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The UK's battle against the black market is continuing and the government has unveiled its latest piece of artillery in the form of the illegal gambling task force. The gambling minister Baroness Twycross says that the task force will work over the next year to ensure that people who wish to gamble can do so safely with the right protections in place. So will this be a key new weapon for the UK to fight illegal operators or just another drop in a deep dark ocean? Welcome back to iGaming Daily, supported by Optimove, the creator of Positionalist Marketing and the number one player engagement platform for sports betting and iGaming operators. Learn how Optimove's Positionalist Marketing is changing how iGaming teams operate. Discover how operators are using Optimove's Positionalist Marketing platform to launch personalised CRM campaigns, dynamically change casino lobbies and bet slips, and create engaging gamified experiences. You can learn more at optomove.com. I'm Charlie Horner and today I'm joined by SBCC's editor-at-large, Ted Menmure, and iGaming expert editor, Joel Streeter. Ted, how's things? Proudly, surely. A calm weekend. yeah, back on the pod on Monday. Yeah. Let's kick things off. Yes. No better way to kick the week off than talking a little bit about the black market is there. Joe, how are you? Yeah, I'm fantastic, Charlie. Thank you. Man United are winning again. Yeah, all good. All good. No complaints here. All right. Well, Joe, how about you? You kick things off for us. What is the illegal gambling task force and what do we know about how it will work? The proof is in the name, right? It's essentially would imagine it's going to do what it says on the tin. The illegal gambling task force. Yeah, it sounds like an alliance of superheroes, right? It sounds very powerful. But if we're honest, what we know about what it will actually do thus far is very little. It forms a strong part of wider government plans and kind of regulatory plans to focus in on the black market. um We know two factors that are going to be focused on. Payments. and advertising and let's be honest, they are both crucial, especially payments. You know, if you, if you're going after kind of payments at source, that could be, that could be massive. No mention of IP blocking just yet, but another potential tool, but yeah, advertising and payments to do things that are going to be focused in on. So yeah, very interesting. It's headed up by Baroness Twycross as you would imagine, um obviously. somebody that's very well positioned to take the role. It's had the backing of many industry kind of commentators, say for gambling commentators. Also had the backing of Tim Miller, who was off the back of his ice speech where he was talking about non-gamstop casinos being advertised, really laying out the focus for the gambling industry to kind of tackle these. And it's a really tough task. Let's be honest, this is not an easy task. um I know you're going to mention some of the money that was put aside for the industry to kind of do this, to tackle the black market. It doesn't feel like a lot, but yeah, no easy task. But yeah, it's good to see that kind of the incentive is being put forward and a front foot approach is being taken when it comes to tackling the black market. Had anything to add on there? Yeah, just for our audience, I think here, look, the plans have been pushed out on the exact remit of the Ganon Task Force. However, there has been two kind of major speeches made about the initiative, one by Tim Miller and the other one by the Baroness. And there are kind of three fronts that they believe that require kind of coordination and initiative to take on the black market. One is actually providing the remit for intelligence led investigations into who constitutes the black market, how it's defined and kind of building a kind of platform for kind of legislative investigations of the criminals that are involved in the black market. The other one is coordinating with uh wider agencies to ensure kind of faster takedowns or an accelerated takedown of illegal websites and the operators themselves. And then the other factor here is the disruption of the black market and its encroachment. What can they do to stop their exposure towards the consumer and then targeting? it's what channels are available to them and what rules should be in place. So Ted, when we say wider agencies, does that include social medias, right? Because uh when we talk about the exposure of consumers, especially younger consumers to black market operators, um it's hard to deny that a significant chunk of it comes from social media. does this include kind of collaboration with social media platforms? think to answer that question, I think you've got to kind of take on the remit of the black market itself and how kind of expansive it is. And again, like I mentioned in other podcasts, it is like dealing with a new tribe of criminality. know whether it be drug dealing, money laundering, right? This is, it's a subject that evolves. One of the things is how much leeway the UK GC will be given to actually initiate powers against the black market in terms of IP blocking, destructing payment flows, right? And how it can engage with kind of wider agencies, your police networks, your intelligence units, and also kind of putting direct enforcements on IT platforms and on payment processes. Yeah. And if listeners cast their minds back to November when the UK budget was launched, you remember that there was a little bit in the small print that said that the gambling commission would have a £26 million war chest to help fight the black market and that felt like a little bit of a carrot to say that we are increasing taxes on you but it's not in vain because we're going to fight the black market and make sure that it's actually worth being in this regulated sector. This feels like the first piece of evidence of what that £26 million is going to go towards, isn't it Ted? It does. And I don't think we're going to find out until we seek out a DCMS accounts in about 12 months. And again, it's right that you point back to the budget and what Rachel Reeves said that, you know, the tax uplift is somewhat going to be spent back on the enforcement of a new gambling regime. And they, I think what DCMS and what the treasury view is that the money's going to be spent on an enforcement expansion. uh I don't know if necessarily that means on licenses themselves, but on the whole kind of environment for online gambling and the UKGC are going to get expanded resources and data and intelligence capabilities and tech driven monitoring. The final point kind of points out to they want to do much more and outreach with international authorities. That's a subject that's been raised, I think, for the past two years. However, again, Johnny, this goes back to how kind of fragmented laws are between European jurisdictions and what can actually be enforced between each market. You know, what is kind of liability, the accountability of each regulator to cooperate at an international level? Yeah, you're absolutely right. And Joe, this is something that we've spoken about before, you know. Is it possible to actually fend off the black market without a truly international targeted approach? Because we know a lot of these black market operators are based offshore. They're not here on UK soil. It does take a lot of cooperation between different international agencies to actually make crossroads in this kind of battle, doesn't it? Yeah. And if I'm honest, Charlie, um as much as the 26 million being put aside was a good moment, was something of a landmark moment that money had know, the first time that money had kind of been put aside like that to tackle the black market. If it is going to be tackled and if it is going to be thwarted, it's going to take a little bit more than 26 million a year, I think, given the scale of the issue right now. But yeah, it really needs a universal uh approach. And part of the kind of tackling the black market is allowing the regulated market to thrive, right? We saw figures from the BGC this morning that The advertising around the regulated market is, is, is dipping. It's starting to fall. I think off the back of such a crippling tax hike last year, uh, you know, that will be implemented this year. Um, you, you'd need to be able to allow the, the regulated market to thrive in order to thwart the black market. is undoubtedly the most effective method to combat in the black market's growth. that's right. I mean, does, if you're a regulated operator and you're looking at higher taxes, more regulation, more restriction on what you can actually do and then you see a thriving black market where there are no taxes to be paid, there are no restrictions, then you kind of think what's the point? And then that's when you might think about is the UK worth being in? Is it time to consolidate? Is it time to maybe look at selling off parts of the business, et cetera, et et cetera. So I think this is certainly a carrot that the government is giving. to the regulated sector. But Ted, here's a question for you. One of the key criticisms that this government's faced in the 18 months since it's been elected is that it's sort of government by public inquiry, government by inquiry, investigations. Is this another example of this? Is it another sort quango type organization that some of the mainstream press might poke a little bit of fun at? Or is it... a genuine effort and a genuine weapon that the gambling commission can use to fight the black market. really don't know. But I think you like to raise it up. And I think, you you make this good point that this is an industry that generates, you know, full bidding in taxes. And then we go, well, OK, well, we've separated that 26 million to tackle a problem which no one really knows the size of. No one really knows if 26 million is effective. to tackle kind of criminal gangs and criminal gangs that are IT savvy that evolve that you know how to use kind of financial transactions. I think that if we look at this as a project, we're still in, I'm talking about everyone involved, not just the police, not just the UKGC, but even the licenses themselves. We're very much at kind of a phase one, the learning approach. We, know, as an industry, we don't know. what the black market is. We're not even close to the kind of functioning that this is, you know, how expansive it is. This is our target. And the other thing is that we don't understand the money flows, which is the most important, you know, aspect of tackling kind of any illegality. Where does that actual, you know, one pound of the black market end up at and who's it impacting? My worst case, and I think you're right in raising this up, Charlie, is that this stress might be another kind of end of year BR. And here's your two pages and, know, what a nice article about it, but no actions. that is a valid point. It's a valid concern to raise as well. Because this stuff is, it really is complicated. It isn't easy to know. you know, there are reports out there that claim to know the size of the black market. I don't think we can ever truly understand the size of the black market because by the nature, it's not recorded. The data isn't collected on it like it is in the regulated sector. Joe, just before we head off for a break, do you think this is where we need to be looking towards the supply chains, the payment providers? Something that you mentioned earlier is looking at the payment processes and advertising. Is that where you think this task force should really be looking to try and get ahead of the game when it comes to the black market? Potentially, right? Potentially. And I think the suppliers one is a really interesting point. How much of a responsibility is it on suppliers and studios? to ensure that their games don't end up on black market operators. That's tough. I don't know the exact answer to that and I don't know how you would enforce it, but I do think there is a moral question there that needs to be raised. um I do personally think that some of the responsibility should be laid uh on suppliers to kind of make sure that their games end up on the regulated market and not on black market operators. Well, Joe, Ted, we'll take a quick break there and we'll come back and we'll... talk a little bit about what the gambling commission is doing other than putting together an illegal gambling task force. Welcome back to iGaming Daily and at the same time as we learn about this illegal gambling task force here in the UK, the gambling commission has done something else. Ted, what did it tell licensees late last week? Well, it's come across, I I've come across, but I've just been reading about this this morning and it comes out as a regularly working hard as significantly enhanced, right? And they say that the kind of licensing fees hikes that will be implemented this year, well, they're going towards kind of deeper enforcement, data analysis, public health coordination with the new levy, tech monitoring, and kind of, again, seeing kind of this shift from kind of the retail era to the online era and how kind of the UK GC has to evolve. as a regulatory body. And then like the fees are needed to kind of, yes, fund illegal gambling task force, but also kind of improve monitoring of the whole system. So it's actually kind of changing its model over the UKGC. And for that, it believes it needs a new license or a high license fees. So licensing fees will be going up from around 20 to 30 % per licensee, which, know, at a time when cost pressures are increasing. regulation is becoming more stringent. Joe, I can't imagine that's going to be too popular amongst licensees. Yeah, I know the hammer is coming down everywhere. The wrench is tightening all across the shop. Even increased pressure on retail outlets as well, which seemingly had avoided the tax burden are now facing further political scrutiny in in Westminster. yeah, really no let up for the industry and this license fee increase kind of underlines that. And yeah, it's worth noting that this was released, I think Friday morning, but it was released in the morning accidentally uh and then was uh fully released in the afternoon after a uh few changes. So uh it was reminiscent of how the budget went out with the OBR leak. It was some fun. deja vu for the industry, yeah, quite the day on Friday or Thursday whenever this story came out. goes to show though that the gambling commission's job is difficult and it does cost a lot of money to actually do the day to day running of this really complex industry and fighting the black market and doing all the things that we've talked about on the show. That costs money and perhaps it indicates that 26 million might not have been enough, Ted. Yes. And I also think it kind of indicates that the UKGC has to move to new platform now. OK, I think in the 10 year with Andrew Rhodes is pretty focused on conduct and enforcement. it, you know, we saw record fines come out and I think kind of compliance all around and licenses is improving. And part of the reason why is because the fines are bigger, but the margins are lowering. Right. You know, we are really now skating on razor thin ice there and you have to be compliant. Right. The fallout is just too expensive. And I think now that the UKGC kind of realizes that it's like, OK, what is the most imminent threat? And it's illegal gambling, illegal online gambling. if the but I keep on going back to how do you fight? You know, How do you fight this discipline? And then pointing back that the legal operators are targeting certain types of players, those with addiction, but also the VIPs. And I think now that what UK Gaming needs is a treatment at a system level. You have to have environments and you have to have platforms that can cater to each individual. Otherwise they get lost. Okay. Let's bring things towards a little bit of a close now. Joe, what do you think? all these different updates telling us about the state of play for the industry in the UK this year, because the gambling commission has come out aggressive, the government's come out aggressive. We know these changes in taxes and other white paper implementations are coming in this year. How do you view 2026 as a whole for the industry? It's a transformational time, well, mean, as Ted said, there is a real recognition that this is kind of number one on the hit list of uh threats to the regulated gambling sector right now. This is right up there. It's a real issue. It's a problem. It's targeting the most vulnerable players. But yeah, at a time when you are kind of crippling the industry with such tax hikes, advertising restrictions are so tight on the regulated industry. um It's a tough ask and ah we await to see how that 26 million is spent in full. But yeah, I think it just shows a front-forward aggressive approach to tackling the illegal gambling sector. Um, I hope it's a start of a process rather than the kind of being seen as the silver bullet with this task force. But I hope, uh, yeah, we, you know, we see some really effective methods in the year ahead and it's a really tough task, but, um, yeah, taking a front foot approach is, uh, what is needed. me, it seems that this is an industry that has just lost all regulatory and political dialogue at this point. I, I, appears that, you know, you have kind of. three bodies going out in different directions, right? But also what's frustrating is that the issues are so kind of and so kind of fundamentally in front of you that all it just needs is a bit of dialogue between everyone and we could have a different outcome and we could have a better industry and with a safer consumer ship. And we, know, that's been a kind of a complete point of failure. Yeah, it certainly seems like dialogue. and trust between the industry and the government. the week off with particularly happy vibes. But it does seem like the trust and the dialogue between the government and the industry seem to have broken down over the last six to 12 months at least. So we will obviously follow these developments very closely as 2026 continues. But for now, Joe, Ted, thank you very much for coming on and talking about the illegal gambling task force. And to our audience, thank you very much for tuning in to today's episode of iGaming Daily and come back tomorrow to keep up to date with all the latest global gambling news.