Advancing project to size illegal betting markets

Tacking illegal operators

In 2025, the name of the Illegal Lotteries and Betting Committee (ILBC) was changed to Combating Illegal Lotteries and Betting Committee (CILBC), to better reflect the Committee’s work.

The Combating Illegal Lotteries and Betting Committee (CILBC) was established to assist WLA member lotteries and sports betting operators in combating unauthorized lotteries and their related illicit activities within the regulatory framework of their respective jurisdictions.

Updating members on key regulations

An important part of the Committee’s work is to keep members informed of trends, gaming and betting operator models, and evolving regulations, and where relevant, share best practices.

On this point, the Committee monitors the risks and negative impact to lottery members from the bulk sale of lottery tickets in different global regions, as well as the role played by unregulated courier services, which are the favoured of several distribution channels.

Following the key case of the Texas legislative hearing about a USD 95 million lottery win by a syndicate in early 2025, the WLA shared a timely Position Paper on Bulk Sales, which provided members clarification as to what constitutes legal versus illegal gaming operations according to WLA Working Definitions, and offered initial best practice recommendations that aim to maintain consumer trust and integrity of lotteries and their products.

Project advances to size illegal markets

With the growth of illegal betting, match-fixing, and corruption in sport, estimating the size of the illegal betting and gaming market has become important for WLA lottery and sports betting members, to protect the industry’s reputation and integrity, and better address related issues.

The WLA joint project with the University of Lausanne, School of Criminal Justice, to develop a standardized, scalable and reliable method for estimating the illegal gambling market, advanced throughout 2025 with the identification of tools and models, the establishment of clear KPIs to measure effectiveness and reliability, and the start of multi-jurisdiction testing, to assess consistency, compliance, and scalability.

Drawing on global expertise from participants, the project also aims to enhance the ability of regulatory authorities and law enforcement agencies to combat this phenomenon and protect the integrity of the legal gaming system and is expected to be completed in the first half of 2026.

Enhanced partnerships

The CILBC collaborates with partners to strengthen and enhance the support it provides to WLA members to address illegal gaming and sports betting operations and related illicit activities.

One such partner is the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) Council on Anti-Illegal Betting and Related Financial Crime, which fosters and enhances international cooperation among horse racing operators, regulators, intergovernmental organizations, government agencies and NGOs, to better combat the threat of illegal betting and other crime risks to the integrity of the sport of horse racing in particular, as well as sport in general.

Over the year, WLA collaboration with the IFHA included:

• A WLA initiative for a top-down model to estimate the size of the illegal betting market, involved the participation of an IFHA Council member in the Working Group. Data from Hong Kong and China markets were used as part of the model’s testing assessment.
• In August, WLA Executive Director, Luca Esposito wrote an article entitled Responsible Gambling: How Licensed Lotteries Lead in Responsible Gambling Standards, published in the IFHA Council on Anti-illegal Betting and Related Crime, Quarterly Bulletin Special Edition, August 2025.
• In September, WLA Executive Director, Luca Esposito participated the IFHA webinar on Unregulated Wagers, Unseen Damage: How Illegal Betting Fuels Gambling Harm, panel, which discussed key psychological principles relevant to safer gambling & strategies for reducing harm associated with all forms of wagering; the impact of consumer behavior changes on regulation; and how licensed lottery operators can deliver high standards of responsible gambling and instil confidence in society that the industry is committed to preventing gambling harm.

CILBC Expert Group

The Committee welcomed Lee Leemon, Senior Director, Customer and Corporate Strategy at Singapore Pools, as a member of its Expert Group, while Ali Kadiri Hassani, Special Advisor to the CEO of MDJS, Morocco, replaced Lamia Jassab.