The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) has launched an interactive online quiz designed to help UK consumers distinguish licensed gambling operators from illegal sites that closely imitate them. The campaign, titled “Spot The Black Market”, forms part of the BGC’s ongoing push to limit the reach of unregulated platforms and reinforce the economic case for the regulated sector.
How the Quiz Works
The game presents users with examples of gambling websites and asks them to judge whether each is a legitimate, licensed operator or a black market imitation. The BGC’s central argument is that illegal operators have become increasingly sophisticated in mimicking the branding, layout and product features of regulated brands, making it genuinely difficult for consumers to tell them apart at a glance.
Try the game for yourself here.
The council says unlicensed sites offer none of the safeguards that UK-licensed operators are required to provide — no responsible gambling tools, no regulated complaints process and no protection for customer funds. By turning identification into a game, the BGC is attempting to give consumers a practical framework for assessing whether a site holds the necessary authorisations before depositing.
The initiative follows a series of high-profile BGC warnings about illegal market growth. The council estimated in December 2025 that black market operators could capture more than £100 million in wagers on Boxing Day alone, with illegal betting volume concentrated around major sporting events.
Economic Stakes Behind the Campaign
The BGC frames the black market problem as both a consumer protection issue and an economic one. The regulated betting and gaming sector contributes £6.8 billion annually to the UK economy, generates £4 billion in tax revenues and supports around 109,000 jobs. Unlicensed operators pay none of those taxes and have no obligation to comply with UK safer gambling requirements.
This economic argument has become central to the industry’s response to recent regulatory and fiscal pressure. A PwC report commissioned by the BGC warned that tax rates above 25% risk pushing players toward unlicensed sites, weakening the channelisation rates that underpin the regulated model’s consumer protection rationale.
The illegal market’s expansion has also become a flashpoint in broader industry disputes. Entain CEO Stella David wrote an open letter to the Premier League in February 2026 demanding an immediate ban on sponsorships by unlicensed operators, accusing the league of being “complicit” in black market growth while the DCMS opened a formal consultation on the issue.
BGC Positions Campaign as Consumer Education
A BGC spokesperson set out the purpose of the initiative directly: “This campaign is about exposing the hidden dangers of the black market. These unregulated sites deliberately mimic trusted brands but play by none of the rules that keep people safe. Our new Spot The Black Market game shows just how easily consumers can be deceived, and reinforces the importance of choosing licensed, protected operators.”
The game is intended to move anti-black market messaging from abstract regulatory language into a format that connects with ordinary players. Whether consumer-facing education tools of this kind materially affect site selection behaviour remains to be tested, but the campaign gives the BGC a vehicle to communicate the regulated sector’s compliance obligations in concrete terms at a time when the industry is under pressure on both taxation and advertising restrictions.
Source: Betting and Gaming Council
