ECA says EU black market gambling reached €91.6bn in 2025 and calls for cross-border enforcement

The European Casino Association (ECA) has put a fresh number on the EU’s illegal online gambling market: €91.6bn in 2025, up around 14% year on year. For PSPs, acquirers and banks, the message is plain enough — cross-border enforcement is still fragmented, and illegal operators continue to route around national controls.

1. The ECA said more than 6,200 illegal gambling operators are actively targeting EU consumers, and that unlicensed businesses now account for the majority of online gambling revenue across the EU-27. The group presented the figure for the first time at a high-level roundtable in the European Parliament.
2. The 2025 estimate replaces the previous 2024 figure of €80bn used in the meeting’s title. According to the ECA, illegal operators deprived EU member states of an estimated €22.9bn in tax revenue during 2025.
3. The roundtable was hosted by Member of European Parliament Lukas Mandl and brought together representatives from the European Commission, the Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA), Eurojust, the Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group on Europol (JSPG), and national gambling regulators.
4. ECA Chair Erwin van Lambaart said the data show illegal online gambling is a “fast-growing, cross-border problem” that exposes players, especially young adults, to risk, drains tax revenues, and weakens trust in the regulated market. He argued that licensed casinos and their online businesses operate under strict rules, while illegal operators can reach European consumers “at the click of a button” without safeguards or oversight.
5. The discussion came shortly after the European Commission proposed reforms to Europol’s mandate, with participants pointing to the agency’s role in tackling cross-border illegal gambling operations. Mandl called illegal online gambling “a serious cross-border threat” affecting consumer protection, organised crime and the integrity of the EU’s internal market.

For payments teams, the practical point is that this is not just a gambling-policy story. When regulators, AML bodies and Europol are in the same room, the direction of travel is toward tighter scrutiny of payment flows, better sharing of enforcement data, and more pressure on providers that still touch unlicensed traffic.