UK gambling industry pushes for cooperation to keep crime out
One of the prevailing themes to emerge from the 2026 edition of the annual Gambling Anti-Money Laundering Group (GAMLG) conference was a call for cooperation between UK gambling industry actors and regulators, as well as the government and law enforcement, against the black market and illegal practices.
The 2026 GAMLG conference was held in London, with attendees from the regulated betting and gaming industry taking part to discuss the state of the gambling industry, particularly focusing on anti-money laundering (AML) standards.
Cooperating to keep crime out of gambling
The conference was chaired by Keith Bristow, former Director General of the UK’s National Crime Agency, and featured speakers from the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) and HM Treasury, as well as other industry experts and compliance professionals.
While opening the conference, Bristow discussed the value of the GAMLG, which he said exemplifies “the willingness across this industry to share intelligence, share good practices, and improve standards collectively to keep crime out of gambling”.
Bristow remarked that illegal gambling operators do not have safeguards in place to protect consumers, as he spoke of how such operators do not conduct age checks, do not make use of any safer gambling protections, and have no measures in place against money laundering.
He commented that this setup creates an attractive low-risk, high-reward environment for criminals.
“As the regulated sector continues to strengthen its compliance measures, we must ensure consumers remain within the regulated market, because if consumers migrate elsewhere, the illegal market grows,” Bristow stated.
He continued that keeping crime out of gambling is an effort which “requires constant cooperation between industry, regulators, government, and law enforcement,” as he remarked that the GAMLG conference is a demonstration of that partnership’s strength.
BGC reflects on the conference
Reflecting on the conference, the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), which hosted the event, stated that various operators, regulators, government representatives, and law enforcement agencies attended.
It said that discussions at the conference included emerging financial crime threats, compliance assessments, illegal gambling, and the regulatory landscape of the sector.
“Delegates also heard about the growing challenge posed by illegal gambling operators, which operate outside the law without anti-money laundering controls, age verification checks, or safer gambling protections, creating opportunities for criminal exploitation while undermining the regulated market and diverting consumers away from licensed operators,” it added.
The BGC’s Director of Policy, Alex Roberts, said that the commitment shown by delegates “reflects the sector’s determination to keep crime out of gambling and support a safe, well-regulated market for customers”.
UK Gambling Commission on gambling industry compliance and ALM measures
The UKGC’s Director of Enforcement, John Pierce, spoke at the conference and said that whilst the situation regarding gambling industry compliance in the UK has improved over time, there are still cases of significant AML failings due to employees not being properly trained and not sufficiently identifying risks.
An example he provided was in the cases of bank statements or payslips with “red flags” or identifiers of potential fraud not being identified and escalated.
Pierce also spoke of how some operators are choosing to use artificial intelligence and algorithms for ALM purposes. He commented that although the UKGC is not ideologically against the use of new technology in certain processes, one still needs to make sure that everything is being done as required.
Going over enforcement statistics from the 2025-26 period, Pierce said that 741 cease and desists had been issued to advertisers and operators. He continued that 397,527 URLs were reported to various search engines, and that 266,667 URLs were removed as a result. He also said that 1,068 websites were referred to search engines for delisting, with 1,134 websites having been disrupted “so that they have either been taken down or geo-blocked”.
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