The Gambling Commission published its 2026 money laundering and terrorist financing risk assessment for licensed gambling in Great Britain on 30 July. It covers remote and non-remote gambling, reviews risks from 1 April 2023 to 31 October 2025, and was developed with in-house and external experts, law enforcement and the National Crime Agency.
The report says the risk landscape keeps changing as technology and illegal gambling markets evolve. AI is now making customer due diligence harder, with a rise in attempts to bypass KYC checks using false documents, deepfake videos and face swaps generated by AI.
The executive summary says the growth of illegal gambling websites exposes operators to illicit financial flows in their business-to-business relationships. It also says verification fraud is often connected to other types of crime.
The only overall sector rating to change was gambling software, which moved from low to medium risk for money laundering. The Commission says the increase reflects business-to-business relationships, the risk that licensed operators may supply software to illegal website operators, and weak monitoring of third-party contracts and activity. It adds that software supply chains can involve cross-border arrangements with multiple parties and that software businesses may receive funds in cryptoassets or from cryptoasset businesses through business relationships and investments.
Remote betting remained high risk. The guidance says gross gambling yield in the sector totalled £2.6 billion from April 2024 to March 2025, and it points to exploitation through structured betting, peer-to-peer activity and collusion on fixed events. It also says the sector is harder to police because customers are not present for verification, and that AI-generated false documentation, deepfakes and face swaps have become more sophisticated.
Higher-risk payment channels add to that pressure. The betting guidance says remote betting is exposed to e-wallets, pre-paid methods and funds linked to cryptoassets, and that multiple payment methods or open-loop systems can create further risk.
Casinos sit in a separate category. The Commission says its risk ratings compare gambling sub-sectors with one another, while the wider national risk assessment compares risk across regulated sectors and DNFBPs. Casino licence holders must take the Commission’s assessment into account when carrying out their own risk assessments, and the regulator reviews those assessments on a risk-based basis.
The executive summary says the national risk assessment raised the casino sector to medium risk, driven by more funds moving through remote casinos, new ways to play casino games, an updated view of money service business activity offered by some casinos and more illegal casinos targeting British consumers. The Commission’s April 2025 emerging-risks guidance said some remote and non-remote casinos offer money service business facilities, that the activity remains high risk, and that customers using those facilities should be treated as high risk and checked with enhanced due diligence.
The executive summary adds that both the national risk assessment and the Commission still judge the likelihood of terrorist financing to be low, even though the Commission’s overall casino rating is medium because it also weighs the severe impact of a possible TF event.
