Gambling Commission CEO: Regulated sector standards can’t slip amid black market fight

Gambling Commission CEO Andrew Rhodes has said the threat and size of the black market cannot lead to “lower or falling standards in a legitimate market” in a speech to the world’s industry regulators.

Speaking at the International Association of Gaming Regulators conference today, 21 October, Rhodes added colour to the Gambling Commission’s commitment to releasing a report on the size of the UK black market in the spring of 2025.

The CEO said that since April, the regulator has issued more than 750 cease and desist and disruptions notices, including 259 to operators and 189 to advertisers.

Additionally, more than 78,000 URLs had been referred to Google, with 50,000 being removed and 221 websites being taken down.

The publication of the regulator’s black market report will add yet another view on the vertical, with Frontier Economics research, commissioned by the Betting and Gaming Council, having recently claimed the market is worth £4.3bn a year.

However, Rhodes was keen to stress the Gambling Commission’s efforts to hit back at the illegal arena were far from over.

He said: “I am not going to claim for a moment that we have cracked this – far from it. We have made some very good progress but there is still much more we will do.

“It is also worth acknowledging that the risk and threat of an illegal market cannot be a justification for lower or falling standards in a legitimate market.”

Rhodes proceeded to point to GamProtect, the single customer view tool launched in the UK, as a prime solution to drive down gambling-related harm.

GamProtect has already identified more than 5,500 consumers since its launch, with the Gambling Commission now encouraging more operators to sign up to the scheme.

Rhodes added: “As I am sure is familiar to you too, operators often tell us they are hamstrung by not having sight of levels of risk to consumers outside of their own business.

“GamProtect can help fill that blind spot. Where an operator has closed a customer’s account after identifying a customer that has self-declared a very serious marker of health-related gambling harm, the system allows for that operator to share that decision by a flag through the system with other participating operators.”

Rhodes also took the opportunity to highlight some of the upcoming concerns, including the rise of micro-betting markets – a topic his deputy CEO Sarah Gardner touched on this summer.

Rhodes said his concern was two-pronged in that tensions between operators and consumers could rise over contentious rulings based on data suppliers, as well as driving more and more betting content to users at all times.

He explained: “The availability and provision of real-time or near-real-time data has totally changed the nature of betting in these markets, whether it is in-play or before the event started. Today, sporting leagues and data providers are integral in their provision of data for these markets, which are massive.

“This brings a very different sort of challenge for regulators, and it comes in at least two places. The first is the already naturally adversarial relationship between the operator and the consumer now has a debate about the judgement made by a data provider if they think that decision was wrong.

“This is complex and emotive and plays to a sense of right and wrong for people and it is by no means easy.

“The second element comes from what data providers tell you when you ask them what they think the next big development will be.

“The answer I keep getting is hyper-personalisation. Serving up options, products, games, markets which the operator knows will likely be of much greater appeal to the consumer,” he added.

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