Illegal gambling in Europe could cost governments up to €23 billion in taxes in 2025

Illegal gambling in Europe reached €91.6 billion last year, up 14%. For high-risk PSPs, that is not just a regulatory talking point: it is a reminder that unlicensed volume is still large enough to distort acquisition, settlement, and risk decisions across the region.

1. According to the source, European authorities could miss up to €23 billion in tax revenue in 2025 because of illegal gambling. That figure is tied directly to activity outside the licensed market, so the payment flow question is obvious: where that volume is processed, someone is taking the compliance hit.
2. The illegal gambling market in Europe grew 14% last year and reached €91.6 billion. On paper that is a market statistic; in practice, it is a proxy for how much traffic licensed operators and their payment providers still have to compete against.
3. The source does not break the figure down by country, vertical, or payment method. For PSPs and acquirers, that means the headline number is useful for sizing the problem, but not for building a country-by-country underwriting policy.