Illegal Gambling Hits €91.6bn as EU States Lose €22.9bn in Tax

⏱ 3 min read

The illegal online gambling market targeting EU consumers reached €91.6 billion in 2025 — a 14% year-on-year increase — while costing EU member states an estimated €22.9 billion in lost tax revenue, according to new research commissioned by the European Casino Association (ECA) and presented at a high-level European Parliament roundtable on 3 July 2026.

The study, produced by Gambling Compliance International (GCI), found that more than 6,200 unlicensed operators are now actively targeting European consumers, and that illegal platforms generate the majority of all online gambling revenue across the EU-27. The ECA used the findings to press Brussels to expand Europol's operational mandate to treat illegal online gambling as a priority cross-border crime.

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Scale of the Black Market

The €91.6 billion illegal market figure dwarfs the regulated EU online sector and represents a €11.7 billion increase on the previous year's equivalent estimate. Illegal operators now hold a majority share of the online gambling revenue pool across all 27 EU member states — a threshold that, according to the ECA, marks a structural inversion of the market.

The €22.9 billion tax shortfall arrives as several member states are already raising taxes on licensed operators. The Netherlands, for instance, increased its gambling tax from 30.5% to 37.8% in the 2025–26 cycle. Higher tax burdens on licensed platforms can accelerate player migration to unlicensed alternatives, compounding the very fiscal problem they aim to address.

Metric	2024 (est.)	2025 (GCI Study)	Change
Illegal market size (EU)	€~80.3bn	€91.6bn	+14%
Lost tax revenue (EU-27)	€~20bn*	€22.9bn	+~15%
Unlicensed operators active	Not disclosed	6,200+	—
Illegal share of EU-27 online GGR	Minority	Majority	Structural shift

*2024 tax-loss figure from prior ECA/Yield Sec report. 2025 figures from GCI study presented 3 July 2026.

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ECA's Push to Arm Europol

The 3 July Parliament roundtable, hosted by MEP Lukas Mandl and conducted under the Chatham House Rule, brought together representatives from the European Commission, the Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA), Eurojust, the Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group on Europol, and national gambling regulators.

ECA Chair Erwin van Lambaart argued that national authorities cannot keep pace with operators simultaneously targeting customers across multiple EU jurisdictions. The ECA's ask is concrete: amend the European Commission's pending Europol reform proposal — tabled on 24 June 2026 — to name illegal online gambling as an explicit enforcement priority. That bill is now in ordinary legislative procedure, requiring co-decision by both the European Parliament and the Council.

• Expand Europol's operational (not just analytical) role in cross-border gambling investigations
• Mandate enhanced data sharing between Europol, AMLA, Eurojust, and national regulators
• Designate illegal online gambling as a named priority crime within Europol's remit

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Operator and Player Impact

Licensed operators bear the direct competitive cost. Unlicensed platforms carry none of the compliance overheads — AML controls, responsible gambling tools, contributions to national problem-gambling funds — that raise costs for regulated businesses. German MEP Sabine Verheyen and Commission Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen both attended the roundtable, signalling that the ECA's lobbying is reaching decision-makers with sufficient seniority to advance legislative change.

For players, the risks are asymmetric. Illegal sites offer no deposit protection, no self-exclusion connectivity, and no meaningful recourse when disputes arise. The GCI study flagged heightened vulnerability among young adults as a specific concern, alongside links to money laundering and family financial crises tied to unregulated play.

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Enforcement Gaps and Digital Channels

The ECA's presentation highlighted social media and streaming platforms as active distribution channels for illegal gambling content. Affiliate marketing networks on YouTube and Twitch were specifically cited for carrying prolonged promotions of unlicensed operators. The association pointed to the Digital Services Act (DSA) as an existing mechanism that regulators could deploy more aggressively to compel platform takedowns, without waiting for new primary legislation.

Enforcement remains fragmented by design: a national regulator may block a domain in one member state while the same operator continues trading freely in the other 26. Without cross-border operational reach — which only Europol can currently provide at EU scale — unlicensed operators exploit the regulatory patchwork with minimal friction.

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What Comes Next

The Europol reform bill will be negotiated between Parliament and Council, a process that typically runs 12–24 months. Whether illegal gambling survives as a named priority through those negotiations depends partly on how effectively the ECA and national regulators sustain political momentum. The ECA's annual GCI study — which shows the prior year's tax-loss estimate of roughly €20 billion has already grown to €22.9 billion in one cycle — provides a recurring evidence base to maintain that pressure.

For EU-licensed operators, the short-term picture is unchanged: a legal market that is simultaneously shrinking in revenue share and rising in tax cost. The medium-term outlook hinges on whether Brussels translates the Parliament roundtable into binding enforcement action before the €91.6 billion black market expands further.

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Sources

Primary sources are listed first. All figures cited in this article derive from the ECA/GCI study published 3 July 2026 or official EU documentation.

Illegal online gambling is a fast-growing, cross-border problem that puts players at high risk and national authorities are struggling to keep pace with operators that routinely target customers across multiple European jurisdictions.

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