UKGC Can't Track Illegal Gambling Site Complaints
FOI reveals regulator lacks specific data on consumer complaints about the unlicensed black market, citing excessive costs to retrieve the information.
A Freedom of Information request has revealed the UK Gambling Commission cannot quantify complaints about illegal gambling sites because its systems do not specifically categorise them. The regulator denied the request, citing the excessive cost required for a manual data search.
Article Content
UKGC Unable to Quantify Black Market Complaints
A Freedom of Information (FOI) request has revealed that the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) does not specifically categorise and cannot easily quantify the number of complaints it receives about illegal, unlicensed online gambling websites. The regulator denied the request for data, stating that the cost of a manual search to find the information would be excessive.
This disclosure raises questions about the Commission's ability to measure the scale of the black market threat to UK consumers and to effectively target its enforcement activities.
The Request and the Refusal
The FOI request, dated 10 October 2024, asked the UKGC for the number of complaints received about unlicensed online gambling sites for each year from 2021 to 2024. It also asked how many of these complaints led to prosecutions and for a consolidated list of all fines issued to operators for regulatory breaches during the same period.
In its response, the Commission stated it would withhold the information on complaints, invoking Section 12 of the FOIA. This exemption allows public bodies to refuse requests where the cost of compliance would exceed £450, which is estimated as 18 hours of staff time.
The UKGC explained its reasoning:
"When we receive any information relating to unlicensed online gambling we create a record within our records management system, which may be categorised as a consumer complaint. We record more specific details of the complaint in a ‘free text’ field. There is no general categorisation which would encompass the type of complaint you have described... This information is not easily searchable and would require a manual review of each record to identify the information requested."
For the request concerning fines, the Commission did not provide the consolidated list. Instead, it directed the requester to its existing public statements and lists of regulatory sanctions, which are published on its website but are not aggregated in a single, easily analysable format.
Why This Matters for Consumers
Unlicensed gambling operators pose a significant risk to the public. They operate outside of UK law and are not bound by the UKGC's strict rules on player protection, fairness, and security. Consumers who use these sites have no access to official dispute resolution services and little to no chance of recovering their funds if a problem arises.
The regulator's inability to easily track complaints about this illicit market makes it difficult to assess its size, growth, and the specific threats it poses. Without clear data on the volume and nature of black market activity reported by the public, it is challenging to gauge the effectiveness of current strategies designed to protect consumers from illegal operators.
While the UKGC states that all information it receives helps to "build a picture of the gambling industry," this FOI response indicates that the picture concerning the unlicensed sector is not clearly defined by its own data collection systems. This data gap highlights the critical importance for consumers to verify that any gambling website they use holds a valid UKGC licence before depositing any money.