EU Illegal Gambling Black Market Hits €91.6bn

⏱ 3 min read

Europe's illegal online gambling market ballooned to €91.6 billion in 2025 — a 14% year-on-year surge — according to a study by Gambling Compliance International (GCI) presented at the European Parliament on 3 July 2026. That single figure now eclipses the entire licensed online casino revenue generated across the EU-27, making the black market the dominant force in European iGaming.

The financial bleed-out is staggering: EU governments lost an estimated €22.9 billion in tax revenue in 2025 alone to operators who pay nothing into national treasuries. More than 6,200 unlicensed gambling websites are actively targeting European consumers right now, according to the same research — and the European Casino Association (ECA) is demanding that Europol be given the mandate and resources to fight back.

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The Scale of Europe's Illegal Gambling Problem

The GCI figures, commissioned annually by the ECA, show the illegal market has grown from €80 billion in 2024 to €91.6 billion in 2025 — and now accounts for the majority of all online gambling revenue across the EU. To put that in context: that is more than three times the combined revenue of all licensed operators in the bloc.

The research found that the overwhelming majority of online gambling content that European consumers encounter promotes unlicensed operators. Those operators are not running in a grey zone — under EU national law, an operator is either licensed or it is illegal. There is no middle category. The 6,200-plus illegal sites identified by GCI are operating without any of the consumer protections, age checks, AML programmes or responsible gambling controls required of licensed operators.

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A High-Level Push at the European Parliament

The figures were first disclosed publicly at a roundtable convened by the ECA in the European Parliament, hosted by MEP Lukas Mandl. Participants included representatives from the European Commission, AMLA, Eurojust, the Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group on Europol, national gambling regulators from across the EU, and industry experts. Discussions took place under the Chatham House Rule.

ECA Chair Erwin van Lambaart called the trend a fast-growing, cross-border problem that puts players — particularly young adults — at serious risk, strips societies of tax income, and erodes confidence in the licensed market. The timing of the roundtable was deliberate: it coincides with an active European Commission proposal to reform Europol's mandate, which is now moving through the ordinary legislative procedure in the Parliament and Council.

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Why the ECA Wants Europol in the Room

The ECA's core argument is structural: illegal gambling operators frequently serve consumers across multiple EU jurisdictions simultaneously, making single-country enforcement inadequate. National regulators can block individual sites, but operators simply shift domains or relocate servers — often outside EU territory entirely.

The association wants illegal online gambling explicitly added to Europol's priority list as the Commission's reform package progresses. Its position paper argues Europol should have dedicated authority, data-sharing capabilities, and agency partnerships focused on illegal gambling, linking enforcement to financial intelligence units and cross-border law enforcement coordination. MEP Mandl backed the call, pledging to carry the evidence into cross-party parliamentary work.

• The Commission's Europol reform proposal would expand operational responsibilities and strengthen cross-border data analysis capacity.
• The ECA wants illegal gambling added as a named priority within that mandate — currently it is not.
• Illegal operators often base their operations outside the EU, placing them beyond the reach of individual national regulators.
• A study by Yield Sec (now acquired by GCI) found more than 6,220 illegal operators targeting EU consumers in 2024 alone.

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New EU-Wide AML Rules Add Extra Pressure

The Europol push lands alongside another major regulatory development. On 8 July 2026, AMLA published technical standards introducing a common four-tier scale for grading AML breaches across the EU — applicable to gambling operators as obliged entities. The standards, which still require adoption by the European Commission before becoming legally binding, are designed to end the patchwork of enforcement outcomes that currently sees identical breaches treated very differently from one member state to the next.

Separately, Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 — the EU's new Anti-Money Laundering Regulation — becomes directly applicable across all 27 member states from 10 July 2027. It includes the first EU-level legal definition of "gambling services" and mandates customer due diligence when a wager or withdrawal reaches €2,000 in a single or linked transaction.

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Licensed vs. Unlicensed: What the Difference Costs Players

The debate is not only about tax revenue. The ECA's roundtable presentation laid out stark differences in how licensed and unlicensed operators treat their customers — differences that matter directly to anyone betting online in Europe.

Feature	Licensed Operator	Illegal/Unlicensed Operator
Regulatory oversight	Fully supervised by national authority	None — operates outside any licence
AML checks	Mandatory under national and EU law	Absent — can facilitate money laundering
Age verification	Strict ID checks required	Typically ignored; actively targets young adults
Responsible gambling tools	Deposit limits, self-exclusion, cooling-off periods	None — uses personalised bonuses to drive compulsive play
Tax contribution	Pays national gaming taxes	Zero — contributing to the €22.9bn gap in 2025
Dispute resolution	Regulator-backed complaint process	No formal recourse for players
Advertising rules	Subject to national restrictions	Uses licensed operator branding fraudulently

For players, the practical risk is that an unlicensed site can disappear overnight, taking deposits with it. There is no regulator to call, no compensation scheme, and no legal protection under the jurisdiction where the operator is based.

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Sources

Primary sources were prioritised, including the official ECA press release, AMLA's own press release, and primary reporting verified across multiple industry publications.

Illegal online gambling is not a niche issue — it is a serious cross-border threat that touches on consumer protection, organised crime and the integrity of our internal market.

— Lukas Mandl, Member of the European Parliament · ECA Roundtable, European Parliament, 3 July 2026