Gambling Commission Highlights Surge in Illegal Lottery Crackdowns

Speaking at the Lotteries Council Annual Conference, UK Gambling Commission Director of Policy Ian Angus said tackling illegal lotteries had become a growing focus for the regulator. He stressed that remote and, in particular, social-media-driven illegal activity still continues to expand.

The lottery crackdown forms only a relatively small part of the Commission’s wider enforcement strategy against illegal gambling. In his speech, Angus revealed that during the last financial year the regulator:

• Issued 741 cease-and-desist notices to advertisers and operators
• Disrupted 1,134 websites
• Referred more than 397,000 URLs to search engines for removal

The Gambling Commission has also received an additional £26 million in Treasury funding to use over the next three years. There’s plans for this to be partly used to further crack down on illegal operators.

Illegal Lotteries A Growing Concern

Illegal lotteries have become an increasingly sensitive issue for licensed and charity lotteries. Unlike properly regulated society lotteries, illegal lotteries often bypass licensing requirements and with that, consumer protections and fundraising rules. Meaning that not only do they avoid tax, they also provide no benefit to a charity, and offer no real protection for the consumer either.

Angus thanked licensed operators for reporting suspicious activity to the Commission. He described intelligence sharing as ‘an important part’ of disrupting the illegal market^[1].