A new study from US-based regulation consultancy Gaming Compliance International has found that unregulated online gambling reached US$5.9 trillion in global wagering value in 2025, making it the largest form of cybercrime globally and enough for it to rank as the world’s third largest economy behind only the United States and China.
The study, titled GCI Online Gaming 2025: Global, shows that the average online gaming marketplace is structurally unbalanced with 78% of online revenue generation coming from unregulated sites versus just 22% from the regulated market.
“At US$5.9 trillion in wagering value, unregulated online gambling is one of the largest economic systems in the world, operating largely outside regulatory oversight,” said Matt Holt, CEO of GCI.
“Regulators are not facing a marginal challenge, but a dominant one – the majority of activity is occurring beyond the regulated perimeter. Our role is to provide full transparency across the total marketplace, enabling regulators to act with confidence.”
While unregulated dominated the online industry, GCI observed that the marketplace is complicated by the emergence of a new sector alongside regulated and unregulated, which it calls “unacknowledged gambling” – described as platforms that “replicate gambling mechanics but fall outside traditional classification.” This appears to reference gambling-like platforms such as predictions markets.
“This is the fundamental shift defining online marketplaces from 2025 onwards, reshaping how consumers engage with betting and gaming,” the study states. “As these sectors converge, commercial revenue to regulated operators declines, tax losses increase and consumer risks escalate.
“The result is what GCI defines as the ‘White Noise Marketplace,’ where everything is visible, accessible and indistinguishable. The audience does not differentiate between these sectors – they experience one marketplace.”
Ismail Vali, President of GCI, added, “What we are now seeing is a three-sector gaming marketplace in every jurisdiction – regulated, unregulated and unacknowledged – and it is this third layer that is accelerating consumer confusion, unregulated growth and regulatory complexity at scale.
“The audience does not distinguish between these sectors. They experience one marketplace, where everything is accessible and everything competes equally. In a world where you can bet on anything, consumers are increasingly betting on everything – this is the gamification of everything.
“If you cannot see the entire marketplace – regulated, unregulated and unacknowledged – you cannot control it. This is the shift.”
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