A site "not on GamStop" is a gambling website that has no Gambling Commission licence. Because it has no licence, the GamStop self-exclusion scheme does not apply to it.

The phrase is used in search terms, in affiliate pages and in advertising aimed at people in Great Britain. It matters because it marks the edge of the licensed market. A person who has self-excluded with GamStop can still be offered an account on a site outside that market.

In October 2026 the Gambling Commission published Phase 3 of its Consumer Voice research on illegal online gambling. The Commission said the top driver of illegal-site use was searching for sites "not blocked by Gamstop". This page explains what that phrase describes and what the research measured.

How the licensing perimeter works

The Commission defines illegal gambling as commercial gambling offered to consumers in Great Britain without a Commission licence or a valid exemption. Where the operator is based makes no difference. This definition is set out in the final report of its illegal gambling research series, published 6 November 2025.

GamStop works by matching a registration against the customer records of licensed operators. Licensed operators are required to take part. The mechanics of how the block is applied are covered separately.

An unlicensed site is not connected to GamStop. It receives no registration data and runs no match. A GamStop registration therefore has no effect on it.

This is not a fault in GamStop's checks. A site outside the licensing perimeter sits outside the scheme by definition. The phrase "not on GamStop" is, in practice, a description of a site with no Commission licence.

Other licensed-market rules also stop at the same perimeter. A SportsBoom report noted that licensed operators must follow rules on affordability checks, safer gambling tools and dispute resolution, and that these do not apply to offshore sites. The same report said some of these sites accept cryptocurrency payments, which licensed operators are not permitted to offer.

The Commission has also said that illegal sites often look identical to licensed ones. A consumer may not be able to tell the difference from the site's appearance.

Where the term shows up in the figures

The Phase 3 survey. Yonder Consulting surveyed 4,007 people who had gambled online in the previous four weeks. Fieldwork ran from 1 to 15 May 2026. The results, as reported by iGaming Express, were:

12%
All respondents
Looked for sites not blocked by GamStop or Gamban
52%
Skilled Advocates
Same behaviour among people who use illegal sites on purpose
19%
All respondents
Used sites that asked for little personal data
42%
All respondents
Searched for better odds, with little independent link to illegal-site use

Seeking unblocked sites and seeking low-data sites were each about 1.5 times more likely to be linked with illegal-site use. In her IAGR 2026 keynote, Acting Chief Executive Sarah Gardner said the strongest drivers were about access, not about a better experience. She also said these motivations were uncommon across the whole sample.

The meaning of the phrase. Coverage of the Phase 3 findings by SCCG reported that "not on Gamstop" no longer means only a way round self-exclusion. It is now also used as shorthand for fewer identity checks, more anonymity and a wider choice of products.

Search and enforcement. The Commission's engagement and trends report tracked illegal sites using search terms built around getting round GamStop and avoiding identity checks. Identified illegal sites rose from 364 in May 2024 to 535 in July 2025. In the year to March 2026 the Commission:

  • disrupted 1,134 illegal websites, by takedown or geo-blocking
  • issued 741 cease-and-desist notices
  • reported 397,527 URLs to search engines, of which 266,667 were removed
  • referred 1,068 websites to search engines for delisting

Yield Sec, a market-intelligence company, estimates that 84% of illegal gambling promotion in the UK is driven by "not on GamStop" search activity. This is a vendor estimate, not a Commission figure.

Is searching for these sites increasing?

The available figures do not show this directly. The Phase 3 survey gives a single measurement from May 2026. It does not give a trend.

The Commission's web-traffic data for May 2024 to July 2025 found that engagement rose from summer to winter 2024 and then fell back. The Commission found no overall sustained increase in that period.

The Commission has said it is "not yet ready to publish an estimate" of the size of the illegal market. It has added illegal-market questions to the Gambling Survey for Great Britain so that use can be tracked over time.

What it is not

Common belief What the facts show
A loophole inside GamStop GamStop only covers licensed operators. An unlicensed site was never inside the scheme.
A site with a foreign licence is allowed Many such sites hold licences from Anjouan or Curaçao. Only a Commission licence or valid exemption makes an offer to GB consumers legal.
Something most gamblers do The Commission describes illegal-site use as a minority behaviour.

What this means when you play

If a site promotes itself as "not on GamStop", it is stating that it has no Commission licence. The protections described on this site, including stake limits, deposit limits and complaint routes, do not apply there.

If you have self-excluded, your exclusion still applies to every licensed operator. It has no effect on an unlicensed site.

In the Phase 3 survey, 82% of respondents had heard of the Gambling Commission. Only 26% said they understood the regulator well. The Commission's earlier research found that some consumers did not know how to check whether an operator was licensed. The Commission runs an Illegal Gambling Hub for public information and for reporting illegal sites.

If gambling is causing problems for you or someone close to you, the National Gambling Helpline is free and confidential on 0808 8020 133.