America's unlicensed online gambling market took in $97.4 billion in 2025. The estimate comes from Gaming Compliance International, in a report commissioned by the Campaign for Fairer Gambling, and it shows illegal operators growing revenue 45.2% last year. The regulated online market grew 23%, to $28.3 billion. Combined, Americans lost $125.6 billion across both markets in 2025, up from $90.1 billion in 2024. GCI puts unlicensed sites and apps at 77% of total US online gambling GGR, up from 74% the year before.
What the report actually counts
The report leans on a loss ratio: online gambling GGR per capita divided by income per capita. States with both regulated sports betting and casino gaming averaged 1.38% in 2025. Sports-betting-only states averaged 0.99%. States with neither product regulated came in at 0.44%. Louisiana recorded the highest ratio of gambling spend to income, and most of that activity sits with illegal operators. West Virginia, where both products are legal, hit 1.57%, with 0.87 percentage points attributed to unregulated activity. California, where neither is legal, recorded 0.43%, entirely unregulated.
Derek Webb, who funds the Campaign for Fairer Gambling, draws a pointed conclusion:
"The legal sector uses the presence of the illicit sector to demand legalisation, then asks for low tax and regulation to compete against the illicit sector. Taking action against bad actors in the illicit sector is the solution and must be the priority for all stakeholders."
Why online gambling license cost is part of the story
Read the report as a market analysis and the message is uncomfortable: legalization did not shrink the illegal market, it grew the whole market. The unlicensed segment kept its share while the pie got bigger.
The economics explain why. For a small operator, the choice between a licensed route and a gray one usually comes down to a spreadsheet. Online gambling license cost is only the entry ticket. On top sit compliance staff, audits, reporting and tax, and in some US states that stack can run well into six figures a year before a single player registers. Against that, an unlicensed operation has near-zero setup cost and no tax. The CFG report is a reminder that this trade-off is not static. Enforcement budgets are growing, payment providers face pressure to cut off unlicensed merchants, and the gap between what regulators can see and what they cannot is closing.
The UK: a new minister, the same instability
The same week, the UK got its ninth gambling minister in six years. Vicky Foxcroft was confirmed in the role, replacing Baroness Fiona Twycross in Andy Burnham's administration. For anyone holding an online gambling license uk, turnover at this pace has real consequences: policy resets, delayed decisions on affordability checks and stake limits, and a regulator that keeps having to guess what ministers want.
The financial pressure is already visible. The Remote Gaming Duty doubled to 40% in April, the largest single tax increase in the history of UK online gambling, and two operators have left the market since. A new minister does not change that arithmetic. What changes is the direction of travel, which is why license holders are watching Foxcroft's first moves on affordability and advertising closely.
Enforcement is getting sharper
The US data describes a big problem. Romania shows what enforcement looks like when regulators get better tools. ONJN, the Romanian regulator, added around 800 unlicensed domains to its national blacklist in a single round, more than double the previous record of about 370. It has added 1,180 domains since its current mandate began, against 1,500 total between the regulator's creation in 2013 and April 2025.
The jump is partly a new detection tool that identifies clone sites, which copy the root structure of a blocked domain and resurface under a new address within days. Domain-level blocking has always been whack-a-mole. The tool automates the mole-hunting. ONJN president Vlad-Cristian Soare admits an enforcement gap remains, but the direction is clear: detection technology is catching up with the resurfacing trick.
What operators should do about it
For operators, the igaming industry's regulatory map now splits into two tiers. Licensed markets are maturing, with more competition, clearer rules and demand that keeps growing. Unlicensed markets carry rising enforcement risk, payment friction and no path to the mainstream. The strategy that holds up in both is the licensed-first one.
Run the numbers before you choose a market. Online gambling license cost, tax rate and market size need to be modelled together, not separately. A cheap license in a market nobody plays in is not a bargain. The same week Foxcroft was confirmed, Fanatics secured an AGCO licence to enter Ontario's regulated iGaming market, the latest large brand paying the entry cost of a licensed route rather than the long-term cost of an unlicensed one.
Then treat compliance as infrastructure, not paperwork. KYC, anti-money-laundering monitoring and reporting should be built into the platform, and the payment gateway has to work with licensed payment providers in each market you serve. Platform choice matters too. A white label casino platform is the fastest way into a licensed market with the compliance layer already configured. A turnkey casino solution gives you the source code and full control when a regulator asks how your system works. And game API integration keeps your content layer flexible as markets open and close.
The takeaway
The $97.4 billion figure is not a story about players behaving badly. It is a story about supply and demand that regulation has not yet matched. Legalization expanded the market without taming the illegal side, UK policy keeps lurching between ministers, and enforcement is getting smarter. Operators who budget for online gambling license cost, build compliance in from day one and keep their platform portable will be fine. The gray market is not a safe harbor, and it is getting less safe every quarter.