During the 2026 Barcelona ICE exhibition, a discussion focused on the governance of illegal gambling drew industry attention. Ismael Vali, President of Gaming Compliance International, Owen van Lambaart, Chairman of the European Casino Association, Marta de Francisco, a lawyer at Asensi Abogados, and James Swan-Phillips from iGB gathered to discuss whether regulations could actually curb illegal gambling or inadvertently accelerate its spread under the backdrop of tightening global regulations. The guests unanimously mentioned that the annual revenue from illegal online gambling in the EU is estimated to be as high as 80 billion euros, which means that EU countries may miss out on about 22-23 billion euros in tax revenue, and many players are not even aware that they are dealing with unlicensed operators. Relevant cases of illegal gambling regulation and compliance standards can be found on the PASA official website for reference.
Black Market Scale: Tax Revenue Loss Behind 80 Billion Euros in Revenue
The enormous scale and potential losses of the illegal gambling market became the core focus of the discussion:
Staggering revenue volume: The annual revenue from illegal online gambling in the EU region is estimated to reach 80 billion euros, far exceeding many legal markets;
Severe tax revenue loss: Lambaart stated that behind this data, EU countries may lose 22-23 billion euros in tax revenue each year, resulting in the loss of public financial resources;
Player awareness issues: More alarmingly, many players do not realize they are dealing with unlicensed operators, lacking basic risk prevention awareness, and easily falling into financial security and compliance risks.
Regulatory Dilemma: Tightening Rules Instead Give Illegal Platforms a "Green Light"
The guests generally believed that current regulatory measures not only failed to work but gave illegal platforms a structural advantage:
Legal operators are restricted: High tax rates, strict product rules, and advertising bans have not reduced market demand but pushed players towards foreign illegal channels; legal operators are restricted in pricing, products, and promotions, making it difficult to flexibly respond to the market;
Advantages of illegal platforms: ・Ignoring rules: No need to comply with compliance requirements, more flexible in cost and operation, forming unfair competition; ・Streaming media customer acquisition: Illegal streaming media becomes a powerful channel for reaching potential players; ・Risk control evasion: Systematically bypassing age restrictions, KYC audits, and self-exclusion tools, unscrupulously snatching users;
Unequal promotion: De Francisco mentioned that legal operators are restricted by advertising limits and cannot effectively convey safety signals, while foreign illegal platforms can market freely, "Legal operators are completely helpless and cannot compete with them."
Solution: Single Enforcement Ineffective, Multi-party Collaboration is Key
To reverse the spread of illegal gambling, the guests unanimously believed that breaking the single enforcement model and building a collaborative governance system is essential:
Rejecting isolated actions: Sole reliance on regulatory agencies for enforcement is ineffective, and it is necessary to integrate the forces of regulators, operators, suppliers, and payment service providers to form a governance synergy;
Strengthening compliance transmission: Payment service providers need to strengthen transaction audits to block the financial channels of illegal gambling; suppliers should standardize technology output to avoid being exploited by illegal platforms;
Balancing regulatory measures: While tightening rules, it is necessary to reserve reasonable survival and competition space for legal operators to avoid excessive regulation forcing the industry "underground," giving illegal platforms an opportunity to exploit.
This discussion revealed the complexity of gambling regulation — mere tightening of rules is not a panacea, only by considering compliance and market balance and building a full-chain governance system through multi-party collaboration can we truly curb illegal gambling and protect the rights and interests of legal markets and players.
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This article is from "PASA-Global iGaming Leaders" gambling industry news channel:https://t.me/pasa_news
Original in-depth gambling channel:https://t.me/gamblingdeep
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PASA Matrix: @pasa002_bot
PASA official website: https://www.pasa.news
