Illegal Gambling EU Market Hits €91.6bn — Europol Push

⏱ 3 min read

The illegal online gambling market targeting EU consumers reached €91.6 billion in 2025 — up 14% year-on-year — stripping member states of an estimated €22.9 billion in lost tax revenue, according to new research presented at a high-level roundtable in the European Parliament on 3 July 2026. The figures, compiled by Gambling Compliance International (GCI) for the European Casino Association (ECA), were released publicly for the first time at the event.

The data shows that unlicensed operators now account for the majority of all online gambling revenue across the EU-27, with more than 6,200 illegal operators actively targeting European consumers. The timing of the roundtable was deliberate: it followed the European Commission's proposal on 24 June 2026 to expand Europol's mandate to cover a broader range of cross-border crimes — illegal gambling now explicitly among them.

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The Scale of the Illegal Gambling Market

The 2025 GCI impact study is the most comprehensive annual snapshot of unlicensed gambling activity across the EU. Its headline finding — a €91.6 billion market — is striking not only for its size but for its trajectory: the previous year's estimate stood at €80 billion, meaning the black market added more than €11 billion in a single year.

The figures also confirm a structural problem for regulators: the overwhelming majority of online gambling content that European users encounter through search engines, social media, and affiliate sites promotes operators that hold no local licence. ECA Chair Erwin van Lambaart framed this as an existential threat to the regulated sector, arguing that illegal operators reach consumers "without safeguards, without oversight and without contributing to our communities."

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The Europol Mandate Proposal

The roundtable was timed to coincide with active EU legislative work. The European Commission published its proposal to reform Europol's operational mandate on 24 June 2026, just days before the Parliament session. The reform would give Europol greater data-sharing capabilities and a more direct operational role in cross-border criminal investigations — including, for the first time, a clear remit to pursue illegal gambling operations.

The proposal now moves through the ordinary legislative procedure, requiring agreement from both the European Parliament and the Council of the EU before it can take effect. The ECA is pushing for illegal gambling to be explicitly named as a priority within the expanded mandate. MEP Lukas Mandl, who hosted the roundtable, signalled cross-party support for the measure, describing illegal online gambling as "a serious cross-border threat that touches on consumer protection, organised crime and the integrity of our internal market."

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Legal vs Illegal: What Separates Them

The ECA was explicit on a point that regulators often have to clarify: there is no "grey market" category under EU law. An operator is either licensed in the country where it serves customers, or it is operating illegally — no intermediate status exists. The GCI study reinforced how sharply the two categories diverge in practice.

Factor	Licensed Operator	Illegal Operator
AML compliance	Mandatory; cooperates with authorities	None; may facilitate money laundering
Age & identity checks	Required at registration	Often bypassed or absent
Responsible gambling tools	Deposit limits, self-exclusion, intervention	No requirement; aggressive bonus targeting
Tax contribution	Pays GGR tax in licensed jurisdiction	Zero contribution to member-state revenues
Regulatory oversight	Subject to national regulator audits	Operates entirely outside any supervisory framework

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The Platform Problem

A significant strand of the parliamentary discussion focused on digital platforms and their role in amplifying illegal gambling traffic. The ECA and several roundtable participants noted that unlicensed operators continue to reach European consumers through affiliate marketing, influencer content, and paid advertising on platforms including YouTube and Twitch — often for extended periods before removal.

Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission's Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, acknowledged the problem but stopped short of announcing a dedicated investigation. She pointed to existing mechanisms under the Digital Services Act (DSA), which requires large platforms to maintain user-reporting tools for illegal content and to assess systemic risks from its spread — arguing the framework already provides a route for enforcement without new legislation.

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What It Means for Operators and Bettors

For licensed operators, the political momentum behind an expanded Europol mandate represents the most significant regulatory development in years. A functioning cross-border enforcement mechanism — connecting financial intelligence units, national regulators, and Europol — could meaningfully reduce the competitive advantage that illegal operators currently hold through cost arbitrage: no compliance spend, no tax burden, no responsible-gambling infrastructure.

For bettors, the implications are more immediate. The GCI data underlines that a large share of online gambling advertising seen by EU consumers — particularly through search and social channels — promotes sites with no player protection obligations. Key risks of using an unlicensed operator include:

• No deposit protection or segregated funds if the operator ceases trading
• No access to national self-exclusion databases or problem-gambling tools
• No recourse to a regulator for dispute resolution
• Potential exposure to marketing designed to exploit vulnerable users, including young adults

The ECA has called for a coordinated public-private response, warning that fragmented national enforcement is structurally incapable of managing operators that target consumers across multiple member states simultaneously. The legislative clock is now running: if the Europol mandate reform passes in its current form, it will represent the first time the agency has an explicit, resourced mandate to pursue illegal online gambling at EU level.

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Sources

Primary sources are listed first. All figures and quotes in this article are drawn directly from the sources below.

If we fail to act now, the illegal online market will continue to grow at the expense of players, public finances and legitimate businesses.

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