Labour fringe event hears gambling black market fears dismissed as overblown
At a Labour Party Conference fringe debate in Liverpool, campaigner Will Prochaska argued the illegal gambling market is marginal, a claim industry figures and data from H2 Gambling Capital complicate.
A fringe debate at the Labour Party's Annual Conference in Liverpool heard warnings about the growth of Britain's gambling black market dismissed as resting on shaky ground, according to EGR.
Will Prochaska, director of the Coalition to End Gambling Ads, told the event on Monday 28 September that such warnings are "built on clay foundations and very easily fall apart when you look at the evidence".
The session, titled 'What Next for Gambling Reform? Time for a New Act?' and staged by the Coalition to End Gambling Ads with More in Common, was chaired by James Noyes of the Social Market Foundation. The panel included gambling minister Vicky Foxcroft, Brent East MP Dawn Butler, Halesowen MP Alex Ballinger, Prochaska and More in Common's Charlie Buckley.
Prochaska argued that illegal gambling should not dominate policy attention, telling attendees the legal market accounts for roughly 96% of UK gambling activity and that the black market represents only 4% of the total, according to EGR.
That figure sits at odds with research from market intelligence firm H2 Gambling Capital, which found channelisation into the licensed market had fallen from 99% in 2020 to 94% in 2024, in a study published in November 2025. EGR notes that the 2024 figure predates the introduction of slot stake caps and the Treasury's increase in remote gaming duty from 21% to 40%, changes that prompted many operators to scale back bonuses and reduce return-to-player rates. Anecdotal reports of illegal bookmakers operating via messaging apps and unlicensed casinos advertising on X, Instagram and TikTok have fuelled concern that channelisation may now sit below 90%, EGR reports. H2 Gambling Capital forecast in July that the black market could reach 22% of the UK market by 2031, worth an estimated £36bn.
Speaking on the podcast The Racing Room, AK Bets founder Anthony Kaminskas said of illegal gambling: "It's prevalent on social media and prevalent with people I know. It's unbelievably prevalent."
Prochaska also told the Liverpool audience that many licensed operators, some based overseas, operate illegally, and said he had identified 18 licensed software providers on what he described as the two most common illegal gambling websites, four of them members of the Betting and Gaming Council.
Alex Ballinger MP told the panel that nearly every adult now carries a gambling app "in their pocket 24/7" with few restrictions on playing after drinking, and said operators use AI to make games as addictive as possible and to target marketing at customers considering quitting, according to EGR.
Dawn Butler MP, speaking with a hoarse voice after admitting to partying the previous night, described the clustering of betting shops in deprived areas as a "national health emergency" and said gambling is sometimes described as more addictive than cocaine, without specifying her source.
Vicky Foxcroft, appointed gambling minister in August and the ninth person to hold the role in six years, said she was still familiarising herself with the brief and stressed the need to "follow the evidence on stuff".
The event drew criticism from industry figures. Entain's racing trading director James Knight called the debate "laughable" and "scary", describing it as "a complete echo chamber", while former professional gambler Chris Fawcett wrote on X that "the case a new gambling act was not made" and called the session "a shambles". A Midnite executive had earlier branded the announced panel lineup "an absolute disgrace". Noyes acknowledged the echo-chamber criticism during the debate and said he wanted to hear from industry figures present in the audience, according to EGR.