Illegal Gambling Costs EU States €22.9bn in Lost Tax Revenue

⏱ 3 min read

The European Casino Association (ECA) has put hard numbers on what many in the industry already suspected: the illegal online gambling market has outgrown its licensed rival by a wide margin. A study conducted by Gambling Compliance International (GCI) and presented at a European Parliament roundtable on 3 July 2026 found that unlicensed operators generated €91.6 billion in gross revenue from EU consumers in 2025 — a 14% rise year-on-year — stripping member states of an estimated €22.9 billion in tax receipts.

More than 6,200 unlicensed operators are actively targeting European bettors, and illegal sites now command the majority of online gambling revenue across the EU-27. The ECA used the Parliament event — hosted by MEP Lukas Mandl and attended by officials from the European Commission, AMLA, Eurojust, and national regulators — to press for expanded cross-border enforcement powers, including a stronger operational role for Europol.

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Scale of the Illegal Market

The €91.6 billion illegal market figure is the headline number from the GCI annual impact study commissioned by the ECA. A prior baseline put unlicensed operators at €80.6 billion in 2024, representing roughly 71% of total EU online gambling revenue — a ratio that has only widened since. By 2025, illegal sites had consolidated their majority position across all major member states.

The consumer exposure picture is stark. ECA-backed research found that 92% of online gambling content viewed by EU citizens promoted illegal operations, and that of an estimated 118 million Europeans engaging with online gambling, 81 million (68.6%) were using unregulated platforms. Unlicensed operators routinely bypass age verification, identity checks, and responsible gambling safeguards — protections that licensed operators are legally required to maintain and fund.

• €91.6bn — illegal online gambling market aimed at EU consumers in 2025
• 14% — year-on-year growth rate of the illegal market
• 6,200+ — unlicensed operators actively targeting EU consumers
• 68.6% — share of European online gamblers using unregulated platforms

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Tax Revenue Impact on EU States

The €22.9 billion tax shortfall is the direct fiscal consequence of the market imbalance. Licensed operators pay gross gaming revenue taxes ranging from around 20% in Malta to over 37% in the Netherlands; unlicensed operators pay nothing to any jurisdiction. At aggregate EU scale, the revenue gap is comparable to the annual GDP of a mid-sized member state.

Metric	2024	2025	Change
Illegal market size (EU consumers)	~€80.6bn	€91.6bn	+14%
Estimated EU tax revenue lost	~€18bn (prior ECA est.)	€22.9bn	+27%
Unlicensed operators targeting EU	~5,400 (est.)	6,200+	+15%
Share of EU online GGR (illegal)	~71%	Majority (est. 72–74%)	Growing

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Enforcement Landscape by Country

Enforcement capability varies sharply across the bloc. Spain leads on financial penalties, with €111 million in fines and 58 sanctions imposed against illegal operators during 2025, including six maximum €5 million sanctions against foreign-licensed operators targeting Spanish consumers. Portugal recorded 208 enforcement actions in Q2 2025 alone. Italy relies on criminal prosecution under Law 401/1989 alongside near-total advertising bans enforced by regulator AGCOM.

Germany's central licensing authority, the GGL, maintains a public whitelist of approved operators and can levy fines up to €500,000, though proposed 2026 amendments aim to expand payment-blocking authority following court challenges to IP-blocking effectiveness. In the UK, the Gambling Commission conducted 208,088 enforcement actions between October 2024 and September 2025, the vast majority targeting illegal URLs submitted to search engines for de-indexing.

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Industry and Policy Response

The ECA's core policy ask is institutional: expand Europol's operational mandate so it can take a direct role in cross-border investigations targeting illegal gambling networks, rather than merely supporting national authorities after the fact. The association also called for the Digital Services Act (DSA) to be actively applied to platforms hosting illegal gambling advertising — closing the gap that affiliate marketing chains have consistently exploited.

Erwin van Lambaart, ECA Chair and CEO of Casinos Austria, pointed to the compliance asymmetry at the heart of the problem: "Licensed casinos operate under strict rules and invest heavily in responsible gambling and anti-money-laundering measures," while unlicensed rivals face no equivalent obligation. Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, attended the roundtable — signalling Commission-level engagement with the enforcement agenda.

• Expand Europol's operational role in cross-border illegal gambling investigations
• Apply the Digital Services Act to illegal gambling promotions on platforms and affiliates
• Strengthen data-sharing between AMLA, financial intelligence units, and national gambling regulators
• Harmonise payment-blocking so transfers to unlicensed operators can be intercepted EU-wide

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Sources

Primary and secondary sources used in this report, in order of citation.

Illegal online gambling is a fast-growing, cross-border problem that puts players, especially young adults, at high risk, deprives societies of much-needed tax revenues, and undermines trust in the regulated market.

— Erwin van Lambaart, Chair, European Casino Association · European Parliament Roundtable, 3 July 2026