Gambling Commission Names Casinos and Betting as Top Money-Laundering Risks

^{The Gambling Commission published its 2026 money laundering and terrorist financing risk assessment on 30 July 2026. (Photo: Mihaita Tatarusanu / Wikimedia Commons)}

The Gambling Commission has identified casinos and betting as the subsectors carrying the highest money laundering and terrorist financing risk in Great Britain, in an assessment published on Thursday 30 July 2026.

The findings set the regulator's priorities for the next enforcement cycle and signal where licensed operators, including online casino sites, should expect the closest scrutiny of their anti-money laundering controls over the coming year.

Drawing on data from 1 April 2023 to 31 October 2025, the assessment rated remote casino, non-remote casino, and betting as high risk, while the National Lottery and society lotteries were judged low risk. The Commission used a methodology that multiplies the likelihood of exploitation by its potential impact.

The scale of the sectors underpins the ratings. Between April 2024 and March 2025, remote casino gross gambling yield reached £5 billion, with slot games alone accounting for £4.2 billion. Remote betting produced £2.6 billion and non-remote betting £2.5 billion, of which just £28 million came from on-course betting.

Although the national risk assessment classed the casino terrorist financing risk as low, the Commission set it at medium overall, citing the potentially severe consequences of any terrorist financing incident. The full assessment is available on the regulator's website.

Remote and non-remote casinos and betting remain the highest-risk subsectors, while the National Lottery and society lotteries remain low risk.

Payment methods feature heavily among the risk factors. The report highlighted the rising use of e-wallets, pre-paid cards, and cryptoasset-linked funds, particularly in remote sectors, as areas offering greater opportunity for criminal exploitation. It also pointed to the role of licensed software and business-to-business relationships in the risk picture.

The assessment also renewed warnings over third-party business relationships, including white-label partnerships and investments, which it continues to treat as high risk. Operators remain responsible for the conduct of any partner trading under their licence, a point underlined by recent anti-money laundering failures.

That concern is not theoretical. In May 2025, white-label operator TGP Europe surrendered its licence and left the British market after being told to pay a £3.3 million penalty for failing to carry out sufficient checks on business partners and breaching anti-money laundering rules.

The report reiterated the Commission's expectations on customer due diligence, urging operators to ensure that risk profiling and ongoing monitoring reflect the full range of geographic, transaction, and product risks a customer presents. The regulator has repeatedly found cases where a customer's profile did not match the risks a business had itself identified.

The assessment also lands as the United Kingdom prepares for its next evaluation by the Financial Action Task Force, the global money laundering watchdog, giving the gambling sector's controls added weight beyond the Commission's own enforcement work.

The Commission, which established a taskforce earlier in 2026 to investigate illegal gambling, said it would keep targeting operators whose controls fail to match the risks they face. Firms are expected to review their own risk assessments against the updated findings, work that will run alongside other pressures on the sector such as the proposed remote gambling tax.