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Unregulated online gambling has grown into a massive global market, with Gaming Compliance International estimating that it now represents the world’s third-largest economy at US$5.9 trillion in wagering value. The report places it behind only the legitimate economic systems of the United States and China.
Market Split Remains Uneven
According to the report, 78% of the online gaming market is unregulated, meaning it is unlicensed but still actively targeting and transacting with consumers. The remaining 22% is the part that the government can identify as licensed and compliant.
Gaming Compliance International, or GCI, claims to be a consultancy that relies on an in-house artificial intelligence-driven platform to assist policymakers in comprehending the online gaming industry and making informed decisions. The report entitled Online Gaming 2025: Global by the company states that unregulated online gambling has become the biggest cybercrime worldwide.
Regulatory Pressure Builds
GCI chief executive Matt Holt said in a Monday press release that unregulated online gambling, at US$5.9 trillion in wagering value, is one of the world’s largest economic systems and operates mostly outside regulatory oversight. He added that regulators are dealing with a dominant problem rather than a minor one, since most activity is happening beyond the regulated perimeter.
Holt also said the company’s role is to provide full transparency across the total marketplace so regulators can respond with confidence. GCI president Ismail Vali said the industry is now functioning as a 3-sector marketplace in every jurisdiction, made up of regulated, unregulated, and unacknowledged activity.
Vali said this third layer is speeding up consumer confusion, unregulated growth, and regulatory complexity on a large scale. He also said consumers do not separate the sectors and instead experience one marketplace where everything is accessible and competing equally. In his remarks, he described this as the gamification of everything.
Unacknowledged Products
The report notes that prediction markets on sports events are counted under its unregulated category, except in the United States, where prediction markets are regulated as financial products by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. GCI defines unacknowledged gambling-like products as those outside classification.
Examples listed by the consultancy include social casinos, sweepstakes, fake financial products, skins trading, TikTok contests, and some prediction markets. GCI says the regulated, unregulated, and unacknowledged sectors are increasingly converging from the consumer’s point of view.
That overlap, the report says, is leading to declining commercial revenue for regulated operators, rising tax losses for the sector, and higher consumer risks. GCI describes the result as a white noise marketplace, where everything is visible, accessible, and indistinguishable.
Framework For Action
The consultancy says solutions are only found within a framework it calls MPEO, which stands for monitor, police, enforce, and optimize. It says the approach is focused on actions that benefit each jurisdiction’s commerce, community, and consumers.
GCI’s report frames the issue as a broad regulatory challenge rather than a narrow market concern. With unregulated activity now accounting for most of the online gaming market, the company argues that clearer oversight and stronger enforcement are needed to address the scale of the problem.
Source: GGR Asia
