Tackling illegal betting worldwide

The Combating Illegal Lotteries and Betting Committee (CILBC) advises WLA member lotteries and sports betting operators on how they can best fight unauthorized lotteries within the regulatory framework of their respective jurisdictions.

One of the challenges faced by our industry around the world, is to have a common understanding of what lottery and betting operations are considered to be legal and what are considered to be illegal. 

To address this, the CILBC developed the WLA Working definitions publication that describes both legal and illegal operations and covers the areas of: Illegal Gambling Operators, Lottery Courier Services Operator, Betting on Lotteries Operator & Commercial Gaming Broker. 

It also published a Best Practices guide for Protecting the IP of multi-jurisdictional games and lotteries, covering Europe and North America, which includes the IP ownership of each multijurisdictional game and provides a list of measures to take by the trademark owner, in case of infringement. Additionally, the guide offers a section on the protection of individual lottery trademarks, and is useful for lotteries that may be considering participating in multijurisdictional games. 

Given the transnational nature of illegal betting across different jurisdictions with diverse regulations, the CILBC closely monitors WLA members, to ensure that they only operate their brands in jurisdictions where they have authorization.  

With the growth of illegal betting, estimating the size of the illegal betting and gaming market has become a key interest for WLA lottery and sports betting members and the wider gaming industry in general.  

The CILBC initiated a project together with the University of Lausanne (UNIL), to tackle this issue, by developing a standardized, scalable and reliable method to estimate the illegal gambling market. 

A joint Workshop was held in February 2024, with international experts participating from the Council of Europe, Interpol, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Asian Racing Federation, American Gaming Association, H2 Gambling Capital, Yield Sec, and CK Consulting.  

During the Workshop, UNIL presented a position paper with the results on the different methods used to size the illegal markets, which included a scoping review and a qualitative analysis, aimed to assess existing knowledge on the subject and presented different perspectives. 

The workshop resulted in a general consensus to pool respective expertise and resources, and work on developing a common methodology for sizing the illegal betting market, based on a standardized definition. Work on the next steps of this project has begun in the final quarter of this year.