UK: no growth in illegal gambling

The UK Gambling Commission reports it has seen no evidence of an increase in illegal gambling  during the Covid-19 lockdown.

UK.- The Gambling Commission says it has seen no evidence of an increase in illegal gambling during the country’s Covid-19 lockdown, reporting that complaints remained in line with those over the past 12 months.

The Commission said it had received 12 complaints of illegal gambling in March and 11 in April, which was consistent with the majority of the previous 12 months.

The Commission has a team employed to monitor reports of illegal gambling and has tools to combat illegal websites.

The Gambling Commission’s Executive Director, Richard Watson, said: “Our data does not indicate there has been an increase in any illegal gambling in Britain during the Covid-19 crisis.

“It is an area we monitor carefully and where we find problems we use our broad range of investigatory powers, alongside stakeholders such as software providers, payment businesses and hosting companies.

“Tackling illegal websites and unlicensed operators is challenging and it is also resource-intensive; but we are committed to continuing our work in this area to protect consumers here in Britain.”

The data comes as British broadcaster the BBC reported that search results for online casinos hit a record high during the Covid-19 lockdown.

The Gambling Commission recently issued new guidance for online gambling operators designed to protect customers during lockdown.