On November 25, 2025, gambling authorities from Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Portugal and Spain signed a coordinated agreement to combat unlicensed online operators. The framework, established after a November 12 meeting at Spain’s Directorate General for Gambling Regulation in Madrid during the 1st International Gaming Congress, creates a unified system for intelligence sharing and joint pressure on digital advertising platforms.
Market Scale and Regulatory Challenges
A November 2025 analysis by Yield Sec, commissioned by the European Casino Association, recorded €80.6bn in gaming revenue from unlicensed platforms across the EU-27 in 2024. This figure represents 71 per cent of the €114.3bn European online gambling market, compared to €33.6bn generated by licensed operators. The report identified over 6,200 active illegal providers, a 26 per cent year-on-year increase, and estimated that 81 million residents interact with unregulated services. At a standard 25 per cent levy, the fiscal shortfall reaches approximately €20bn annually.National oversight bodies have documented these trends separately. The UK Gambling Commission released a four-part research series between September and November 2025 detailing consumer patterns and the limitations of current disruption measures. Similar findings were reported by authorities in Paris, Rome, Berlin and Lisbon.
Individual enforcement efforts face structural constraints, as unlicensed providers shift between domains and marketing channels to bypass national advertising restrictions, payment filters and blocking mandates. Affiliate networks and video platforms remain the primary customer acquisition routes for these operators.
The November 25 statement formalizes a multi-year effort to align cross-border oversight. Prior coordination between the jurisdictions remained limited, with each regulator managing domestic compliance independently. The new framework replaces isolated monitoring with a shared information exchange and a unified approach to digital platform engagement.