A UK MAN, based in Stoke-on-Trent has been arrested for running an unlicensed ‘BLACK MARKET’ gambling operation between October 2023 and September 2024.
Stoke-on-Trent’s Haydon Simcock was arrested by Staffordshire police in September after an investigation made by the UK’s Gambling Commission.
Simcock, aged 39, was charged with providing gambling ‘solutions’ to consumers in the United Kingdom, without holding the necessary licences. The dates ranged between 8 October 2023 and 11 September 2024. Simcock was also charged with advertising betting offers, mainly via WhatsApp, between May 2023 and March 2024.
The Gambling Commission said it led the investigation into Simcock. The Gambling Commission then went on to work with the Staffordshire police department on the case. Simcock is due to appear before Birmingham Magistrates’ Court on 24 March, 2025.
Racing Post interview
There’s been a bit of history with this case …
Proponents of racing, racing levies and the British Horse Racing Authority (BHA), the Racing Post, made the effort to conduct an undercover interview. The Racing Post made a telephone call to Haydon Simcock who claimed to be working for an illegal horse racing bookmaker in the UK. “The Post Bookmakers” took players’ bets via WhatsApp.
Haydon Simcock told the Racing Post that he was acting as commercial manager for “The Post Bookmakers”, which was confirmed by the Commission to be an unlicensed operator. Simcock said the firm had up to 10 employees and 1,300 customers at the time of the interview.
You can hear both recordings at the bottom of this page, both of which feature on the Racing Post YouTube channel.
Simcock told the Racing Post many of his customers could no longer bet with regulated operators and many blamed the huge rise of affordability checks and account restrictions as reasons they felt necessary to get a bet on and take the risk in engaging with the illegal operator.
The Gambling Commission crackdown
The Gambling Commission made a crackdown on illegal operators in the UK as CEO Andrew Rhodes has said they offer no protection for players.
“The illegal market is bad from a human point of view,” Rhodes said in this blog post , in 2024.
“We are particularly vigilant and active in our work to disrupt this market and, through collaboration with others, have made good progress in frustrating illegal online operators,” he added.
In January, Rhodes set out details on how the Commission is addressing illegal gambling in the UK, particularly online.
He said in the financial year to date, the regulator has issued over 770 cease-and-desist and disruption notices. This includes 262 cease-and-desists to operators and 205 to advertisers.
The Commission is working on its first report analysing black market activity in the UK. This is expected to be published in summer of 2025 and will have data combining web traffic data collected from unlicensed sites with an average player spend amount.
Has the betting Industry created this black market monster?
BLACK MARKET BOOKMAKER DUE IN COURT. With increasing restrictions and betting limits bettors are now risking betting with black market bookmakers, has the industry created its own monster?
While we do not condone illegal activity within the betting industry, nor the necessary levies being paid, the question is, has the industry caused this problem?
Many recent betting-based blog posts in 2023, 2024 and 2025 contain increasing complaints and issues with bookmakers failing to pay out, usually following a big win. It is commonplace to har that affordability checks have not been made while depositing and placing bets, but are requested after big wins or big withdrawals.
With this in mind, is it understandable that punters are now prepared to risk betting with an unlicensed operator, as some of the regulated, licensed operators are not playing fair and have become more of a risk to bet with too!
Racing Post expose unlicensed bookmaker – audio recordings
Below are the two recordings of the Racing Post posing as a prospective customer, asking “The Post Bookmakers” about their services.
Simcock said: “Let’s just say you were putting in £2,000. We double it, so you’ve got £4,000 to bet with. You’ll have a £2,000 cash balance and a £2,000 free bet balance. It’s up to you how much you put in but, obviously, with Cheltenham coming up, if it was me, I would be making the best use of it and getting in as much as you can, just so you’ve got funds ready for Cheltenham.
“We do get ridiculously busy through Cheltenham. We are putting messages out shortly, just to make sure that you’ve loaded up your accounts ready for Cheltenham. We’re offering matched deposits to all our existing customers as well with the festival coming up, just so we’re not getting dragged down with people putting money in during the festival when we’re really busy. We would rather people load up, have money in your accounts and then you’re free to go and do whatever you want.”
Simcock added: “A lot of our customers at the moment are owners and trainers and racing managers within horseracing, ultimately because everyone is struggling to get on and people don’t want to provide bank statements and affordability checks.”