UK illegal gambling complaints haven’t risen during pandemic

UK gamblers aren’t griping about unauthorized online gambling sites during the pandemic, while a new survey shows many problem gamblers have yet to access available treatment programs.

On Tuesday, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) announced that there’d been no uptick in complaints during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown regarding gambling sites lacking a local license. There were 12 complaints about nine sites in March, and 11 complaints about 11 sites in April.

The regulator said the number of complaints has been stable over the past year, suggesting (a) there’s been no surge in traffic to unauthorized sites following the regulator’s increased restrictions, or (b) those internationally licensed operators haven’t been ill-treating their UK customers.

The UKGC recently released data showing there’d been no significant increase in either gambling activity or problem gambling behavior since the pandemic lockdown began in March. But results of a new survey by the industry-funded problem gambling charity GambleAware suggests that problem gamblers aren’t always making use of the mitigation measures at their disposal.