An alleged illegal gambling operation has been uncovered at an address in Manchester, leading to the arrests of two individuals, Greater Manchester Police have said.
The two suspects, a woman in her sixties and a man in his thirties, have been detained for committing offences under the Gambling Act 2005 and the Licensing Act 2003.
Premises search reveals tables and account books
According to the report, police found multiple illicit items, including gambling tables, account books, and poker chips. The Financial Crime and Money Laundering team, which is supporting the case as part of “partnership enforcement activity”, have also seized cash and mobile phones as potential evidence.
Sue Young, UKGC executive director of operations said in a statement: ““Tackling all forms of illegal gambling is a focus for the Commission so we were keen to work in partnership with Greater Manchester Police and Manchester City Council on this operation.”
The case is one of the first since the UK announced it was launching an illegal gambling taskforce earlier in the year, which has been established to combat the growing spectre of the practice in the UK. The United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC) is also benefitting from a cash injection amounting to £24.5 million in government funding to tackle underground land-based venues such as the suspects in Manchester.
A May 2026 study by H2 Gambling Capital found that annual spending with unlicensed gambling operators in Britain climbed to £16.6 billion in 2025, more than three times the level recorded in 2019. Separately, a Yield Sec analysis cited by the Campaign for Fairer Gambling estimated that illegal operators account for about 9% of the U.K.’s online gambling market.
Illegal operators on track to overtake regulated firms in UK
In April 2026, independent analysis showed black market operators were on track to spend £1 billion on advertising, overtaking the likes of Coral and William Hill by 2028.
Research from the World Advertising Research Center WARC projects marketing spend will surge 32% to £845 million by October, driving the total gambling advertising market to an estimated £1.9 billion. Meanwhile, licensed operators are expected to cut advertising expenditure by more than 9% to £1.1 billion this year. WARC said nearly all growth in the sector is now being driven by unlicensed firms and forecast that regulated operators will account for less than half of gambling ad spending by 2028, when black market advertising is expected to surpass £1 billion.
The news has set alarm bells ringing in Whitehall and in the upper echelons of the UK gambling industry. Betting and Gaming Council’s (BGC) chief executive Grainne Hurst said at the time: “This should ring alarm bells in Westminster. The real question is whether advertising is coming from regulated operators, who are held to strict standards, or from the harmful illegal black market, which operates entirely outside the rules.
“Targeting licensed operators when their advertising spend is already falling will not reduce overall advertising, it will simply bolster the harmful illegal black market, which is aggressively targeting UK customers.The government must go further and faster to clamp down on the black market before it is too late.”
To further demonstrate the issue, in its Ad Safety Report, Google said gambling was the third-largest category of restricted ads, with just under 124 million ads limited in 2025. Gambling also ranked eighth among banned ad categories, while nearly 10 million pages were found to violate the company’s gambling and gaming policies.
Illegal lotteries in UKGC crosshairs
Meanwhile. the UKGC plans to strengthen enforcement against illegal lotteries, with Policy Director Ian Angus warning that unlicensed operators could undermine consumer trust and damage the reputation of the regulated sector. Society lotteries generated more than $1.35 billion in gross gambling yield in 2025, making them one of the country’s most popular forms of gambling.
To combat illegal activity, the commission will invest $35 million in Treasury funding to automate enforcement processes and develop the U.K.’s first assessment of the illegal gambling market in partnership with the Illegal Gambling Taskforce. Angus also urged licensed operators to report suspicious activity, particularly schemes that use charitable messaging or prize promotions to attract consumers.
In a statement, Angus said: “Society lotteries play a vital role in our communities, raising important money for those charities and causes that otherwise may miss out. But lotteries are, of course, in law a gambling product and one that requires appropriate regulation to keep it safe, fair, and crime-free.
W’e need and want to continue to work with others who have a role to play in keeping illegal gambling as small a part of the market as possible, and that includes lotteries. So please do keep on sending in any intelligence you find or receive.”
