Black market gambling: British authorities warned to learn lessons from overseas

Britain has been warned to heed the example of Sweden and other jurisdictions to prevent gambling regulation driving customers to black market operators.

Gustaf Hoffstedt, secretary general of BOS Sweden, the country's trade organisation for online gambling, said that repressive measures alone could not guarantee a successful regulatory regime.

A recent Racing Post investigation found that dozens of unlicensed websites have been advertising directly to customers who had signed up for the industry's self-exclusion scheme Gamstop, while it was also claimed black market operators were approaching former VIP managers for regulated bookmakers to access their customer lists, including problem gamblers, as they felt they were "commercially lucrative". The UK's Gambling Commission subsequently said it was "alive" to the dangers of the black market.