-line playing market and presently has a smaller unlicensed market share than our European benchmarks.
“Whilst it is not possible to isolate the impact of individual regulatory characteristics, the above assessment suggests that jurisdictions with a higher unlicensed market share tend to exhibit one or more restrictive regulatory or licensing characteristics.”
Mr Dugher added: “I do know this proof is inconvenient to those that search to dismiss and play down the menace of the black market, however there’s a actual hazard of complacency.
“The UK risks sleep walking into changes where the main beneficiary is the unlicensed black market. We all have an interest in getting future changes right, so must take heed of this latest evidence and look at what is happening elsewhere around the world.”
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