Key Takeaways
UK Playing Fee posts £65,000 senior “Head of Unlawful Markets” function to fight £16.6bn black market.Performing CEO Sarah Gardner welcomed £26m new authorities funding over three years for tackling unlawful playing.Tim Miller logged 741 cease-and-desists and 1,134 website takedowns in 2025-26.
£65,000 Wage Attracts Scrutiny as Regulator Confronts £16.6bn Market
The UK Playing Fee posted a brand new senior “Head of Unlawful Markets” function this week, promoting the place at a £65,000 base wage that business observers have extensively criticized as insufficient for the scope. Talking on the Bingo Affiliation AGM on Could 7, performing chief government Sarah Gardner welcomed £26 million in new authorities funding over the subsequent three years, saying this could enable the regulator to handle land-based unlawful playing “arguably for the primary time in a severe manner.”
The dimensions of the issue has expanded quickly. Analysis from H2 Playing Capital, cited by the Betting and Gaming Council, discovered the unlicensed UK playing market reached £16.6 billion in 2025, up from round £5 billion in 2019. Separate WARC evaluation coated by Bitcoin.com final month projected that unlicensed operators will exceed £1 billion in UK promoting spend by 2028, with unlawful websites already accounting for roughly 42 % of the nation’s £1.9 billion in 2026 playing advert spend.
The Fee’s enforcement output has been substantial, even earlier than the brand new function and funding take impact. In remarks on the Moral Playing Discussion board on April 28, government director Tim Miller stated that in 2025-26 the regulator had issued 741 cease-and-desist notices, reported nearly 400,000 URLs to search engines like google and yahoo, referred over 1,000 web sites for delisting, and disrupted 1,134 extra websites by way of takedown or geo-blocking. Miller stated the Fee would “proceed to ramp up our motion in opposition to the unlawful market” whereas calling on Meta, Google, and Visa for a coordinated response.
The rent arrives throughout a management transition on the regulator. Andrew Rhodes stepped down as chief government on April 30 after saying his departure earlier within the 12 months; Gardner has moved up from deputy chief government to performing CEO whereas the board recruits a everlasting substitute. The Division for Tradition, Media and Sport launched a devoted unlawful playing job pressure in January, led by playing minister Baroness Twycross, designed to coordinate enforcement throughout regulators, regulation enforcement, and main platforms.
The brand new enforcement focus runs in parallel with the Fee’s separate work on bringing cryptocurrencies into the UK’s regulated playing framework. On the BGC Annual Basic Assembly in February, Miller stated the Fee’s Business Discussion board had been tasked with analyzing how crypto property might be used to fund authorized playing beneath the FCA’s incoming regulatory regime, which is predicted to return into pressure on October 25, 2027. The framework would require any operator offering crypto-funded playing to be licensed by the FCA at that time.
Business voices have been much less measured on the wage hooked up to the brand new function. The £65,000 base for overseeing the response to a £16.6 billion downside has been extensively flagged in commerce press and on business Linkedin as out of step with the scope. Whether or not the recruitment yields a senior rent able to working alongside Gardner’s performing management (and the £26 million in new funding) will probably be one early take a look at of the Fee’s acknowledged intent to handle unlawful playing at scale.
