Tracking Illegal Gambling is Harder with Rising VPN Use, UKGC Says

April 22, 2026 — The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has released a new analysis detailing consumer engagement with illegal online gambling sites. According to the regulator, the tools built to protect consumers’ privacy online are simultaneously creating significant hurdles for authorities trying to catch illegal operators.

Following discussions at the Commission’s Spring Evidence Conference in Birmingham this past March—which included industry representatives, HMRC, and the Dutch gambling regulator—the UKGC highlighted that the growing use of anonymizing technologies, specifically Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), is heavily clouding market data and enforcement efforts.

Volatility, Not Sustained Growth

The Commission’s latest 21-month data series, updated through February 2026, measures estimated minutes spent on unregulated sites as a proxy for engagement. The data indicates volatile user activity rather than sustained, structural growth in the black market. For instance, an observed spike in illegal market engagement during the autumn of 2024 did not repeat the following year.

However, the UKGC acknowledges that estimating total player spend and volume with unlicensed operators remains a major challenge. Six months after admitting their methodology needed refinement in November 2025, the picture is still not definitive.

The Impact of the Online Safety Act

A primary driver of this data ambiguity is the widespread adoption of VPNs. According to data from Ofcom and app analytics provider Similarweb, consumer VPN use surged and then stabilized at roughly 40% higher than prior levels following the rollout of the Online Safety Act in July 2025.

Previously, the UKGC applied a flat 30% uplift to account for traffic hidden by VPNs. Now, prompted by the Ofcom data, the Commission has incorporated two distinct VPN usage scenarios into its trend analysis. This adjustment has resulted in much larger confidence intervals in their data from mid-2025 onwards, suggesting an even greater proportion of illegal gambling may be flying under the radar.

“Trends Visible, Volumes Are Not”

The Commission stressed that current figures rely on web traffic estimates, which naturally carry margins of error and fail to track alternative access points like dedicated mobile apps or direct connections.

“We continue to work on improvements to our methodology and are seeking input from other international regulators and licensed operators to help verify and improve existing data sources and to identify additional datasets which can be used to improve understanding of the illegal market,” said Tim Livesley, head of the UKGC’s Data Innovation Hub. To further bridge these gaps, the regulator is enhancing data collection through its Gambling Survey for Great Britain and the Consumer Voice research program.

Accurate measurement remains critical. The UKGC emphasized that effectively targeting illegal operators with enforcement interventions—such as payment blocking, domain takedowns, and collaboration with advertising platforms—hinges entirely on solving these measurement challenges. As VPNs continue to protect consumer privacy, they remain an equal headache for regulators attempting to secure the digital landscape.