Europe’s illegal online gambling market is growing, raising a critical question for governments and regulators: how do you enforce online gambling regulations when unlicensed operators can continue to reach consumers across borders?
A new report commissioned by Euromat and produced by Regulus Partners and Helios estimates that Europe’s unlicensed online gambling market has grown at a compound annual rate of approximately 18% since 2019 and could be worth as much as €13 billion by the end of 2026.
That is a staggering number.
The research examined 28 European markets and estimated that the unlicensed market generated approximately €12 billion in net revenue in 2025, representing around 25% of the overall European online gambling market. The study also estimates that approximately 25 operators account for 64% of relevant black-market traffic.
The figures come from an industry-commissioned study and should therefore be considered an estimate rather than an official European Union statistic. However, they highlight a broader issue facing governments:
Regulation only works when there are mechanisms to enforce it.
Regulation Is Only the First Step
Across Europe, governments have established frameworks governing online gambling, including licensing requirements, advertising restrictions, consumer protections and rules determining which gambling services can legally operate within a jurisdiction.
But the internet does not stop at national borders.
An operator can be located outside a jurisdiction while continuing to market to and accept users within it. Websites can change domains, use affiliate networks and introduce new URLs, making it increasingly difficult for regulators to rely on traditional enforcement approaches.
The result is an online gambling enforcement gap: the difference between identifying that an online service is non-compliant and actually preventing access to that service. This distinction is becoming increasingly important as governments strengthen their approach to online regulation.
The Scale of Europe’s Illegal Gambling Market
The size of the market is only part of the story. The research also examined 28 European markets and found significant differences in the scale of unlicensed gambling from country to country. In some jurisdictions, the unlicensed market was estimated to account for up to 80% of online gambling activity.
In several countries, including France, Portugal, the Netherlands, Germany, Cyprus, Belgium and Spain, researchers found more illegal gambling sites actively marketing to consumers than locally licensed operators.
The report also identifies factors contributing to the growth of the unlicensed market, including advertising restrictions, consumer taxation, banned products and the use of cryptocurrency and affiliate marketing to reach consumers.
For regulators, these findings point to a challenge that goes beyond identifying illegal operators. Effective enforcement requires the visibility and infrastructure to respond as those operators, websites and channels change.
Key Findings: The Scale of Unlicensed Gambling
A recent Forbes analysis of a Gaming Compliance International report highlights another dimension of Europe’s online gambling enforcement challenge. The report estimates that unlicensed operators accounted for €91.6 billion, or 72%, of online gambling revenue across the EU27 in 2025.
The report also examined what happens before consumers reach a gambling site:
- 121 million Europeans were estimated to have seen online gambling content in 2025.
- 88 million of those were estimated to have encountered content from unlicensed operators.
- Among users who clicked, registered or followed, 91% of gambling content encountered was estimated to promote unlicensed operators.
- An estimated 95% of 17.8 billion views of pirated World Cup streams in Europe carried advertising for unlicensed gambling.
These figures point to an important shift in the enforcement challenge. Illegal gambling is not only a problem of websites that need to be blocked. It is also an ecosystem of content, advertising, affiliates, streaming and digital channels that can reach consumers before they ever arrive at a gambling site.
From Identifying Non-Compliance to Enforcement
This is where the conversation around online gambling regulation needs to expand. Regulators can establish licensing requirements and determine which operators are authorized to provide services. They can investigate non-compliant operators and issue regulatory decisions.
The next question is: What happens after a service has been identified as illegal?
Digital enforcement requires a mechanism for translating a regulatory decision into action.
The European Union’s Digital Services Act provides an example of this broader shift toward stronger digital enforcement. The European Commission has investigative and enforcement powers under the DSA, including the ability to impose significant penalties for certain forms of non-compliance. The framework also establishes responsibilities for online platforms and mechanisms for addressing illegal content and systemic risks.
The principle extends beyond the DSA. As governments regulate more aspects of the online environment, they need practical tools that can help turn regulatory requirements into enforceable digital policies. Digital regulation increasingly requires digital enforcement.
The Challenge of a Borderless Internet
Online gambling presents a particularly complex regulatory environment because gambling laws vary between jurisdictions.
A service may be licensed and legal in one country while being unlicensed or prohibited in another. That means effective gambling enforcement cannot simply depend on a universal list of legal or illegal websites. It requires jurisdiction-specific policies.
Governments need to be able to define what is permitted within their borders, identify services that fall outside those requirements and implement appropriate measures to restrict access when necessary.
The challenge becomes even greater as illegal operators adapt. A blocked domain can potentially be replaced by another. A familiar brand can appear through a new URL. Affiliate networks can direct users toward alternative services.
Effective enforcement therefore needs to be dynamic, scalable and capable of responding to changes in the online environment.
Netsweeper: Connecting Regulation and Enforcement
For Netsweeper, this challenge is approached from an infrastructure level. Rather than relying solely on individual URLs or static blocklists, Netsweeper enables dynamic, real-time enforcement that can adapt as illegal gambling activity changes.
This includes:
- Real-time classification of web content as it is accessed
- Dynamic policy enforcement that adapts as domains shift, change or reappear
- Category-based intelligence that can identify entire classes of illegal gambling activity, not just known websites
- Scalable deployment at ISP and national levels, allowing policies to be applied consistently across networks
This approach addresses one of the persistent challenges in digital enforcement: the gap between detection and action. When illegal gambling sites can appear, disappear and reappear within hours, relying on manually updated blocklists can leave a window of opportunity for non-compliant services to remain accessible.
By combining real-time classification with dynamic policy enforcement, Netsweeper helps make enforcement continuous rather than purely reactive, giving governments and network operators the ability to respond as the online environment changes.
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Closing the Online Gambling Enforcement Gap
The projected €13 billion value of Europe’s unlicensed gambling market is more than a striking financial figure. It illustrates a broader challenge facing governments as more regulated activity moves online. Regulators can establish laws. Governments can define licensing requirements. Authorities can identify services that operate outside those requirements. But without effective digital enforcement mechanisms, regulation may not translate into restricted access.
The growth of Europe’s illegal online gambling market highlights the importance of connecting regulation, compliance and enforcement. As governments continue developing policies for the digital environment, the next challenge will be ensuring those policies can be implemented effectively across the networks that connect citizens to the internet.
Because regulation defines what is permitted. Enforcement helps make those rules actionable.
See How Netsweeper Can Help
Explore how Netsweeper’s real-time classification, dynamic policy enforcement and scalable infrastructure can support your approach to illegal online gambling enforcement.