US Illegal Gambling Market Valued at $97.4 Billion as Offshore Share Hits 77 Percent
TL;DR — A Gaming Compliance International report finds 77% of the market controlled by the offshore market with $97.4 billion generated through unlicensed operators out of a $125.6 billion total valued by Yield Sec. The AGA has pinned the illegal gambling market at $53.9 billion. The illegal gambling market continues to gain ground despite regulation since 2018.
SCCG Take — Licensed operators lose substantial revenue to offshore sites that evade taxes and controls. Regulators must align enforcement tools with the actual size and methods of the unlicensed sector.
The illegal gambling market in the United States includes $97.4 billion generated through unlicensed operators, controlling 77 percent of the total gambling market valued at $125.6 billion. This figure comes from a report by Gaming Compliance International, commissioned by Derek Webb through his Campaign for Fairer Gambling.
Webb created Three Card Poker and sold the game in 2011. He later lobbied UK policymakers to cut the maximum bet on fixed-odds betting terminals from £100 to £2. The new data shows the illegal sector has grown by 45.2 percent.
The American Gaming Association estimates the illegal market at $53.9 billion. The gap reflects different ways of measuring the same activity.
Divergent Methods Produce Wide Estimate Range
The American Gaming Association surveys consumers directly and extrapolates from samples. Gaming Compliance International scans gambling platforms accessible across the United States through keyword sweeps and machine learning. Neither approach is perfect, yet both place the illegal market in the tens of billions of dollars.
Webb stated that Gaming Compliance International has repeatedly delivered accurate estimates of licensed and regulated markets. The firm itself notes that full data on every unlicensed operator remains impossible to collect given the market’s fragmented nature.
The illegal sector continues to gain ground even as regulated sports betting and iGaming expand in most states following the 2018 regulatory changes. As reported by GamblingNews, the findings highlight limits in current enforcement against offshore operators.
The Enforcement Gap Remains Unresolved
Licensed operators face sustained revenue leakage where unlicensed platforms operate without oversight or tax obligations. Policymakers will need to examine whether survey-based or data-scraping methods better inform targeted enforcement actions. Closing this gap requires strategies that match the scale and accessibility of the offshore market.
Reporting: GamblingNews
Generated by SCCG’s automated editorial system from published source reporting. SCCG Management holds editorial responsibility.
Legal operators face a $97B black market that pays no tax, follows no rules, and grows faster than regulation.
At SCCG we connect operators in every regulated market, and we see firsthand how compliance costs money while offshore sites undercut pricing and player protections with zero oversight. This isn't a future problem — it's bleeding revenue and trust today, and regulators are using the wrong yardstick to fight it.
- Gaming Compliance International pegs illegal US market at $97.4B — 77% of total gambling activity
- AGA estimates $53.9B illegal market; methodology gap shows regulators lack unified enforcement data
- Offshore growth of 45% since 2018 outpaces legal expansion despite state-by-state regulation
SCCG angle: SCCG works with compliance technology partners and enforcement-focused platforms across our 545-strong network. When a licensed operator or regulator needs to understand offshore player migration or deploy geofencing and payment blocking strategies, we connect them to the vendors and analysts who actually track and disrupt these flows in real time.
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