By Simon Zinger, Group General Counsel and Chief Customer Care Officer at Entain
On a rainy afternoon in Barcelona this week, a few scrolls on my phone are all it takes to be confronted with an advert for a colourful and vibrant slot game from a company I don’t recognise. To many users, it’s an advertisement for a casino. It’s really an illegal operator appealing to people of all ages, promoted to the public in plain sight.
Unfortunately, promotions like these aren’t a rarity. Illegal gambling providers use mainstream advertising through the likes of social media channels to entice people to their platforms. Attending the ICE Gambling Conference in Barcelona this week was a stark reminder of why our industry matters and what’s at stake when it goes wrong.
Before my panel discussing the “Black Market Challenge”, I listened to powerful contributions from Ismail Vali who set out the grave dangers posed by illegal operators, and it was encouraging to hear Tim Miller of the Gambling Commission call out platforms - including Meta - for turning a blind eye to illegal gambling ads and influencers.
That candour matters. Because unless we confront the illegal market together - with focus, urgency and practical tools - we risk losing ground on protecting customers, tax revenues and integrity in sport. And more than that: we risk wider societal harms, from financial vulnerability to criminal exploitation, that unregulated operators too often fuel.
Entain’s position: responsible, collaborative, and committed to solutions
At Entain, we work constructively with regulators to uphold safe, sustainable markets.
A few facts that matter, in terms of who we are:
- £1.6bn in tax paid globally in 2024, including £500m in the UK
- £21m invested annually in charitable causes and grassroots sports
- 2,100 colleagues in Customer Care, including 460 Customer Protection specialists
- 12,000+ safer gambling interactions every week
- Almost half of our customers proactively use the safer gambling tools we provide
Across our Customer Care team, we’re strengthening alignment among customer protection, governance, and compliance. And with the support of EPIC Global Solutions, our team is trained in lived experience and behavioural science - achieving 100% effectiveness in safer gambling interventions last year.
We’re also building a regulator playbook and commissioning research to help law enforcement act.
My ask to everyone reading this - regulators, platforms, payments providers, sports bodies, suppliers: What more could you be doing?
If you want our toolkit or to collaborate, my door is open.
The illegal market creates real harm
We cannot ignore the reality. In the grip of every illegal site are customers who have no protection when things go wrong - no affordability checks, no safer gambling tools, no interactions, no support.
Illegal operators target young and vulnerable people with no safeguards in place. When people fall into these unregulated spaces, the harms don’t stay online - they spill into families, workplaces and communities. Without a serious, system-wide response to the illegal market, there will be real human tragedies.
I’ve personally listened to many of our Customer Protection calls. Our teams make powerful, caring and supportive interventions every day to help customers who might need support - work that illegal operators simply don’t do. I also completed elements of the training that our teams undergo. It deepened my respect for the skill, empathy and judgment required to protect customers in real time.
The risk extends to sports integrity and the future of sport
Unregulated prediction markets and illegal operators come with zero safeguards, enable insider betting, collusion, and undermine global sports integrity. The very premise of sport is compromised. At Entain, we are founder members of the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA), part of the UK Sports Betting Integrity Forum, and in constant dialogue with sports governing bodies and regulators worldwide. We report suspicious activity and actively support investigations into match and spot-fixing. Illegal platforms don’t.
Partnering to protect consumers: focus enforcement where harm is greatest
We want to work hand in hand with regulators to beat the illegal market. My ask is simple: more and stronger enforcement where harm is greatest - on illegal operators.
Too often, illegal brands flaunt the rules and gain visibility on major platforms and sports events, while licensed operators play by the rules. One example: One operator had its UK licence removed by the Gambling Commission early last year, yet its brand still appears prominently on a Premier League football shirt.
Stronger tools and stronger laws: from payments to platforms
IP blocking alone is a whack-a-mole game. We need smarter tools and tougher laws.
We’re building a regulatory toolkit to support that work - from intelligence sharing to practical enforcement solutions. If you want to collaborate, please reach out.
Key actions that we must rally around:
- Make payments a frontline enforcement tool and ask the Financial Services industry to do more - illegal operators can’t function without payment flows
- Stop illegal ads on social platforms and hold social media companies to account - policies mean nothing without enforcement
- Strengthen law enforcement action against the networks behind offshore sites, going after ultimate beneficial owners and their personal assets
- Educate consumers with clear public blacklists
- Hold suppliers accountable for who they work with
- A final ask: let’s align around what works
Markets with proportionate taxation and strong enforcement thrive. Those that overtax or underenforce push customers offshore - reducing tax revenues and increasing harm to players and communities.
The illegal market is not invincible. With the right partnerships, tools and resolve, we can reduce the harm it causes and build a safer, more trusted industry for everyone.
We’re ready to partner. If you’re a lawmaker, regulator, platform, payments provider, sports body or supplier who wants to align, please reach out.