The UK Gambling Commission has warned that weak oversight of white-label partnerships and business-to-business relationships is increasing the risk of money laundering across Britain’s licensed gambling industry.
The finding forms part of the regulator’s 2026 assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing threats, based on evidence collected between 1 April 2023 and 31 October 2025. Remote and land-based casinos, along with betting businesses, remain the sectors carrying the highest overall risk, while the National Lottery and society lotteries continue to be rated as low risk.
The Commission identified inadequate anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing controls, insufficiently trained staff and poorly calibrated transaction thresholds among the main operator failings. Weak monitoring of linked or duplicate player accounts was also highlighted.
White-label arrangements, under which a licensed operator provides its platform and regulatory framework to another brand, were specifically cited as a vulnerability when commercial partners are not subjected to sufficient due diligence and continuing supervision.
The regulator used a methodology combining the likelihood and potential impact of criminal exploitation to calculate each sector’s risk level. Although the UK’s national risk assessment classifies terrorist-financing exposure in casinos as low, the Commission assigned casinos a medium rating because of the potentially serious consequences of such activity.
Poker was assessed as presenting a high money-laundering risk in both online and land-based casino settings. Peer-to-peer products, including betting exchanges, were also identified as particularly vulnerable, especially within remote betting.
Gambling software was upgraded from low to medium risk. The change reflects the international nature of software supply chains and the possibility that products developed by licensed companies could be resold or provided to unlicensed operators.
The scale of Britain’s online market contributes to its exposure. Between April 2024 and March 2025, remote casino gross gambling yield reached £5 billion, including £4.2 billion from slots. Online betting generated £2.6 billion, while land-based betting produced £2.5 billion, of which only £28 million came from on-course wagering.
Payment methods were another major concern. The Commission pointed to the growing use of e-wallets, prepaid cards and funds connected to cryptoassets, particularly online. Systems involving several payment methods or open-loop structures can make it harder to identify the origin and movement of money.
Criminal efforts to bypass customer checks have also become more sophisticated. False identity documents are now being supplemented by deepfakes, face-swapping videos and other AI-generated materials intended to defeat verification procedures.
Additional risks were found in casinos offering money-service activities such as currency exchange and cheque cashing. In 2024, these services were available through approximately 3% of remote casino licence holders and 56% of land-based casino licensees, with associated activity estimated at £70 million. Warning signs include repeated small foreign-exchange transactions, dealings involving high-risk jurisdictions and discrepancies between the currencies deposited and withdrawn.
The assessment also noted technical vulnerabilities connected with automatic ticket-redemption machines and self-service betting terminals.
Illegal gambling remains a growing threat, particularly through unregulated online casinos accepting cryptoassets. Such businesses can generate proceeds for organised crime and provide channels for laundering illicit funds, while technologies including virtual private networks make the scale of the market more difficult to measure.
The UK government has allocated £26 million over three years to strengthen the Commission’s action against illegal operators and vulnerabilities in their payment networks. The regulator has also created a task force to examine how payment services facilitate unlawful online gambling.