Responsible gaming (RG) is a cornerstone of the online gambling marketplace—ensuring a fair, safe, and sustainable online ecosystem. It safeguards vulnerable players, promotes integrity, and contributes to the economy and to society. However, illegal gambling threatens this structure, undermining the efforts of legal, licensed operators. These illicit operators not only steal money from the legal industry but also tarnish its reputation, all the while exploiting the trust and safety of players.
Illegal gambling should not exist in a regulated, licensed ecosystem—but it does. These operators are not merely a nuisance; they are direct competitors to the legitimate industry. They attract consumers by offering “too good to be true” odds and promotions, and by advertising “unbeatable” customer value and convenience. They leverage their criminality to avoid taxes, ignore regulations, sidestep all RG obligations, and prey on the most vulnerable players in society—including children and self-excluded players, those whom the legal industry is obligated to protect.
Legal operators, on the other hand, contribute to local commerce, adhere to rigorous regulatory rules designed to ensure player safety, support self-exclusion programs, and RG. They must follow strict guidelines to protect consumers and promote fairness—but despite this, audiences continue to engage with illegal gambling, which follows no such guidelines, because illegal gambling has such presence and is openly available. Audiences will continue to engage with illegal gambling because it is impossible for them to distinguish between what is fair, safe, licensed and legal, and what is emphatically not.
The Financial and Social Impact of Illegal Gambling
Every dollar spent on illegal gambling represents revenue stolen from the legal industry—revenue that could support public services through taxes, generate local jobs, and foster community investment. Legal operators, who are expected to finance and implement RG programs, are left at a significant disadvantage when illegal operators steal revenue without contributing anything to RG or consumer protection. Disturbingly, the very operators who are financing responsible gaming are being undermined financially by illegal operators who steal everything and contribute nothing.
This theft from licensed operators weakens their abilities to invest in crucial RG initiatives, from player protection and self-exclusion tools to addiction support services. Meanwhile, illegal operators face none of these costs or responsibilities, allowing them to offer more enticing promotions, better pricing and incentives that lure customers away from the responsible, regulated industry, further perpetuating the cycle of audience engagement with black market operators. This is why eliminating illegal gambling is crucial for the success of responsible gaming. It’s not only a marketplace competition issue but also essential to protecting the integrity, viability and sustainability of the entire ecosystem.
Exploiting Vulnerable Players
Illegal operators are particularly dangerous because they exploit the most vulnerable individuals in society—children and self-excluded players. These groups are specifically protected by responsible gaming measures adhered to by the legal industry—including tools for self-exclusion and support for problem gamblers—but illegal operators show no such restraint. They actively target individuals who are the least equipped to manage the risks of gambling, creating serious social, health and ethics issues.
Responsible Gaming Starts with Addressing Illegal Gambling
Illegal gambling affects everyone involved within the gambling ecosystem, from operators and regulators to affiliates, product manufacturers, government tax and treasury teams, media and ad platforms, content platforms, streaming platforms, influencers and ambassadors, law enforcement, healthcare, social welfare and community organizations, trade associations, ISPs and Telecoms providers, server hosts and locations, banks and payments providers, lawmakers and politicians, sports teams and leagues, athletes, managers, agents and event promoters.
This problem transcends market share; it strikes at the heart of responsible gaming, even threatening the point of legalizing and regulating online gambling, period. To preserve the RG framework, the first step is addressing the unchecked presence of illegal online gambling operators across multiple touchpoints where audiences can find them and engage with them.
Yield Sec’s Role in Combating Illegal Gambling
At Yield Sec, we’ve identified the totality of online gaming through what we call the Iceberg Marketplace. The legal, regulated industry is just the visible tip of the iceberg, while beneath the surface, a vast network of illegal, unlicensed operators continues to target audiences, steal revenue, ignore regulation, and evade law enforcement. This criminal underworld not only undermines responsible gaming efforts but also tarnishes and endangers the entire industry by targeting players with unsafe and unfair products. If we don’t take care of this problem, it threatens the credibility and sustainability of the legal industry.
To combat this, Yield Sec employs a comprehensive solution. By providing a dynamic view of the entire marketplace ecosystem—legal and illegal across all audience touchpoints—we help legal stakeholders regain control to achieve results and certainty. This approach enables all legal stakeholders to identify and help remove illegal operators, optimize revenue streams, increase taxation and licensing receipts, secure responsible gaming funding and sustainability, protect players and audiences, and restore the credibility of the legitimate gambling industry within the marketplace.
Our month-by-month recommendations help legal stakeholders adjust their strategies in response to market changes, ensuring they remain competitive and results-focused while adhering to legal and ethical standards. By working with us, legal, licensed operators, for example, can participate in fully optimized and data-backed missions through the marketplace, enhancing their revenues, results and their reputation.
The Path Forward: Uniting Against Illegal Gambling Delivers Responsible Gaming
Responsible gaming cannot thrive and deliver upon its promise if illegal gambling is allowed to persist and endure. The future of the legal, licensed industry depends on the ability of all legal stakeholders to unite against these illicit operations. It’s essential for us to take back control of each and every marketplace and ensure that RG measures, and the reputation of the legal industry as a whole, is not undermined and exploited by criminal actors who operate outside the law.
Yield Sec is uniquely positioned to support legal operators and stakeholders in this fight. We help them act in their own best self-interest by identifying illegal operations, reclaiming stolen revenue, reducing threats to future revenue and opportunities, and help protect consumers from the dangers of illegal gambling across all audience touchpoints. The foundation of responsible gaming lies in a fair, safe, and regulated online gambling marketplace.
Yield Sec is here to support every legal stakeholder across every online gambling jurisdiction to see, know, value and action their path in their marketplace. The fundamental obstacle that is illegal gambling is not solved through insistence that this is all someone else’s problem: it is a problem for us all. We will only solve it if we work together.
