UKGC Can't Quantify Social Media Gambling Reports
FOI reveals historical data on illegal online raffles is too extensive to retrieve, highlighting a past data-tracking gap.
A Freedom of Information request has revealed the UK Gambling Commission cannot quantify the number of complaints about illegal social media gambling prior to late 2024. The regulator stated that retrieving the historical data would exceed cost limits, indicating a significant volume of reports and a past gap in its data tracking capabilities.
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UKGC Withholds Data on Scale of Illegal Social Media Gambling
A Freedom of Information (FOI) request has revealed that the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) is unable to quantify the number of complaints it received regarding illegal gambling on social media platforms prior to late 2024. The regulator cited the excessive cost and time required to manually review historical records as the reason for withholding the information.
The request, dated 5 January 2026, sought statistics on reports, investigations, and enforcement actions related to unlicensed raffles and lotteries on platforms like TikTok for the past three years.
Why The Information Was Withheld
The Commission explained that fulfilling the request would exceed the statutory cost limit of £450, which equates to 18 hours of staff time. This is because, prior to late 2024, intelligence reports concerning gambling on social media were not categorised separately. Instead, they were filed under a general 'Illegal Lotteries' heading.
According to the UKGC's response, retrieving the specific data requested for the period starting January 2023 would require a manual review of "thousands" of individual reports to identify those related to social media. The Commission stated, "we estimate... it would take in excess of 18 hours to determine appropriate material and locate, retrieve and extract any relevant information."
This response indicates two key points:
- Volume of Reports: The number of complaints filed under the general 'Illegal Lotteries' category is substantial, making a manual search impractical within FOI cost limits.
- Data Tracking Evolution: The UKGC's systems were not designed to specifically track the emerging threat of social media gambling until recently. The regulator confirmed that it only began recording these reports under their own subject type in "late 2024" and started conducting more extensive analysis across different social media platforms during "2025".
What This Means for Consumers
The inability to provide this data means the full, historical scale of complaints about potentially illegal gambling on popular social media sites remains officially unquantified by the regulator. While the UKGC has since updated its processes, the FOI response highlights a period where this specific activity was not being systematically monitored, making it difficult to assess trends or the growth of the issue over time.
For consumers, this underscores the risks associated with participating in raffles, prize draws, or other gambling-style games on social media. These activities often operate outside the licensed and regulated framework, meaning participants have none of the consumer protections afforded by licensed operators. The response suggests that the volume of such activities has been significant enough to create a large administrative burden for the regulator to analyse retrospectively.